Mount Si grad Katie Forsell gets taste of hydroplane racing, behind-the-scenes

Published 3:08 pm Tuesday, August 9, 2011

“Holy cow!” That’s what 21-year-old Katie Forsell remembers thinking when she got the Perkins-Glass hydroplane up to speed.

Bouncing across the waves on Lake Sammamish in a vehicle that’s almost as much aircraft as boat, Forsell, a third generation hydro enthusiast from North Bend, had to think fast.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Forsell thought, as she used all her strength to put fellow local Brian Perkins’ boat through four laps at the Tastin’ n Racin’ event in June.

Handling a boat also takes a lot of mental power. Between the tight turns, signal flags and the water itself, “there’s a lot to watch. It’s a huge deal.”

The Lake Sammamish test drive was only the first, but is probably far from the last for Forsell, a SeaFair helper, and volunteer crew member with the U-17 Miss Red Dot, owned by Nate Brown and driven by Kip Brown.

Miss Red Dot is an unlimited-class boat, largest and fastest of the hydros.

Wanting more action, she was encouraged by Perkins to seek out Brown’s Red Dot crew. She volunteered to do whatever was needed, grunt work included, to learn more.

Forsell helped the Red Dot pit crew at the Water Follies race, held July 30 and 31 in the Tri-Cities. She does everything from sweeping up to test-firing the engine, and is gravitating toward working the engine computer.

Forsell had already been a big SeaFair volunteer. Since about age 10, she has worked behind-the-scenes as a racing helper. This year, she co-chairs the Pit Logistics committee, helping organize and set up the maintenance areas and media towers along Lake Washington.

“I don’t think people understand how much work it takes to get a boat ready,” Forsell said. “I give everyone who’s on the crew right now 100 million kudo points. They work hard, sunup to sundown… If there’s a problem on the boat and it takes until 11 (p.m.) plus at night, everybody stays.”

Water in her veins

A love for fast boats goes back a long way in her family. Forsell’s maternal grandfather crewed for classic racers including the Madam Blue and Little Bud, and her paternal grandfather owned a hydro and got his own family involved in racing.

“They took their kids to the races, and they took their kids,” Forsell said. “There’s a picture of me, I’m 6 months old, in my grandma’s pool, and floating in it is the Miss Budweiser hydroplane.”

For her, the lure of hydros is about excitement.

“I’m an adrenaline junkie,” Forsell said.

Beyond that, though, there is also the close-knit racing community.

“We may have teams that are competitive against each other on the water,” she said. “But if the team next door needs a certain part, we’ll give it to them. It’s one big family.”

Right now, Forsell’s racing involvement is all about knowledge.

“It’s not one of those things where it’s ‘What’s in it for me?’” she said. “It’s ‘What can I learn, what can I help with?’”

Forsell graduated from Mount Si High School in 2008. She is studying nutrition and dietetics at Central Washington University, but her involvement with hydros has her thinking about a minor in engineering.

“I consider myself someone with ambition,” Forsell says. “I still have a lot of knowledge to learn before I go out and do it again.”