"Vintage" boats...what do you remember about........

[geoffreysherrah]

Is it possible that your father still has a copy of the instructions for the Gator? I have a Gator Mk2 that's missing them. My father gave me the kit... I'd really like to build it.

 

[JRXHydros]

I went to the 1978 Indy Unlimited with my friend for the first time to watch this big race & it was big. All kinds of boats,the only one that stood out was a giant twin 60 OPS that took two men to take her down to the water. At first I was laughing...this thing was a tank. But it got up & was impressive for its power! Power to weight ratio was off the charts. It won the race with a perfect score! The cowl was so big it covered the engines & pipes...it was massive....crazy. I'll never see anything like that again.

Joel

 

[KenOlvis]

I remember late 60's it was Largo Fla.

My dad an I ran boats with a small group.Jay Maqurie an his father in law Steve.We tested Huey's round nose hydro's at Taylor park an Use a rubber raft to retrieve.

Dad made it fun to run

 

[Jerry Betke]

Attached are some photos of the John Bridge single screw twin outrigger. As you can see the workmanship is excellent. John Bridges son is pictured holding the boat at a recent OWMBC Meeting. JB

 

[Jerry Betke]

Attached are some photos of the John Bridge single screw twin outrigger. As you can see the workmanship is excellent. John Bridges son is pictured holding the boat at a recent OWMBC Meeting. JB

 

[brad nichols]

How about Don Wagner and Avengers, Spiders and Oval Masters?? I still have a 67 Avenger and 21 Spider, the avenger was my first hydro I built after I built a 45 Ski Vee from plans from RC Modler.

Brad

 

[Ray Sametz]

Mid 90's ran a Don Wagner Cobra with mod 80 ops. Only boat I had a perfect score in 5 rounds of racing,, still have trophy.

Loved that cowl "Spy vs Spy"

 

[Bob Morton]

Spider 21
Dumas 67 scale
Mongoose 67

They all still run /monthly_12_2016/post-341-0-01792100-1482868942_thumb.jpg

 

[wayne middlemiss]

Here are 2 Wagner boats I have ,blue boat is .90 powered,white & pink boat was setup with .90 also & both are healthy.

 

[the german]

Still waiting in my garage for a new motor.

Don Wagners Ovalmaster 45



Alex

 

[eagletwin90]

If anyone of you guy's still reading this post has pic's that you could repost,that would be great, I lost all my boating pics from the mid 70s thru mid 2000 along with all my boats and equipment.

 

[Jerry Betke]

For anyone wanting to see the inner workings of the John Bridge twin, see my 12/23/2016 reply on page 6 of this post. Being that I scratch build 90% of my boats, I have to say that my first two boats bring back fond memories. The first boat I built in 1967 was named the "Drifter", a round nose hydro with a Minex radio and a 40 Supertiger airplane engine & cool clamp. I made the hull by cutting up a hollow cord door for the wood. The second boat was built in 1968 and named "Little Green Apples". It was also a round nose hydro. I used the same engine and radio. I met John Bridge in late 1967and he turned me on to marine plywood. So no more cutting up doors. I still have this boat and it would be runnable if I wanted to take the time to set it up. I don't remember the year, but I got my IMPBA 50 MPH patch with Lil Green Apples. 50 MPH was a big deal back then. At Mike's request, I will attempt to scan in some pictures of these boats to post on this site. Love them wood hulls!!!!!! JB

 

[Marty Davis]

I was 10 or 11 at the Hennesey Race in Indy and hit up dad for two quarters. One of them hit for a .60 G & M Models flat bottom mono (Misty?). It was a very quick build and was running in a few weeks with HP.61, side port, nonmuffled, mounted on an angle so most of the exhaust could maybe get out of the hull. When this boat was first set in the lake it arced left and we couldn't keep it from crashing in that block wall just pass the dock at the old "Just Add Water" pond. Some of you "Longtime Boaters" might rember that most unique race site. Later, Gary taught us to just slam it down in the water to get it on plane.

Sidebar: That race was cool! On Saturday there was a pontoon boat that would go out by the shore from the northwest side of the pond and travel counter clockwise following near the shore to the southeast corner and turn around to go back. This was all going on while the race was being ran. It was simulating ocean waves to get that realistic offshore racing feel. It was later decided to stop that practice, but the reason had noting to do with safety!

My next was a Ed Hughey round nose with a Veco .19 followed with I think a Daniels OPS.60 deep v.

Then came the riggers in the early mid 70's. Wing Dings 20, 40, 60 and twin 60 with twin shafts at the 75 Nats. I still have Dad's first place trophy for timed oval with his twin.

My next raffle winner was Detroit built .40 Crapshooter with the hardwood sponson booms powered first with OS.40s then later powered by K&B 6.5 & 7.5. Get this, I wanted to mount the water pick up and turn fin just like my 20 Hughey roundnose. I thought I knew my stuff. Boy that boat could get up in the air! DAD FIXED THAT PROBLEM QUICK.

Late 70's to mid 80's all Marty Davis Crapshooters, I had the black & dayglo pink. None of those other guys were man enough to take the pink, so they left it for the kid. See Andy & John it is a curse they put on me way back. I have to tell the rest of this story. At the 2001 Nats in Sarasota, Either Andy or John Brown sent his son over to inform me that my pink boat was a girls boat. I was busting a gut inside, but I could not let it show. I explained to him the only thing worse than owning a pink boat was getting beat by one.

Back on topic...Early 90's a Mr. Pinkert .60 Coyote made the fleet. Good runner. I narrowed up the center section.

