sidewinder tunnel

[largecar91]

I was searching the net and found this. I never knew sidewinder made a tunnel.

[crazy horse]

That's a new one on me. Looks like late 60's early 70's.

[rnelems]

My memory is a little fuzzy here,but I believe the bottom photo was a one-off built by maybe Gary Fergeson (sp) ? The other two photos appear to be artist concepts. A good friend was a Sidewinder dealer in late 60's/early 70's,he sold lots of them but he never had a tunnel as far as I can remember. Don't think it ever hit the market. But interesting photos. Robert

[Raceman]

It may also very well be that it's not the same company that made the boats that we commonly associate with the Sidewinder name. There was more than one back then, but I don't recall the details. Seems like one was referred to as Sidewinder by Thomson or Thompson.

[rnelems]

Raceman,I think you got it. Thompson(sp) bought the company after they made their mark with some nice metalflake hot rods,next phase was bowriders with the signature wind shield that opened on the port side instead of the center,cool idea in 1972. But I'm still pretty sure it was Gary Fergason that designed the early ones. Help me out here.Robert

[Mark75H]

Large should have told you guys where he picked this up: www.fiberglassics.com/sidewinder

[willabee]

I was under the impression that Sidewinder boats out of California in the late 60's was owned and operated by Kenny Baker. He campaigned a couple of twin engine tunnels in that time frame. They were painted in a stars and stripes format and had 1250 stackers for power. He drove one and Roy Zepponi drove the other.
Gary Ferguson.......why do I know that name? A Chrysler 135 stacker driver?

[LakeRacer99]

From the glassics site that Sam linked to...

The Sidewinder trademark (for boats) was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 6, 1969, under the name of Los Altos Marine Incorporated, located at 4898 El Camino Real, Los Altos, California. In their 1969 model full colour brochure, Sidewinder Boats claimed to be the world's largest designer/producer of V-bottom ski boats, with manufacturing facilities in California and Canada. Built for speed, Sidewinders were designed for the ultimate in racing, skiing, and personal pleasure. World record holder, Ken Baker, had designed two high performance hulls - the famous V bottom and the new tunnel. These hulls were multi-laminated and assembled by hand. Variety and choice were the order of the day with standard and deluxe versions, thirty-two colour combinations, and power plants from outboard through inboard-outboard and jet available. Appointed with choices of metalflake trim, racing stripes, tuck and roll wrap around vinyl seating, and colour keyed all weather carpeting, these stylish, powerful, and manoeuvrable boats turned heads at many a beach. (In fact they still do!)
Models available in 1969 were the V- bottom, low profile (Lo Pro) designs in 16 and 18 ft. lengths. Both could be had in the Deluxe version (16 ft. at 750 lb. and 18 ft. at 900 lb.) or the "stripped down" (100 lb. lighter) Standard versions. They could be had in outboard (135 hp max for the16 and 150 hp max for the 18), inboard/outboard (140 hp max for the 16 and 225 hp max for the 18) or jet drive (350 hp max for the 16 and 500 hp max for the 18 - although text in the brochure claims up to 600 horsepower was available!) Engines up to 455 cu. in. could be had. The tunnel model version, used predominately for racing, was available in either a 15 ft. or 17 ft. length, and could be custom built for single, double and triple outboard engine classes.
The revolutionary Super Sidewinder 16/18 ft. design was filed for a patent (by Ken Baker and Ronald Plescia) in the US on October 17, 1969 and granted patent on November 3, 1970 (Patent Number 219,118). Subsequent patent designs were filed and granted for the 14 ft. Super, XL deep-vee, and XL Tri-hull.
In 1970, Sidewinder relocated from Los Altos, up the road to 3545 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. In 1970 and '71 boats were also manufactured in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Meanwhile Sidewinders were being manufactured under the Cobra name, by California Fiberglass Limited in British Columbia, Canada.
In 1971, Ken Baker, president of Sidewinder Marine, Inc. in Palo Alto, California was in litigation over a lawsuit filed by Sidewinder Marine against twenty manufacturers, who had copied the revolutionary Super Sidewinder design, first produced in 1970. Imitators included Marlin, Tahiti, Wriedt, and Taylor. In 1971/72 production moved from Palo Alto to Anderson, CA. and by July 1972, at least four manufacturers had admitted infringement on the Sidewinder design patents. About 1971 Canadian Sidewinder production moved to Ontario, where, by 1972, they were manufactured as Sidewinders - not Cobras, by California Glass Marine.
In 1974 the Thompson Boat Company purchased manufacturing rights for Sidewinder boats and continued to manufacture them under the Sidewinder banner at Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Later Sidewinders (by this time only the 16 and 18 ft. Super models) were built by Thompson in St. Charles, Michigan and finally in Swan Creek, Michigan.
In Canada the last Sidewinders were made in the late 1980's and California Glass Marine folded in the early '90's. The last US Sidewinder (the 18SS) appeared in the 1990 Thompson Boat Company brochure. Thompson met its demise in September 2002, when the assets were sold in a liquidation auction.

