Tahoe’s Speedboat King, Part II

BY MARK MCLAUGHLIN

Salvaged Skip-A-Long hydroplane (background), circa 2003. | Mark McLaughlin

R. Stanley Dollar Jr. had a distinguished career racing powerful speedboats in Tahoe Yacht Club’s summer regattas in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He was also the perfect ambassador to represent the best of American racing on the international circuit. In an adulatory 1935 article published in “Motor Boating” magazine, Everett B. Morris, sportswriter and yachting editor of “The New York Herald Tribune,” extolled the virtues of the 20-year-old hotshot. That year, Dollar Jr. had traveled to France to compete against the best national teams of Great Britain, France and Italy for the coveted Spreckels Trophy. As the sole American participant and not supported by the U.S. government, Dollar entered the race with his secretly designed, narrow hull speedboat “Uncle Sam.” Each of the other countries had three custom-built watercraft ready in case of mechanical failure or mishap. The toughest challenge in the Spreckels-sponsored contest was that entries were featherweight — no vessel could weigh more than 770 pounds including engine and linkage. Dollar, piloting his innovative “Uncle Sam” along the choppy Seine River in Paris, was in the lead for the first half of the race until his steering gear jammed and the boat flipped twice at 70 mph. Fortunately, he survived the crash without injury. Despite Dollar’s ignominious defeat, Everett Morris assured his readers that the young man “behaved like a sportsman, a gentleman and cast no shadows on the best traditions of American motor-boating.” Stanley was handsome, charming and charismatic, but not one to crave attention or the media spotlight. Morris observed that Dollar was “a cleancut, wholesome athletic type with an infectious smile and genuinely straightforward manner … keen, intelligent and self-reliant.” He confirmed that: “A new American speedboat racing ace is in the making.” When not sporting at Lake Tahoe, Stanley worked as vice president of the Dollar Company that his deceased father had established and wisely diversified. Stanley’s responsibilities included commercial shipping, real estate, lumber and civic affairs. In the 1920s, the Dollar Steam Ship Line had been the world’s most profitable ocean-going enterprise, but the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent Great Depression crushed luxury travel and saddled the company with debt. To satisfy creditors, the bankrupt Dollar Line was acquired by the Federal Maritime Commission in the late 1930s and then sold after World War II with remaining profits split between the Dollar family and the U.S. government. Ollie Meek, Stan’s close childhood friend from the San Francisco Bay Area, was a top mechanic and co-pilot on the duo’s speed-burning runs across Big Blue and at competitions domestically and abroad. When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Dollar and Meek enlisted in a field artillery unit and fought in the Philippine campaign where Stanley was awarded the Bronze Star and discharged with the rank of major. After the war, Dollar and Meek had important jobs at the Dollar Company, but whenever they could, they worked on speedboats.

Designing, constructing and equipping top-flight racing boats and hydroplanes is not for the meek or blue-collar crowd. These over-powered water bullets were dangerous to drive and the financial costs were simply too high for the average breadwinner. For example, in 1948 Dollar outfitted his cutting-edge “SkipA-Long of California” speedboat with a 2,000-hp Allison V-12 aircraft engine originally designed to power the U.S. Air Force’s P-82 Mustang warplane. It made sense. “Skip-A-Long” was an Unlimited (horsepower) Class aluminum hydroplane that mimicked a futuristic fighter jet with tapered, aerodynamic wings. This machine, built purely for top velocity, was 30-feet long and 12feet wide with a radical shape design for stability at high speed. Driver Dollar and riding mechanic Meek crouched in a small cockpit as the rear-positioned Allison motor thrust them forward at 120 mph. In the autumn of 1948, Dollar skippered “Skip-A-Long” to first place at the Silver Cup race in Detroit, Mich. In 1949, the pair won the prestigious Harmsworth International Speed Boat Race trophy with “Skip-A-Long” and the first four out of five races on the circuit that year. But in a major personal loss for team Dollar, on Aug. 14, 1949, during an exhibition run for spectators at Lake Tahoe Yacht Club Regatta, “Skip-A-Long” developed engine trouble and a leak that quickly sank her in 510 feet of water offshore near Sunnyside in on the West Shore. Despite repeated attempts to retrieve the innovative championship hydroplane, even with help from the U.S. Navy, they failed to bring her up. “Skip-ALong” sat on the bottom of Big Blue for decades until 1982 when Tahoe businessman John Clauss located it with an underwater video camera and led a successful salvage operation.

ser and his son H.J. Jr., Dollar Jr. and Herbert Fleishhacker Sr., a wealthy San Francisco banker and civic leader and his son Herbert. The elder Dollar died in 1932, but it was common for these aristocratic father-son teams to race against each other in different customized boats at the Tahoe events.

Interestingly, both the elder Dollar and Kaiser acquired their fortunes in large-scale maritime interests and other profitable industrial enterprises before they got into boat racing at Lake Tahoe. While the elder Dollar was known as the Grand Old Man of the Pacific, the elder Kaiser was called the Father of American Shipbuilding. During World War II his Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond assembled Liberty cargo ships for America’s war effort with a remarkable average construction time of 45 days. The Richmond shipyard secured its international reputation for speedy work when teams built and launched a 10,500-ton vessel in just four days and 15.5 hours. Kaiser Aluminum, Kaiser Steel and Kaiser Permanente health care are legacy corporations from this exceptionally successful businessman. An intense but good-natured rivalry developed between the Dollar, Fleishhacker and Kaiser families, who dominated most other competitors for the annual crown of fastest boat on Lake Tahoe. Stanley was wealthy but unlike Kaiser and Fleishhacker, he frequently built his own boats. He enjoyed the work and relied on himself, Meek and friends for help. Stan was proud of his underdog status; he liked that when people saw his coveralls oil-stained from tinkering on engines, they assumed he was a hired grease monkey. In 1953, Stanley, Meek and a third partner purchased Sierra Boat Company in Carnelian Bay, which provided them with workspace, tools and experienced mechanics to help maintain their nautical passion. In addition to taking first place at many Tahoe regattas, Stan Dollar was one of only a few drivers to win the two most prestigious awards of the Unlimited Class of speedboat racing: the American Power Boat Association Gold Cup and the Harmsworth International Trophy. He died in 1975. n

Read Part I at TheTahoeWeekly.com