Racer profile: Robin Shane

 
Totally at home in the world of racing, Robin Shane has done it all: wrenching, sanding, driving, leading, mentoring, making stuff work.

By Craig Fjarlie 

Robin Shane has spent most of her adult life around boat racing. She currently serves on the APBA Board of Directors as well as Chair of the Special Event and Thundercat committee. 

Robin was born in Baltimore, Maryland. The early years of her life were difficult. “My parents weren’t the model parents,” she admits. “They were alcoholics. From first grade to 12th grade I went to 18 different schools. We moved around a lot, which is probably why I like to travel. It’s kind of bred into me. But with that type of traveling, you learned your priorities very, very quickly; what’s important, what isn’t important.” 

She met her future husband, Stuart, and life began to change. “I met him on a blind date,” she remembers. “The first date was at a roller rink and a movie. The second date was in a garage. I said, ‘What’s a garage?’ He was repainting his Hijacker and said, ‘Would you like to help?’ I said, ‘Well, sure.’ He gave me a sander and said, ‘Take the paint off.’ So I put the sander on the boat and I think I went too far before he said, ‘Stop, stop, stop!’ I think that was our first fight,” she says with a laugh. 

Robin took time to attend college at the University of Baltimore, focusing her studies on business administration. “I lived during the week with my grandmother in the college town. Three little old ladies living in one apartment. It was great, but I missed Stuart.” She left college just short of finishing her degree. 

Robin began attending races with Stuart and quickly became an important part of the team. “I’m a hands-on type of person,” she explains. “Once I was taught how to use the tools, there was just no stopping. We made a pretty good team. He built all his boats; I kept building them.” Stu Shane also built boats for Bill Roberts. “Bill is a big propeller maker,” Robin says. “Bill was from the old school and they felt like a girl shouldn’t be there. Stuart said I can’t be in their garage, and Stuart told them, ‘If she can’t be there helping me, get somebody else to build your boats.’ Then they came back saying I had to sign a waiver of release that if I got hurt I wouldn’t sue them. That was my first introduction, I think, to the politics.” Robin continued to build boats and increased her understanding of the engineering aspect of hull design. “I learned angle of attack, dihedral angles, everything there is to know.” 

Robin and Stu dated for almost seven years before they decided to marry. “The (APBA) national meeting was in Washington, DC. All of our friends were going to be at the meeting, so we decided to get married on Sunday. A restaurant was rented; we just called everybody and said ‘Stop by on your way; we’ll have a dinner for you afterwards.’ It’s nice—all our friends are at the boat races.” 

“What’s a garage?” This is where Robin and Stu spent much of their time.

During the early years following college, Robin held day jobs. She worked first for Hartford Engineering. “They did bio-medical labs for schools. I was in the accounting department. I was there for a few years and then I got a job at a bank. The branch manager, Butch Ambrose, was a boat racer and knew Stu. ‘I can offer you a better salary,’ and he says, ‘Can we play with that?’” 

Boat racing continued to be a major part of Robin’s life. “We were at a race in Pennsylvania and peeople asked, ‘Why don’t you try driving a boat?’ I’m like, ‘Sure, sure.’ So I went out and drove. That was in the 145 class. Well, a week later I found out I was pregnant. I made a deal. We’ll let the baby grow and when I get to a certain point that they’re self-sufficient, then I’d like to go back to racing. I really liked it.” 

In addition to building boats, Robin also began doing engine work. “My little fingers were great for getting inside. One time I put the engine together and all of a sudden, the oil filter burst. This little piston inside the oil pump was stuck and wouldn’t allow the oil to go through. It was building up on the oil filter and it just blew. I was covered in oil all over the place. We really learned how to clean it up,” she adds with a laugh. 