[rnelems]

My bad,it was Kenny Baker,I had confused him with Gary Ferguson. The mind gets slow with age

[willabee]

I think all that lawsuit stuff was over the patent he had received for the wraparound windshield more than it was for hull design. When those boats came out, they were very popular and a number of companies copied that windshield, including Glastron.

[T2x]

I think all that lawsuit stuff was over the patent he had received for the wraparound windshield more than it was for hull design. When those boats came out, they were very popular and a number of companies copied that windshield, including Glastron.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black......

Sidewinder's hull was "popped" from a Glastron 16 footer.

There were quite a few Sidewinder tunnels....in racing... all hand built and made to order in wood. Bob Van Epps had two of them in the single engine version (14' 8")and I actually drove one on it's first time in the water.... with a 1000 BP. It was the first tunnel I ever drove...in approximately 1967.

Bob did well with them including a memorable qualifying heat duel in the short course Nationals at Smith Mountain Lake that year...against Bucky Morris in the "Wild Geechee"... Bob trimmed the boat to the moon coming down to the finish and won the race by a hair...... at a 45 degree angle to the horizon.

He brought the little devil back down and to my knowledge never actually back flipped that hull or its successor.

There were also a couple of twin engine versions at the same race..... they were sort of a "poor man's Jones" and were quite similar to the more famous and desireable Ron and Ted Jones tunnels......which was interesting in that both came from the West Coast.

T2x

[MN4V]

Here is an old Dell Craft SJJ boat my brother bought from Ron Baker in 1973.
Very similar in the decks, but very different sponsons from the Sidewinder.
Mark N

[willabee]

I didn't know they took it from a Glastron, that's pretty damn funny.


Smith Mountain Lake.....seems like such a long time ago. Big Wally...Hauser,maybe was his last name - anyway, Wally was the man behind that race. Really liked that guy - I think he was driving a McCall with a 1000 BP when I we met - seemed like the totally wrong boat for a man that big.

You and I may have met there in 68 ( that's when the BP's came out ) - I spent alot of time flushing out leaking BP gearcases and making other adjustments for privateers at that race. A couple of them thanked me be giving me my first hit of moonshine after the race. They always used Mercurys big roller clock for scoring - I was the guy that had to set it up.

I remember the name Bob Van Epps, but can't picture the Sidewinder. Didn't Earl Bentz have something to do with Morris and the Geechee?

Something else goofy happened that year. It was something like Kitson had the lead at the end of the 6 hours, but he was having some kind of problem with his Diablo wing. When the gun went off, he drove directly into the pits and put it on the trailer, but he hadn't crossed the finish line. I'm thinking they gave the win to Jim Merten, who ran a 20' Jones that porpoised all the way around the course, all day long.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black......

Sidewinder's hull was "popped" from a Glastron 16 footer.

