*

Slomoshun
World Famous Hydroplanes
& the people who created them.

Slo-mo-shun IV
The Controversy

Ted Jones
Drowns In His Own Words

Who Designed & Developed
Slo-mo-shun IV

Homepage

*

*

*

*

*

The Beginning of the Controversy

This is Slo-mo-shun III being completed at the
Jensen Motor Boat Company, I believe this is
where the controversy and the rift began

The Seed of Controversy
In my opinion , The problems in getting Slo-mo III built was the beginning
of an ever growing fracture in the relationship between Ted Jones, Anchor and Stan.
To use an analogy: You know when you're driving down the highway and
you hear that sharp "ping" against your windshield. And you see that tiny
little hole and you start to swear to yourself. Well, after you
get your composure back, you begin the process of adjusting to the fact that the hole is going to be there for awhile and you might as well try to deal with it.
But then, all of a sudden other little fractures start to spread out from the center of that tiny hole and before you know it, your tiny hole is a spider web of fractures, threatening to collapse in on you at any moment.

When Ted couldn't finish the III on time, and Anchor was asked to
come to the rescue, after explaining his previous commitments to Stan,"that is the moment Ted Jones hits the windshield of Stan Sayres and especially Anchor Jensen"
and the fracture continues to spread.

Stan initially asked Anchor to build the III at JMC. Anchor told Stan that the pressures
of their current work for the Coast Guard was just too much, to take on another project.
And Anchor also told Stan he didn't like the design of the sponsons on the boat and other aspects of its design. Whereupon Ted told Stan Sayres that he would build it in his basement. Unfortunately, Ted was never able to get very far in his construction, maybe finishing part of the framing. And after months of waiting Sayres had to go back to Anchor and convince him to finish the job. So now we have Ted who could not live up to his commitment to finish the boat obligated to deal with Anchor and JMC who could easily complete the task of finishing up the III.

The Jensen's had been involved with racing since 1906 when Tony Jensen had one of the earlier motorboats in the Seattle area named "Hipp". Which he named after a circus elephant.

He won a number of Potlatch races in his 22' boat the Swan, power by a 25hp Sterling engine.(I have a photo of the cup engraved with the date 1911 which I will insert at the earliest opportunity). He had been helping and working with the local distributor of Sterlings in the Seattle area, as a part time job besides working at the shipyard.

After his return from Victoria in 1925-26 and starting the Jensen boatyard he built and raced Baby bootleggers, 225 & 505 class boats, the "Waterdog" and the "SAR" which was a title holder in her class in the 1930's. They had also maintained and repaired both of Stans earlier Ventor Hydroplanes, Slomoshun and Slomoshun II for almost 10 years. Racing and Hydroplanes were not new to the Jensens, as so many writers have claimed, the Jensen's had ample experience in both areas and they were known as one of the best boat builders in the Northwest. In 1938 their boat the Meteor which was designed by George Jensen and developed & built by Tony & Anchor was featured on the front cover of Pacific Motor Boat as the boat of the future. People like the Jensen's were doer's not talkers.

to be continued