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Slo-mo-shun V
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Slo-mo-shun
V
Under
Construction at Jensens
Ted had an
agreement with Stan Sayres under which Ted was to receive
$500 dollars a month ( which is what he was earning at
Boeing as a supervisor) to design amd supervise the
building of Slo-mo-shun IV. He had received a brand
new Chrysler and other gifts worth more then $5000
dollars for his contribution
to the IV. The car and some of the other major gifts were
presented to Ted Jones in front of the Slo-mo IV crew.
The Jensen Motor Boat Company had been paid for their work on the IV, but Anchor contributed "free of charge" many hundreds of hours of his own time and money on the development and building of the IV as had many of his staff and the entire volunteer crew of the Slo-mo-shun IV . But Anchor had informed Stan that he was fed up with Ted and that if Ted was going to get all the credit for designing the IV,(which Anchor, and his staff felt was completely unjustified) then Ted had better damn well show up and tell Anchor and his staff what to do with the V.
Stan had
given his go ahead in late February 1951 to proceed with
Slo-mo V. And at Ted Jones request Stan gave him a
contract to supervise and work on Slo-mo V at the same
pay he had been earning at Boeing ,$500 a month. But
after 4 months there is only moderate progress made on
the boat. So on June 26,1951, Stan is furious,and writes
a memorandum to Ted and Anchor and the crew. Anchor
responds to Stan by reminding him of what he(Anchor) had
told Stan when the V project was supposed to have begun
the previous year, Anchor said ,"Stan I told you
that if Ted didn't show up we weren't going to work on
the boat, my men have plenty of other work to do. This is
the same stuff Ted pulled when we were working on the IV,
we did all the work and Ted claimed the fame."
Here's where Stan shines as a businessman" He tells
Anchor, I don't care what you have to do, just get this
boat done; And even after all the turmoil of the last 3
years Stan convinces Anchor to stay with the project.
Anchor says "Ted is out as far as I'm concerned, he
is superfluous to the completion of this project" .
And Ted finally leaves the team in the fall of 1951.
Note: See note at end of article on Teds "attendance
at work"
After this meeting Anchor made a personal call to the commander of the Coast Guard to get permission to discontinue work on the Coast Guard boats for awhile, so they could get the V finished. Commander Albrecksen (Spelling?) tells Anchor that would be okay, but that the V better be on the race course because his Commander was coming to see the IV and V run so the boat better be out there.
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There is a 28
day"drop dead" calendar that hangs in
the same place it did 50 years ago to commemorate
what Anchor and the crew had to do to get the V
finished in time for the race. We also have the
physical records showing the billable hours by
JMC that were put in over that time, that totaled
over 2000 (add to that the volunteer hours by the
crew and you can see it was a tremendous feat to
get V ready to race.) ; But the boat was finished
and ready to race and won, just amazing! This 28 day drop
dead calendar has been
hanging in the same place at Jensens for almost
50 years- It serves as a constant |
One also
must remember that Slo-mo-shun IV had to made ready to
compete at the same time JMC was working on the V, Plus
they didn't and couldn't abandon all their other
customers, so it was a very busy place and Anchor and his
staff and volunteer crew
worked a miracle by getting both boats set-up, tested and
ready to go Racing.
The V was constructed in basically the same manner as the
IV but her overall form is different. The V has a wider
beam and a different Ted Jones sponson Shape
/configuration. Again Anchor told Stan "those
sponsons are not right, and as it turns out, the sponsons
caused the boat to be much to flighty and to porpoise.
After a couple of close calls at max speed of 140-145
mph, Stan decided to have Anchor reshape, reconfigure and
rebuild the sponsons before the next race.After the
modifications the maximum speed before getting to flight
mode was raised to 165 mph and and there was a marked
reduction in the V's earlier tendency to porpoise. But
the boat could never be changed enough to obtain the top
speed of the IV.
Note: "Teds
attendance record at work". The Slo-mo-shun
V was built on the top floor in Jensen's main building.
There is only ONE way of getting to the third floor and
that is up two long flights of stairs and down a hallway
that passes directly in front of the Jensen family
apartment and then passes the main boatyard accounting
and operations office. Anchor had instructed Sig Haas the
Jensens Office manager, record keeper and accountant to
record all of Ted visits, Sig didn't have to make a lot
of entries.
to be continued.
The shot pictures the boat high up in Jensens mold loft
away from any prying eyes. From left to right: Bob
Swanson (Jensens),
Ralph Shamik (crew),Ted Jones, Stan Sayres,Anchor Jensen
& Gene Blum.
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