Race help

[Powercat]

Need some help to ID this photo,
The Switzer wing is the U-4 wood boat but it has black Merc motors..
The race is for sure one of the Florida marathon races but which one?
Any idea on the year? Seems like Glastron was not in these races
till the late 60's but I would have thought that the U4 Switzer was
history by then... Then there is the twin Switzer rig that is up front...
What year did those come out? This was one of the photos taken
from the Mercury Marine company plane...
Any info would be great...
Thanks,
Danny Leger

[T2x]

Need some help to ID this photo,
The Switzer wing is the U-4 wood boat but it has black Merc motors..
The race is for sure one of the Florida marathon races but which one?
Any idea on the year? Seems like Glastron was not in these races
till the late 60's but I would have thought that the U4 Switzer was
history by then... Then there is the twin Switzer rig that is up front...
What year did those come out? This was one of the photos taken
from the Mercury Marine company plane...
Any info would be great...
Thanks,
Danny Leger

Boat in the lead seems to be a Craig Cat or similar....not a Switzer...unless it is an old Shooting Star decked Switzer Vee....hard to tell

Glastron started racing in the early 60's not late 60's They were dominant from 62-63 through 67-68. At that point they began building the Glastron Molinari's. Glastron won 63, 64 and '65 Hudson River Marathons and a bunch of other races.

T2x

[2us70]

I can tell you where the photo was taken. It is southbound on the intercoastal waterway in Miami just a little south of 125 St. The long marathon course at Pelican Harbour ran from in front of the club house on 79 St.up the east side of Biscayne Bay almost to 125 St.and then turned south along the Intercoastal. They always started there because that straightaway was 2 or 3 miles long. Since there are no inboards in the picture my guess is that it is the start of the Orange Bowl Regatta 6 Hour race in maybe 64. It almost Little Treasure there in the middle running a black Merc 1000. If so it could be as late as 65 since Ronnie Russell was running it about that time.

[lilabner]

The U-4 is the wing with the vee front on the airfoil..Craig probably got the new one for the Gold Coast..He won the 63 Gold Coast with this one..

Jim...that looks pretty big for Little Treasure,, but it does have the pointed front end..looks like the number is I-64, Rosemarys' old number..

[2us70]

Butch. What race do you think that is?

[lilabner]

Jim..no clue..I never saw a twin Switzer, and don't remember seeing that many fishing boats at a race..might be a promotion goof..if that was a real start you would think Craig would be on the outside smokin....JJ4 was Chuck's old number that Booger kept on the Powercat..

[2us70]

The black twin V bottom in the middle looks like either Miss Midnight or Midnight Oil. They were factory run Wellcrafts, Milt Roebar drove one of them in the Gold Coast and John McCall the other ,I don't remember which was which and I can't tell from photo. Also there apear to be several twin Alims in that bunch.

[lilabner]

Look like Alims to me too..I've got a lot of time fixing some of those..painted flat dark green or flat gray...motors too if they were white..

[willabee]

I can't ID the photo or give you a year.......all I can offer is that the boat in the lead looks an awful lot like the Switzer we had rigged in Oshkosh for our safety boat. It had a large open cockpit, big enough to put a liter basket in with other safety equipment and carry two seats. We ran twin 1250's on it. Can't remember what that model was called, but it had a bottom design very similar to the Glastron Swinger. It ran in the 50's with standard lower units and handled rough water very well. I think we set it up that way in 1969, but it had been used for engineering tests for approximately two years before we took it. Add black engines on the U4 and that should put your photo somewhere around 1966/67.

[2us70]

That would put me somewhere out in back of these guys beating my brains out in a flat bottom SE boat.

[willabee]

Confucius say...." Man with brains does not race flat bottom boat " :)




That would put me somewhere out in back of these guys beating my brains out in a flat bottom SE boat.

[lilabner]

That U-4 dates 1963, he ran the later one in 1964...Merc 1000 dates 1962...

[lilabner]

Jim..you think I-64 is the Ray Bond built Raveau copy? He built 2, one for Richie Baiz and one for Fred Click..wasn't an exact copy but he measured Little Treasure..We were right next door...