There were quite a few Sidewinder tunnels....in racing... all hand built and made to order in wood. Bob Van Epps had two of them in the single engine version (14' 8")and I actually drove one on it's first time in the water.... with a 1000 BP. It was the first tunnel I ever drove...in approximately 1967.

Bob did well with them including a memorable qualifying heat duel in the short course Nationals at Smith Mountain Lake that year...against Bucky Morris in the "Wild Geechee"... Bob trimmed the boat to the moon coming down to the finish and won the race by a hair...... at a 45 degree angle to the horizon.

He brought the little devil back down and to my knowledge never actually back flipped that hull or its successor.

There were also a couple of twin engine versions at the same race..... they were sort of a "poor man's Jones" and were quite similar to the more famous and desireable Ron and Ted Jones tunnels......which was interesting in that both came from the West Coast.

T2x

[T2x]

I didn't know they took it from a Glastron, that's pretty damn funny.


Smith Mountain Lake.....seems like such a long time ago. Big Wally...Hauser,maybe was his last name - anyway, Wally was the man behind that race. Really liked that guy - I think he was driving a McCall with a 1000 BP when I we met - seemed like the totally wrong boat for a man that big.

You and I may have met there in 68 ( that's when the BP's came out ) - I spent alot of time flushing out leaking BP gearcases and making other adjustments for privateers at that race. A couple of them thanked me be giving me my first hit of moonshine after the race. They always used Mercurys big roller clock for scoring - I was the guy that had to set it up.

I remember the name Bob Van Epps, but can't picture the Sidewinder. Didn't Earl Bentz have something to do with Morris and the Geechee?

Something else goofy happened that year. It was something like Kitson had the lead at the end of the 6 hours, but he was having some kind of problem with his Diablo wing. When the gun went off, he drove directly into the pits and put it on the trailer, but he hadn't crossed the finish line. I'm thinking they gave the win to Jim Merten, who ran a 20' Jones that porpoised all the way around the course, all day long.

I don't know if Earl and Bucky were teamed up back then..... But they both came from South Carolina...seems to me that Earl didn't arrive on the scene for 3 or 4 more years.

In '68 at Smith Mountain Lake , George Linder and I ran a blue metalflake 16' vee Eltro (the first.. fiberglass Eltro made)....with twin 1250 BP's in SJJ. It delaminated on the starboard side about 1/2 way through the marathon ( not surprising..given it was the first attempt by two wooden boat builders, John Ives and Bob D'argagnon to craft something in glass....eh?)...and made great right turns for the rest of the day. The UU class Wings and Jones tunnels basically ate us for breakfast..but we hung pretty tough with the JJ Switzer vee "huggers".

I remember that Jon Culver was there with a twin engine Jones..... and after an apprehensive couple of laps....dropped out of the race... Cliff Reif (Stamper) owned it, but he had hung up his life jacket and helmet by then.

Kitson's Wing had three engines on it when he arrived...but he wisely stripped off the center motor before the race.

That was the year that Pruett ran a triple stacker Jones.... and wacked two blown powerheads off with a sledgehammer... because he was impatient about the team guys unbolting them...... and putting on fresh ones.

E.C. fired him on the spot...again. But Don went back out on the race course (with fresh powerheads..... one of which he pulled off of a race boat that was simply sitting nearby on a trailer). I was waiting to take a 1 or 2 hour shift (I forget) in the Eltro...when one of the powerheads hit the ground at my feet on the launching ramp..... (Pruett was always knocking things at my feet...powerheads, parts, people he disliked....people he liked..... people he simply cold cocked for fun....etc.)

Years later Billy Don became team manager for Chris Cats and finally for the Lavins in the Jesse James Offshore team..... and we worked very closely together during that period..... but he had lost a lot of steam by then..... Down to one explosion every month or so...rather than twice a day.

Rest in Peace ..big fella.

T2x

[T2x]

I didn't know they took it from a Glastron, that's pretty damn funny.

Please note concave transom and sculpted side detail of Sidewinder...and the original 16 Glastron.

At least Checkmate squared off the transom and sides when they "borrowed" the bottom.....

T2x