The GP Valleyfield (GP-444) is a Lauterbach-built boat, and it is the winningest grand prix boat in the history of powerboat racing.
Even if you’re not fully versed in the world of powerboat racing, you’ve probably heard the name Larry Lauterbach.
Henry Lauterbach, Larry’s father, built his first hydroplane race boat in 1947, and it wasn’t long before Lauterbach Custom Boats quickly began dominating the sport. Larry began working part-time with his father in high school, and after two tours in Vietnam, he began working with him full-time and also took up driving. Eventually the business moved from Portsmouth, VA, to Chester, MD, where it is based to this day.
Apart from building boats, Larry was also a highly decorated powerboat racer. He set nine world records, was a 12-time national champion (garnering his last award when he was 58 years old), and was inducted into the American Power Boat Association (APBA) Hall of Champions in three different decades. He got his start back in the early 1960s, racing and showcasing the families’ boats. They would build a boat for a particular racing class, race it (and perform well), and then they would be able to take orders all on word of mouth. Back then, he says, if you didn’t have a Lauterbach boat, you weren’t competitive.
We recently caught up with Larry to chat about a Lauterbach boat, the GP Valleyfield (GP-444), that he was restoring at his shop this past spring.
Kaylie: When was the boat built?
Larry: This boat was brand new in January 1977; it was built for a guy named John Stauffer out of Suffolk, VA. He and I were partners for two boats. This is the second of the two, and we had a very successful career.
I raced it for six years, and we were fortunate enough to set two world records with it, won two national championships, and competed in over 22 races. We sold the boat to a gentleman up in Canada, Robert Theoret, and he had a partner, Guy Lafleur. And Guy was not the famous hockey player. He was an architect. They bought the boat in 1980. We had just set our second world record with it, and then he raced it for six years and was very successful. He was the world champion in 1983 and 1984 with this boat. But it’s pretty cool that it’s the winningest boat in the history of the sport in its class.
What was its original name?
It was originally named Edelweiss, which is a little flower, about three to four inches tall, that lives on the top of the mountains. And so, we used that name, Edelweiss, and then about three years later, my partner had a friend come along who wanted to get involved with helping throw money at the team. He was in the peanut irrigation business; he made irrigation equipment. So we changed the name from beautiful Edelweiss to Peanut, and it became known as the Peanut for the last three years we had it. When Bob and Guy bought it, they changed the name to GP Valleyfield which is named after the regatta up there. It’s a little town, about 35 miles west of Montreal in Quebec, Canada, and it has the biggest race of the year up there. They still pack about 100,000 people in that little 25,000 population town.
This boat was pretty famous up in Canada. I hear it even survived a fire?
After the boat was retired, they mounted it upside down in a sports bar where you could see the whole top of the boat. And every half hour they would have a video come on of Robert, the driver. They would use a little air pump to pump pressure into the fuel tank to force fuel through the engine and then they would start it up. When the motor started up on the video (the motor in the boat was just for looks) smoke would come out of the exhaust pipes and the propeller would turn around real slow. It was pretty cool. In fact, I had friends from Maryland, and they went up there and said, ‘Larry, I saw a boat with your name on it upside down in a sports bar.’ And I said ‘Yeah, that was the GP Valleyfield.’
Well, lo and behold, the sports bar caught on fire. One of the first firefighters to arrive on the scene was a boat racer. He knew the history of this boat and kept wetting it down. I got a picture of it around here somewhere with the boat hanging in the wreckage; it was just all ashes and stuff on the ground, but the boat was still hanging up there on the steel trusses. How it managed to survive that fire I don’t know, but evidently it was meant to be.
I raced it for six years and Robert raced it for six years, so it survived 12 seasons of racing and then a sports bar fire. That’s a tough old girl.
How long has the boat been in your shop?
It’s been a two-year project; now mind you, I didn’t work on it all that time. I also brought in a couple of repair jobs, so it’s been like two years. Somewhere I have written down how many hours I’ve got in it, but it’s a lot.
What was the condition of the boat when you first got it?
It’s been an honor to restore this boat for Robert’s son, Mark Theoret. He owns the boat now. But it was pretty sad. Worse than I thought. I mean, I’d seen the boat up in Canada on the trailer but hadn’t really looked all through the boat, but now everything is new from right here (behind the sponsons) on back. It’s all been replaced. The bottom, the sides, and the deck. It has been completely restored. All the decking was taken off, and I found some broken frames up front. I don’t know how in the world that might have happened. But it was worse than we thought.
I tried to convince Mark, I said, “Why don’t we just take one or two pieces of the old boat and build you a whole new boat? And he said “Oh, no, no, no. I want the original boat.” I said, “Well, it’ll probably cost more than a new boat’s going to cost.”
You have to take the old stuff out and put the new back in, work around all that; it’s a lot easier to do a new build. But if you don’t have the original boat, then this is what we call a replica. In order for it to be the original, you got to have at least one piece of the original boat. Which you know, we could have. The cowlings are all original, the skid fins are original, things like that. I could have taken maybe one frame out of the boat, which I’ve done in the past on restoration jobs, but he’ll be happy with this, and he’ll have the original boat.
What’s next for this boat?
The paint shop. It’s ready for Mark to pick up. He’s waiting for the snow to melt in Canada (editor’s note: we spoke with Larry back in the spring) and then he’s going to come down and pick it up and take it back home. And of course, the regatta is the July Fourth weekend, and I’m sure he wants to have it ready for that, at least have it painted, and the engine put back in it and all that.
Valleyfield is the biggest event of the year for boat racing, and he’d like to get it in the water and maybe even run it around here a few times in remembrance of his dad. Hopefully he’ll have me take it for a lap or two since I won the grand prix up there twice in Valleyfield in this boat.
The GP-444 is a piece of history. I’m glad it’s still intact and that it’s survived 12 years of racing and one fire, and we look forward to seeing it on the water this summer at Valleyfield.
We want to thank Larry for chatting with us and giving us a tour of his workshop! You can tell it’s a little bittersweet, having this decorated race boat back in the shop only to see it leave again. But knowing that the original boat is fully restored for Robert’s son Mark makes all the difference. We went to print before the Valleyfield race unfolded, so stay tuned for an update next month on the GP-444!
If you’d like to learn more about Larry and his racing career, visit proptalk.com/larry-lauterbach-champion-racer-and-renowned-boat-builder.
Do you have a beloved classic boat? Want to share your story? Reach out to [email protected].
As Told to Kaylie Jasinski