TAYLOR'S LAST FAST TRIP ON THE GOOD SHIP 'HUSTLER'

Kim Chapin

July 10, 1967

Early last week the weather was terrible and the boat was 2� tons of trouble. Then, on Friday, skies cleared over Lake Guntersville—home of the most frightened fish in Alabama—and Lee Taylor Jr. got aboard the Hustler. It is really a surplus J-46 Douglas jet engine surrounded by 30 feet of boat trappings, so scary that when Taylor first tried it four years ago he panicked and bailed out. Since then, world water-speed record holder (at 276.333 mph) Donald Campbell had been killed at 310 mph. But this time Taylor stayed aboard and hit a sample 299.181—with only 20 minutes left on his Coast Guard permit. He got an extension, refueled, and really hit it: one run at 288.1216 mph, a return at 282.3039, for an average of 285.2127 mph and the new world mark. Taylor, 33, will let it stand. "The Hustler," said its builder, Richard Hallett, "is a tired old boat."