11
I spent one whole season going to
every 1/8 scale unlimited race with him
and NAMBA Hall of Fame member Jack
Oxley. They won every race that year
with one of Jack’s stock K&B 11cc
engines that only had a balanced
crankshaft, a custom built venturi and
exhaust throttle that he had made
himself. The boat was phenomenal. A lot
of controversy circled around the boat
that season (1986-87ish).
Unfortunately, funding wasn’t
available for the new modified full size
Circus Circus canard so his design never
was tested.
Several years later, I was having
dinner at the Gaines house when Bruce
received a telephone call from Bill
Bennett about some available funding
for a new turbine canard. This was
around 1990’ish. When he got off the
telephone and told me about the call, I
was so excited for him that he would be
able to show the world what his version
of the canard could do.
I remember going to the shop where
he started building the boat, shared with
an Arneson Surface Drive. I would
check in on the project from time to time
to see the progress. Then one day he
seemed upset. He told me they pulled the
plug on the project again before it was
finished. I believe the boat was sold to
the Winston Eagle team of which they
made changes. I am not sure if they ever
ran the boat.
I hadn’t seen much of Bruce after
that. I got married and started a family
which took me away from model boating
for about ten years and Bruce had moved
to Oregon. I reconnected with him a few
years back and asked him to build me a
plug for a gas canard. He didn’t seem too
interested until I sent him a video about
a year ago of me racing a Predator
Canard. Thanks to Dana Wilson, he
talked Bruce in to building a new gas
canard plug. For those of you in District
19 that have seen the canards I run, the
clear epoxy canard is his original design
he tested in the wind tunnel. The second
white canard I have raced recently is his
last design. Dana and I are testing the
prototypes trying to get them dialed in. I
really want to keep his legacy going with
this unique boat. So now you know why
I run these boats.
Rest in peace my friend.
PROPWASH
October 2015
In Memory of Bruce Gaines
aka Mr. Canard NAMBA #1257
By Shane Forrest
NAMBA District 19
He was known to me as the old guy that wore white
slacks and pink shirts. He talked a little funny and
seemed a little grouchy. I didn’t know at the time that
he would eventually be like a second father to me. He
was a great mentor to me in the model boat hobby.
I think it was early 1983 when I got my first R/C
boat. It was a 32 inch Magic mono with a K&B 3.5
outboard. I was at Sunset Park, Las Vegas Nevada one
day and couldn’t get the boat to run very good and it
was a bear to start. Here comes this old guy with this
funny looking tri-cycle boat (canard). He really helped
me out getting my boat to run more than one lap that
day. I watched his funny looking boat run day and was
just mesmerized how fast and well it turned.
I didn’t see him again until our local club, the Las
Vegas Mini Mariners hosted a race several months later. For those of you who were
around back then in the eighties, you might recall two or three races where we
couldn’t run our Sunday event due to the wind. This was one of those races. We called
the race for the day and went to the Showboat Hotel and Casino for lunch. My mom,
dad and I were the new kids on the block. We ended up sitting with Bruce and his wife
Annie. He and my dad hit if off immediately and I tagged along.
Around a year later (I think I was 15) my dad talked him in to giving me an after
school job. He had a small upholstery shop behind his house where he did small jobs
for friends and family. Every day after school I rode my bike about six miles to his
house. I would work in the upholstery shop for a couple of hours for minimum wage
and afterwards he would invite me in to his garage and we would work on all of his
R/C boats and planes. He did a lot of repair work for K&B at the time so in trade, any
part I needed for my boat Bruce gave to me.
After getting to know him, he told me about his involvement in Circus Circus and
their unlimited hydroplane race team. The story goes that Ed Fisher had an
experimental four point hydro called a canard. Circus Circus debuted this design
during the 1980 race season with not much success. Bill Bennett, CEO of the Circus
Circus Hotel and Casino asked him to oversee the canard project for his team.
He took the original Fisher design and made changes mainly to the rear sponsons
and removed the funny looking little wings on the front of the hull. He took the boat to
the Texas A/M University and put it in their wind tunnel for testing so he could get the
boat to stop blowing over. Well he nailed it. He took the design and built an 1/8 scale
R/C boat and a 1/2 scale boat with a big block Chevy 396 for power.
