Blast from the Past/With a couple Pics

[ggillman]

Hey Guy's,

It is a rare occurence when you get to do something over again from your past, Will its about ta happen!!!!!!

A friend of mine just sprung a suprize on me, He has restored a hull that I drove in the late 70's and wants me to give it its maiden voyage since rebuild,

The hull is a original plywood tunnel by no other than Angelo Molinari, he has a 140 straight six Merc on it with a pair of 3 into one open megaphones, Quicksilver lower unit and quicky foot throttle and Jackplate with trim. If you ever attended a boat race in the 70's, the megaphones on a Merc are something to behold at full song, LOUD does not even come close!!!!!

We are going to the lake today and give the old girl a whirl and see if everthing checks out, While I am no race driver with these, the first time I drove this hull it was under the guidence of a pro, the former owner raced all the time.

Outta be a BLAST!!!!!!! At the ripe old age of 47 pulling 3 G's might be painfull, but its gonna be a great way to spend a afternoon.

Gene ;D

 

[TomMoorehouse]

Re:Blast from the Past/Gillmania strikes again

wow... that sounds cool!! try to get some pictures!

 

[ggillman]

Re:Blast from the Past/Gillmania strikes again

Wheeeeeeew!!!!!!

I am gettin to old fer this stuff,

A very interesting happens when you are at the lake with a tunnel and a Merc with open headers, It attracts people like a magnet, trouble is everybody wants ta race or the fishermen just want ya ta get outta here!!!!

We backed her down in the water and fired up the engine, checklist, main on, ign on, prime, start, Oh my God that is louder than I remember, think Ferrari, but with no gearbox, Also the Quicksilver lower unit does away with the gearcase, no neutral, no reverse, just Boogie ,makes it real interesting to put on the trailer with a headwind.

First run resulted in a turnaround and back to shore, massive blowout, cavitating wildly, no hookup, couple turns on the jackplate and back out, Yah thats more like it, accelleration on a tunnel is linear, just keeps gettin faster as you trim out, hardest thing to do is remember not to back off in the corners, just hit the trim in and turn, and grunt like a monkey cause it starts ta hurt the faster you go.

How fast ya say, well dont know, but I ran off from a Ranger Bassboat with a 200 Black Max like he was standing still, he wanted ta play and got a little to close.

Needs a different prop still wants to blow out if ya get it to quick, but all in all its a great hull, just dont expect to run it to long at the lake with open headers, the Park Rangers were nice, but said if we came back they would have to write us up on the noise thing, amazing how that happens with R/C too.

Got a couple quick Polaroids, I will have a friend scan in and will send to Tom to post soon.

Gene ;D

 

[TomMoorehouse]

Re:Blast from the Past/Gillmania strikes again

man... thats cool... im jelous... wish i was there!

 

[Ed Radz]

Re:Blast from the Past/Gillmania strikes again

Gene!

Its sounds like you had a ball! Any idea on what the straightaway sppeds were? I had a Searay with a 125 horse Merc straight 6 back in the late 60's. It was strictly a pleasure boat, but that Merc sure would haul the mail!

Later!

Ed Radz

 

[ggillman]

Re:Blast from the Past/Gillmania strikes again

Tom, I should of let you drive an I would do the tuning!!!

Man I am sore today bigtime, runnin full size tunnels are for the younger dudes

Ed, I really am guessing here, but the fast bass rigs here are runnin high 60's low 70's and I pulled away from them quick so I would guess low 80's maybe ? The hull is far from race trim and was tachin out bigtime, needed a prop with a little more pitch is my guess.

I also did not run it as loose with the trim as I could have, My buddy's got himself a fast hull, I just hope he is carefull with it, their is still a whole lot more speed there when he gets it dialed in.

Gene ;D

 

[Ed Radz]

Re:Blast from the Past/Gillmania strikes again

Gene!

Those kinds of speeds on water are scary fast!

Ed Radz

 

[ggillman]

Re:Blast from the Past/Gillmania strikes again

Oh Yeah!!! There are a lot of things goin on and it all happins real quick, by the time you see something, no time to think about it, ya got to react. I always thought mirrors on a boat were silly, but in a tunnel they are a must have, ya cant see a thing thats goin on behind ya without them, more than once I had to slow to a idle cause the other boaters were following to close, If I would have tried a turn, It would have got ugly quick, I had to turn around the other way and punch it to lose them and then I would try the high speed stuff when there was no one else around me, they dont have any idea what these little hulls are capable of when they turn, they just know that tunnels are fast and want to be right there with you. Kinda cool really, but ya got to watch whats going on around ya,

Gene ;D

Guy's the pics from Sunday were all a blur, the shutter speed just was not fast enough, so I sent Tom a couple of the tunnel from March of 1978 when I first drove it, lest you can see what she looks like, He should have them up soon.

 

[TomMoorehouse]

pics from gene:

 

[ggillman]

Thanks Tom,

These are from the former owners driveway, he was havin electrical problems and I rewired the hull for him, thats what got me the chance to drive it, he wanted to

pay me, and I said Nah, I wanna drive the boat!!!!!!!!

Gene ;D