93 to late 90's scratch built carbon fiber Raptors and Miss US1/8th scale. Still have some bare Raptor tubs laying around.

Late 90's to present Ralph Almirola buit Roadrunners.

Thanks for starting this topic, for I enjoyed reading and sharing on this one. My wife kept asking me why I was laughing while I was typing. I'm sorry for wandering and being so long.

MG

Mark:

You forgot one of the most competitive one. One Summer in Indy, I invited you to the shop for a week of boat building. We built you a Super 60 which you won more trophies than I can count. You even beat the Famous Mike Meelbusch at the Indy Unlimited. At that time, NOBODY beat Meelbusch.

 

[K F Wheeler]

A couple of really good memories for me was getting to see Ron Walker and John Bridge run their twins years ago! Fast!! And, the workmanship was every bit as impressive!!!
The other great memory was the help Marty Davis gave me at Celina 19-20 years ago. Running my first rigger that was by far the fastest thing I'd ever driven! Faster yet with Marty's help. Got second place! Wasn't Marty's fault I got second and not first though... I was having fun running the boat on the other side of the lake!!! If he hadn't yelled at me, I probably would have missed more than the first lap or two!!!
Some of you may have heard or read about this before... Well, it was a pretty special race!!!
Ken

 

[Tom Foley]

A few photos of my first boat in 1980 . Drag n Fly 40 with HB 61 OPS pipe . 3 piece articulated shaft on home made hardware. Prop behind the boat instead of under it . I CRUCIFIED that boat !

 

[Tom Foley]

MAN! That looks NICE!! Every time i start readin these posts, i get the URGE to pull out my DragonFli 20 kit, or get back to buildin my 20 Pak, or just build AND RUN somethin that was BACK IN THE DAY! As much enjoyment as ive gotten from runnin the the modern stuff, i guess im still something of a Sport boater at heart ...Does anyone even remember just getting together at a pond and runnin boats for the fun of it? Not to get ready for a race, but just to play??

Actually yes but it has been a while . Pond is the illusive word .

 

[John Finch]

Great post & reading all the histories & memories of so many great people that were in boating over the years.

I think we lived in & thru the best part of history in our time in boating & probably our country also.....I know I did.

My first boat was built in 1947 from a plan set from Popular Mechanics magazine. It was a three point hydro, all balsa wood, OK Cub .099 motor. No Radio control.

I ran it in a round wash tub about 4' ID with the rudder set hard left to keep it on the inside rim of the tub. Made my own props (brass sheet) from the plan set.

Missle Mist ??? % nitro fuel. It run OK usually if I could get it to start! Sound familiar?

Advance a LOT of years & thru gokart racing for some years, street hot rods, in the Army , slot cars, RC car & part making & getting married, to about 1968? (I think).

Friend Rudy Thomas bought 5 A&L Hustler kits & I built one with ST 40 motor, one of my first rods in it & first attempt at a racing carb for it. Ran well when the solid shaft would stay in it! HEAVY BOAT! (but the hot setup at the time)

In 1975 I started RPM Inc. doing all kinds of machining for most anything that came in the door. Formula Atlantic open wheel car racing & motor cycle racing were a big part of the business then. Also the electronic/computer industry was a source of alot of work also.

Of course the RPM con rods were my first product & later carbs, & motor mounts evoled into what I made for the hobby industry.

In the years of about 1975 to about 1990 (approx) I think the mainstays companies of model boating were: Octura, Shamrock Motors, Hughey Products, K&B motors & RPM Inc. & probably a few good boat builders.

I built all kinds of boats over the years; last count showed I have made 20 different racing models, hydros mostly. I'm still old school & like to build wood boats. I can hear the groaning now......

Nothing like pulling the trigger on a fast hydro loaded with 65% nitro & letting it rev forever & sing.......... I still have nitro racing in my blood!

I think the most help I got in my early days in the model parts business came from John Ackerman. That helped alot. I always enjoyed chatting with John (still do) & getting all the latest news from his part of the country.

Allen Hobbs also was alot of help & is right up there with the best.

I made model parts for approx. 26 years (1975-2000) until I retired. I enjoyed most of those years & people that used our products.

Still get calls for RPM rods-

And time comes to relax & let the younger guys 'have at it'!

I still have a scale unlimited hydro(K67) & two O/B hydros. Maybe some day....

Thanks all you guys- it was a great ride- I hope I helped alot of guys thru some hard times & win & set many records-

Dave Richardson

RPM Inc (retired)

Dave,

I ran your rods in all my engines and without them I could not have set the records that I did. Thanks for all that you did for us modelers back then. It is amazing how so many of us helped each other out but our paths seldom passed. Marty's tech sheets were most helpful and the r/c boat modeler and flying models magazines were all that we had to communicate with.
My first boat was a round nose hydro with a McCoy red head airplane engine that I used copper tubing wrapped around the engine for water cooling. That was 1967. Followed by a claimjumper, JVS cat, Pinckert mixer, crap shooter, sightler mono followed by building my own mono (twin Craft) because I was tired of waiting over a year for a sightler boat I had ordered, followed by many scratch built boats and every imaginable boat available up to today. Too many boats to count! When nitro eventually got to be a health issue with me I had to go gas. I miss the good old days when a bunch of us just showed up at the pond with something different and just had fun running. Today everything is pretty much cookie cutter and readily available which is great for the hobby but I do miss the days when we had to make our own stuff and there was always the excitement of seeing something new and special.

John

 

[eagletwin90]

We miss you Dave,
First thing I did with my new k&b 6.5 & 7.5s
was to put RPM rods in them, never blew up another k&b after that... Thank you