Where have all the Sightlers gone ?

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Tom Foley

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Messages
7,172
I remember there were tons of Sightlers at every race a long time ago in the 80's and 90's and now you just don't see them . I have a couple of knockoffs from a mold Henry Rodriguez had and used to run them all the time . Let's see who has a few in the rafters .
 
The perfection boat built by Jack Smith was the popular 20 boat back then. The Sightlers were top notch. Neil Sightler built them and Doug Floyd sold them for Neil. They were hard mount boats so when the noise restrictions hit they lost some interest. I believe Neil made some wood stringer boats after that but not so many. The originals had a fiberglass insert with threaded aluminum plates under the insert. The insert made the boat neat and clean looking but noisy.

John
 
i have a 44" hull (rail hull) up in the attic.going to put a motor in it after this next surgery in JAN
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.round 2.

also had a 48" or 50" hull (was a stringer hull) and gave it away when i lived up in NY. i will never get rid of the hull i have now.lots of fun to drive and turns on a dime.
 
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First sightler i saw was at a Toledo show ended up walking out with a 40 ran great till it hit a tree, then got a Newbycraft loved that boat.
 
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My first boat when I started out was a 40 Sightler that I got from my Dad. Red metalflake top and a white bottom. I still have it. They were great driving boats but like John said they were very noisy.

Dick Tyndall
 
I sold a nice one on here a year ago silver dont know who got it but it was complete with motor.
 
For many years I raced a 40, 60 and 80 class and always wished he would of made a 20 class. The Hypoint 20 hull came out a few years after Neil passed (I still have one of those too) looked like a sightler 40, cut back; never really ran like a sightler. Good racing hull for the times. You could run within inches of the next sightler without darting or displacing the hulls.
 
I had 20, 40 and 60 Sightlers. I attended an RC boat demonstration in Columbia, S.C. in 1974 or 1975. There I met Doug Floyd, Neil Sightler, Bob Gettle and Jimmy ??. I was hooked instantly. I was 15. I had a job in a restaurant and spent most of what I made on boats. Neil made me a 40(40" version at the time). We would travel together and race in Charleston and Atlanta, and test on Sundays on the pond at Neil's house. I raced that Sightler 40 for about 5-10 years, until Neil came out with the 44" hull, which handled much better. Then I upgraded. I also had a 44" with a OPS 67 in it. You are right, they were load. They would reverberate like a drum. I will try and find some old pictures of Sightler Boat Race Team. I still have one of the jackets that we had made. Those guys invested the time and effort to show me the ropes and I am forever grateful. I moved up to Michigan in 1983 and lost touch with them. What a great group of guys!
 
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