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EXAMPLE BOAT FEATURE - 'BINKY II'
BERT EVERINGHAM 1965 RACEBOAT
Anyone even remotely associated with power boats in Australia will have heard the name Everingham.
For generations, the family has built speed-, ski- and race-boats along the banks of Sydney's Hawkesbury River. The marque remains a powerful force in circuit racing and social boating to this day.
I prepared this report on a truly wonderful boat for my ‘Cool Boats’ book in 2002, and featured it again in my larger format 'Wood On Water'.
In 1965, Bert Everingham built a raceboat for himself which he called ‘Flea’. Driven by Tony Ryan for the Everinghams, the boat competed successfully and won most everything in local and Victorian races for the 155 cubic inch Class.
The boat was probably one of the first of a new sleeker design from the Everingham stable - it certainly had appealing lines and attracted attention wherever it appeared. One of those who found the boat desirable was Bob Hayter who had known the family for some 20 years and, in 1967, he ordered a new Everingham and asked that it be made like ‘Flea’.
The new boat was duly constructed and Bob went along to take delivery, only to find that it was not like ‘Flea’ as he'd expected.
It was of the same size and shape alright, but of much heavier construction with half-inch timber planks rather than the lighter three-eighth ply used on ‘Flea’. Bert explained that the lighter material wasn't available at the time, but that's what Bob wanted so he asked Bert to build one when the ply was available, and left it at that.
About a month later, ‘Flea’ was racing at an Illawarra week-end Regatta when it drifted away from the bank during the night. Tony Ryan was driving the boat as usual at the event, saw it drifting away, and swam out to retrieve it - only to be tragically drowned in the attempt. As a consequence, Bert withdrew the boat from the Sunday races and decided not to race it again. He phoned Bob soon after and told him he could have the boat, less engine, provided Bob's motor could be fitted without any modifications to the hull. That was okay, and the boat was quickly part of the Hayter household under the new name of ‘Binky II’, following the first ‘Binky’ that was a Lewis Brothers' skiff (ex ‘Tourche’) that Bob had owned.
About a month later, ‘Flea’ was racing at an Illawarra week-end Regatta when it drifted away from the bank during the night. Tony Ryan was driving the boat as usual at the event, saw it drifting away, and swam out to retrieve it - only to be tragically drowned in the attempt. As a consequence, Bert withdrew the boat from the Sunday races and decided not to race it again. He phoned Bob soon after and told him he could have the boat, less engine, provided Bob's motor could be fitted without any modifications to the hull. That was okay, and the boat was quickly part of the Hayter household under the new name of ‘Binky II’, following the first ‘Binky’ that was a Lewis Brothers' skiff (ex ‘Tourche’) that Bob had owned.
Bob raced the Everingham for a decade or so with a Ford Falcon six-cylinder engine, still in the same 155 cubic inch Class that Bert had raced. As a member of both the Upper Hawkesbury and Cabarita Power Boat Clubs, Bob competed successfully including interstate in the Australian Championship series.
One of his competitors was Bert himself who had built another ‘Flea’ of spruce construction, and those two boats plus a further Everingham called ‘The Major’ driven by Ken Waggott were probably the fastest boats in their Class in NSW. Ken used to assist with the engines for Bert, while Bert Jones helped Bob with his engine.
However, in the late 1970s, Bob started campaigning an Everingham skiff owned by a C. Bourke called ‘Riot’ which was the same as ‘Flea’ except with an aft-cockpit skiff layout. ‘Binky II’ wasn't used much at all for a while until Bob decided to sell it. His son Chris wanted a skiboat at the time, and an intra-family deal was struck that saw Chris buy the Everingham, and he's proudly owned it ever since.
Despite being relatively lightly built with that marine ply planking for racing, ‘Binky II’ is still totally original and has not been restored. It's quite amazing to see this boat looking so good whilst still being used and raced after forty years. Of course there have been maintenance coats of lacquer, and clearly the Hayter family has taken great care of the hull, which is nowadays a tribute both to them and to Bert for his original design and construction.
One of his competitors was Bert himself who had built another ‘Flea’ of spruce construction, and those two boats plus a further Everingham called ‘The Major’ driven by Ken Waggott were probably the fastest boats in their Class in NSW. Ken used to assist with the engines for Bert, while Bert Jones helped Bob with his engine.
However, in the late 1970s, Bob started campaigning an Everingham skiff owned by a C. Bourke called ‘Riot’ which was the same as ‘Flea’ except with an aft-cockpit skiff layout. ‘Binky II’ wasn't used much at all for a while until Bob decided to sell it. His son Chris wanted a skiboat at the time, and an intra-family deal was struck that saw Chris buy the Everingham, and he's proudly owned it ever since.
Despite being relatively lightly built with that marine ply planking for racing, ‘Binky II’ is still totally original and has not been restored. It's quite amazing to see this boat looking so good whilst still being used and raced after forty years. Of course there have been maintenance coats of lacquer, and clearly the Hayter family has taken great care of the hull, which is nowadays a tribute both to them and to Bert for his original design and construction.
Chris has used ‘Binky II’ for social skiing and racing. He ran his boat in the Sydney Bridge to Bridge ski-race back in 1979 and completed the run upriver in an hour and 10 minutes with two skiers. He has circuit-raced at the Taree Easter Regatta for 2001 and 2002 while still using the ‘original’ Falcon engine - although it now displaces 200 cubic inches (3.3 litres) and has been through a few block replacements along the way!
The straight-six has a Mallory distributor, triple 1.75 inch SU carbies and hand-made extractors, with Chris changing the latter to a water-cooled manifold for quieter operation when social skiing. The Falcon also runs an Eagle camshaft, a modified head and valves, and has a custom-built dry-sump system with an aircraft fuel pump to scavenge the oil. Chris has used Super petrol, but prefers BP-100 as that gives better performance with the Falcon's 9:1 compression ratio.
The straight-six has a Mallory distributor, triple 1.75 inch SU carbies and hand-made extractors, with Chris changing the latter to a water-cooled manifold for quieter operation when social skiing. The Falcon also runs an Eagle camshaft, a modified head and valves, and has a custom-built dry-sump system with an aircraft fuel pump to scavenge the oil. Chris has used Super petrol, but prefers BP-100 as that gives better performance with the Falcon's 9:1 compression ratio.
Typically for the type of boat, the engine direct-drives the prop shaft and spins a two-blade bronze prop. The Falcon revs to an impressive 7,000 rpm and has taken ‘Binky II’ to speeds around 70 mph.
The 14 foot, 6 inch boat has a classic clinker displacement design with a twin cockpit layout. When racing in the 155 ci Class, a ‘mechanic’ rode in the aft cockpit where he could move his weight to get both more speed and better cornering. In one of my photos, antique raceboat collector David Pagano (owner of ‘Atomic’ featured later in this book) is showing how this was done. As it turned out, Chris at the wheel was exceptionally enthusiastic in demonstrating how well ‘Binky II’ could corner, and David was very busy for a few seconds in that aft cockpit!running on our beautful Aussie waterways.
The 14 foot, 6 inch boat has a classic clinker displacement design with a twin cockpit layout. When racing in the 155 ci Class, a ‘mechanic’ rode in the aft cockpit where he could move his weight to get both more speed and better cornering. In one of my photos, antique raceboat collector David Pagano (owner of ‘Atomic’ featured later in this book) is showing how this was done. As it turned out, Chris at the wheel was exceptionally enthusiastic in demonstrating how well ‘Binky II’ could corner, and David was very busy for a few seconds in that aft cockpit!running on our beautful Aussie waterways.
