HAL KELLY is best known as a boat racer and boat designer who was active in the late 1940's through the 1950's. Kelly actively raced his designs and regularly introduced new and improved designs. He also was a commercial artist who worked for Popular Mechanix where he contributed artwork, articles and some of his early boat designs which were featured by the magazine. He also contributed to Boat Sport magazine where his artwork is found on some of the covers. He also wrote articles for Boat Sport, his first appearing in the October 1953 issue. One of his most popular designs from that time was "JINX" an A/B Utility. Free Plans from Svenson's free plans site Around this time Kelly started his boat plans business. His first advertisement for plans to "DRY RUN" an A/B Utility, appeared in the April 1954 Boat Sport issue. Dry Run reportedly was somewhat nose heavy and was replaced by his most widely built A/B Utility "AIRBORNE". AIRBORNE PDF plans sheet #1 AIRBORNE PDF plans sheet #2 FOO-LING followed AIRBORNE as an A/B Utility. FOO-LING PDF plans sheet #1 FOO-LING PDF plans sheet #2 Around the time that FOO-LING appeared Kelly Also introduced a boat named MAD-CAP which essentially is a C/D Class version of FOO-LING MAD-CAP PDF plans sheet #1 MAD-CAP PDF plans sheet #2 Kelly raced and sold four hydroplane plans. His most widely built plan is WETBACK, a B/C Class hydro. WETBACK PDF plans sheet #1 WETBACK PDF plans sheet #2 Kelly's smallest hydro was the BUZZARD an A/B Class boat. Built small and light it doesn't seem to have been too popular. Perhaps Kelly's comment in his catalog that it was not for a beginner had something to do with it. The JUPITER was a successor to WETBACK as a B Stock hydro. It also could be built as an A/B/C Alky boat by lengthening it. JUPITER PDF Plan Sheet #1 JUPITER PDF Plan Sheet #2 The BEN HUR a C/D Class boat was Kelly's only cabover design. Cabover designs had limited popularity in the late 50's. BEN HUR PDF Plan Sheet #1 BEN HUR PDF Plan Sheet #2 BEN HUR PDF Plan Sheet #3 BEN HUR PDF Plan Sheet #4 BEN HUR PDF Plan Sheet #5