Col Willoughby with boat Island Cooler at Southern 80 boat show.
Photo by
Oliver Shedden
The two-time Southern 80 winning boat Island Cooler was on display for all to enjoy at the Southern 80 60th anniversary boat show on Saturday, March 22.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The iconic supercharged Island Cooler was the first boat to record back-to-back Southern 80 victories since Suicide in 1978.
Both wins were record-breaking, with a time of 35:03 in 1989 and 34:18 in 1990, for an average speed of 140km/h and marked the first time that a boat had finished the Southern 80 in under 35 minutes.
Hall of Famer Leo Welch was the observer in both races, before driving The Mistress to victory in 2016.
Dennis Rowbottom was the driver in both years as well, with Jamie Oliver and Mark Pickering the skiers in 1989 and Oliver and Damien Matthews the skiers in 1990.
Current owner of Island Cooler Col Wolloughby has been in possession of the boat since 1994 and always deliberated over whether to restore it to its former glory.
Then, a decade ago, Willoughby was given the perfect chance to bring the boat back to life for the 50th anniversary of the Southern 80 in 2015.
Willoughby emphasised the boat’s historical importance to both the twin towns of Echuca-Moama and the Southern 80 as well as an update on its current status of usage as a classic boat.
Island Cooler's local team of Jamie Oliver, Leo Welch, Mark Pickering and Dennis Rowbottom took out consecutive Southern 80’s in 1989 and 1990.
“It is a local boat and back then it carried the whole town, they used to say it put the town on the map in ski racing and in the Southern 80,” he said.
“I have owned the boat since 1994, and I always used to say one day I’d turn it back into Island Cooler and then when the anniversary came around, I put the foot down and restored it.
“We did most of the restoration off old photos to make it look as similar as possible to its glory days.
“The boat still goes out to shows, does Everfest every two years and goes out on the water, we get excited and take it out on the water and make some noise.”
Willoughby also highlighted why despite the Southern 80 race not going ahead, that celebrating the 60th anniversary and having the boat show is important for maintaining interest in the event and sport as a whole.
“Even though there is no actual racing, this type of event is great for the towns, there are plenty of people walking through the doors and every local business is going to make something out of it,” he said.
“It is great for exposing the town to the wider community and promoting the race while we can’t race, gives people the opportunity to come up and touch the boats and sit in them and really engage with the history of the Southern 80.”
26°C