[willabee]

I know the U4 was much earlier than 66/67, but it was white motors back then.....so the boat has changed hands.....Someone on S&F said black motors started in 65 and I'm thinking that model Switzer came out in approx. 66 - just a guess, but close I think




That U-4 dates 1963, he ran the later one in 1964...Merc 1000 dates 1962...

[Powercat]

Butch:
I went back and got the magnifying glass on that boat..
The race #'s look like U 525 on the original.. or it could
be I J 525.. or L J 525
Most of the twin motor V-bottoms look like JJ class..
As you said the first black motors were 1962 1000's
What is odd is that every one of the motors on these
boats look identical, like they may have been all rigged
by Mercury.. ... The photo had the
Mercury Marine stamp on it like many that my dad had
gotten from Mercury from their promo dept.
We may figure this out yet......
Thanks
Danny Leger
.........

Jim..you think I-64 is the Ray Bond built Raveau copy? He built 2, one for Richie Baiz and one for Fred Click..wasn't an exact copy but he measured Little Treasure..We were right next door...

[2us70]

Based on all the info on this thread and looking at the picture again my best guess is the start of the 6 hour in the winter of 63/64. Which would make it a few months before my first race, the 64 Sandy Shoes race.

[lilabner]

Danny,

I'm thinking the same thing, promo..These boats are using numbers from some different boats..could be something from the movie Racing Fever also because it was filmed in 62..We had a lot of cats racing back then, and a lot of Raveaus..they were in all the pictures..not Alims and fishing boats.

Butch

[lilabner]

The 64? Six Hour was in the Marine Stadium..It was so rough a lot of boats didn't even run..including us..I have pictures..I think it was Dec 63..I went to Parris Island a week later.

Butch

[velox]

I know its a little late, but the photo is from the 64 OPC 6 hour marathon.
I setup and drove the Unlimited Glastron in the photo. The Boat belonged to George Griley.
We won the Unlimited class in that race.
The JJ Glastron was Jon Culver and he won the JJ class.
The Switzer was Rees Schmidt.
One week later the 9 hour was held in the Miami Marine stadium.
Mercury brought the fiberglass Switzers in public for the first time.
George, Richard Baiz and I each took 3 hour legs in the 9 hour.
The Switzers were not so fast that day in the beginning of the race in rough water, but did better at the end of the day.
They had the first Speedmasters built for the Merc 100's.
We could not get our hands on any until the week after the race when George and I drove up to Lake X and got a pair. O well we were the first place non factory sponsored boat with an average speed of around 53 MPH for 9 hours. I drove the first 3 hours and it was so rough I could not even see anything except an outline. I remember being in so much pain I almost cried while driving full bore.

[Mark75H]

I know its a little late, but the photo is from the 64 OPC 6 hour marathon.
(edit)
Mercury brought the fiberglass Switzers in public for the first time.
(edit)
The Switzers were not so fast that day in the beginning of the race in rough water, but did better at the end of the day.
They had the first Speedmasters built for the Merc 100's.
We could not get our hands on any until the week after the race when George and I drove up to Lake X and got a pair.(edit)

Very cool!! :)

I think in 1964 the new Speedmasters you are talking about were the first of the dual pinion SUPER Speedmasters ; even though there was a there was a slightly improved Speedmaster "made for the 100" with the housing to match the actual flange of the gearshift tower and heavier bearings in 1962, the 1962 improvement was nothing compared to the introduction of the Super Speedmaster.
Pete DeLackner still remembers how much better the new ones were and how unfair it seemed that only a few people could get their hands on the new ones that could actually last a whole race under the 100's and souped up 100's in 1964

PS: Charlie, its never too late to add something like this, it really helps us all understand the whole picture of racing back then :) :) :) Add as much as you can where ever you can, we LOVE it!

[velox]

You are right they were the new super speedmasters and only the factory had them for that race.
While the Switzers were a little faster than our Glastron it was just enough to win.
BTW That was also the very first time the fiberglass Switzers were made public.
Compared to the wood ones they were very slow.