When the Shane children, Jimmy and Kelly, were older, Robin had an opportunity to race again. “It was actually Steve Webster who got me back into boat racing. They had combined the T and the Y classes and made the Z class, but they still had two separate engines. We had Stuart’s boat with the 2200 engine in it. Stuart had gained a little weight, so Steve was saying, ‘I’ve got an engine I think would work in your boat and I’d like you to try it.’ We got to thinking, if we take our engine out that’s 300 less pounds, take Stu out as the driver that’s another hundred pounds, so that’s 400 pounds off the boat immediately, so we’ll go ahead and try it. Steve said, ‘Go out and try it, but you might have a problem with the number three cylinder.’ It started up, went out and had a good time with it, got back and the number three cylinder was gone. Well, now we’re going to have to fix that. I knew there was something with Steve! So, he fixed it, but that’s really what got us into the 1.5 and that’s really what got me into the cockpit.” 

Robin’s boat in the 1.5-Litre Stock class was number T-14. She remembers her first win. “I think it was in Raleigh, North Carolina. I set a course record, and that was nice. Then I won in Maryland. We had our Nationals there. Won that and was able to clinch high points. So, I got my wings.” For her, racing was supposed to be fun. “If I did okay, that’s great, and if I didn’t do it, we’d just keep trying. Still had fun.” 

Although she drove primarily in the 1.5-Litre Stock class, she did cockpit duties in other classes. “I drove 2.5 Stocks and 2.5 Mod for a fill-in driver, and then I was a rider in a Skiff. That was different—really different.” 

Robin has vivid memories of a serious accident at Cambridge. She had a capsule on her boat, but air systems were just starting to come into use. Robin and Stu both took scuba diving classes. The things she learned in those classes probably saved her life. “I went into the turn, going hard, and I barrel-rolled and went upside down. We didn’t know about filling the cockpit. We didn’t have a bottom hatch; the only escape was through the top lid. Well, I could hear them banging and pulling and all that, but the boat wasn’t equalized enough. I‘m upside down. I was breathing in water. We didn’t know about 360-degree diaphragm scuba nozzles or masking pieces. But because I’d had scuba lessons and was prepared by scuba divers, I was able to hand-turn the air into my mouth. It finally equalized and it finally opened up. I thought maybe I should try to get out, but no, no—I have 30 minutes of air in this bottle, I can do this. They were able to lift the lid and they brought me in. I threw up because I had gotten water in the tube. They asked me, ‘Are you all right?’ I apologized for throwing up. The rescuer said, ‘We thought we were going to have to resuscitate you.’ There was another lesson learned. Stuart and I started to work on safety really hard. A lot of people just don’t want to hear it. I guess it’s still the same attitude: ‘It’s not going to happen to me.’” 

Near the end of her driving career, Robin took more time working with new drivers, sometimes staying back to help a rookie gain experience. “I had more fun hanging back with a new person. Go to the inside and make them drive around me, or go to the outside and make them hold their lane tight. They would come back and say, ‘That’s the best race I’ve ever had.’ When you’re a rookie and you’ve got to hang in the back and you’re in this backwash, the water’s rough, but you can race back there. It’s a whole lot more fun.” 

Robin soon became more deeply involved in administrative work and the politics of racing. She was secretary of her local racing club for a year, then served as Treasurer and club Chairman. Before long, she was elected to the Inboard Commission. Robin began speaking up about issues that needed to be addressed. She offers an example. “Every year we end up spending five hours talking about a 5-Litre piston ring that affects 80 people, when we have 600, 700 people in our inboard category. These years it’s a little less.” She pushed for development of a technical committee to be filled with people who have knowledge about engine building, inspection, or boat building. “Someone who is truly knowledgeable,” she insisted. 

Robin served on the committee when APBA was searching for a new headquarters building. Not all of her desires were able to be incorporated in the new building, but she pushed the committee to locate the most suitable facility possible. 

Currently, Robin and Stu Shane are busy helping their grandkids become involved in outboard racing. Stu is active with his Hijacker boats in the Vintage category. Robin continues to serve on the APBA Board of Directors. Among her goals is bringing more young people into boat racing, where they can learn to work with their hands and have fun competing on the nation’s rivers and lakes. It has been many years since a blind date brought Robin into boat racing, but clearly, she wouldn’t change a thing. 

Clockwise from top left: Jimmy, Stuart, Robin, and Kelly Shane are a winning boat racing team.