Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[Old fiberglass]

Great story...but your teasing us stopping in the middle of it.

[lilabner]

[quote=willabee;1598616]Peacock's wife at the time was Meg. I used to call her Megaphone, because she was always talking.....she was a "Knockout" .

Meg grew up next door to me, had an older sister who was a knockout also.. The boys in the neighborhood never wanted Meg around..She was kind of pudgy, bossy, and talked too much, much like Lucy in Peanuts..we used to run her off when she wanted to play with us..we also ran off Silvia Hitchcock, who later was Miss Universe..We weren't too bright at the time, and didn't know about those "things" yet..Meg certainly grew up a knockout, and last I heard was married to Chick Gagen..When I left for the Marines in 64, Gary was going with a girl named Linda..

Butch

(the Neighborhood Inquirer)

[BrianSmith]

Great story so far Jackie..................get some of that warm beer inya and keep going!
What happened with the Miles version?

Any Pics?

[jackie wilson]

Great story so far Jackie..................get some of that warm beer inya and keep going!
What happened with the Miles version?

Any Pics?

Willabee has the pics of Venus, you have to ask him, [on a good day, like the 4th july 1970, you know how cranky he can get].
Bill ran the boat in Amsterdam and true to form, tried to take John Hill up the inside, took him out and sank both boats. He decided to build a more durable boat with detachable sponsons, out of aluminium, so that when he hit somebody it would not damage himself. The boat had a million rivets in it and Bill was known ever after as --BILLY TWO RIVETS. The boat was a dog and is not really worth another mention, except to say he ran into me at the Windermere Record attempts, put my Hodges at the bottom of the lake and wiped out the aluminium THING for all time. That boat would head the all time UGLY BOAT list.

[jackie wilson]

Great story...but your teasing us stopping in the middle of it.

Not really teasing old chap, just worried you guys would get tired off all these tales. I do tend to ramble a bit 'bout "the old times"and forget the sport is alive today, but not in very good health. My son carried on the tradition with tunnels, but my grandson has gone offshore.

Back to Amsterdam-----------came round on lap 1, 5 secs in front of Molinari and the pack and sat in this armchair which was a dream to drive, Started to lap boats on the second lap and continued to do so for the next hour,life is just so good-----then it started ----just a faint misfire at first and then a cough and then a power loss then boats started to come by. As i went past the pits with my palms raised [standard call for what the hells the matter with the bloody thing] i saw my Mechanic Chas Shooter raise his palms in the air,[ standard reply for "how the hell should i know"] Came into the pits and Chas says whats up?? i cannot in all honesty tell you the reply !!!!!
I yelled maybe were out of gas , he said we got tons of gas, so i yelled well take some out. We better get the boat out of the water she's leaking !!!!!
That did it, i chucked my helmet on the ground and went back to the camper to sleep. What seemed like hours after, my eldest daughter Sandra came and woke me up with " Dad, Chas says the boats in the water and the race starts in 5 mins, he repaired the hole and fixed the hose which had been spraying the electrics, so move your butt".
At this point i should tell you that The Three Hours Of Amsterdam is made up of 2 by one and a half hour heats and i had missed 20 mins of the first heat.
Heat 2 started pretty much the same as the first, i came up to lap Bill Brown and decided to hose him down a little, [ he was leading overall at this time] Carrie on enjoying life, and came up behind Bill again, he decided to take John Hill [E class 650 MERC] who always drove a very tight course, on the inside, total wipeout on the top turn, Race leader down, Tom and Bob in the new T3's stopped, that just left Hans Pelster in an OMC to worry about, .
Lapped him a couple more times and 5 mins from the end the engine started to cough again, the exhaust manifold had cracked and the heat had melted the fuel line and we had a little problem, Pelster pulled alongside so i waved him down and motioned for him to get behind me , which he did, we slowed to some 60mph which was all i could get out of the boat and crossed the finish line. That was the greatest con i ever pulled in my life.

Went back to England on the Monday, had my first heart attack on the Tuesday-------I was 44 years old.

[Old fiberglass]

Great story.....who says you can't tell'm like Willabee

How many boats in your career ended on the bottom ?? The way you tell it a lot of racers lost their boats....think a few fist fights might have broken out over issues like that.

Sounds like you survived your heart attack just fine...no ??

[jackie wilson]

NOBODY can tell 'em like Willabee, you have to be Born cranky, unsociable, miserable, argumentative and just plain 'ORNERY to tell'em the way he does.
Only one boat ever went to the bottom,that was when i got speared by the ALLOY ORRER on Windermere, My son spent a week diving for it and eventually found it 150' down. brought it back in bits but the boat and engine were beyond repair.
Funny, but nobody dwells on the upsets and fracas that broke out occasionally, even Renato still speaks to my son Mark even though he threatened him with a slow and painful demise after a particularly dastardly piece of driving in the Dolomites at a place called AURONZO. It was all fairly civilised , and we all drank together in the evenings and lived to fight another day.
The heart attack was fairly difficult to get over as we had strict medicals to get a super licence. My doctor was a family friend and could not be swayed from giving me a lousy report. Had to get my friendly printer who had all the latest technology & kit. He doctored the report and i got my licence OK.
Suffered angina till 1989 and then had a triple by-pass. [20 years ago last week] had a couple of scares along the way, but only the good-------------------------y'all know that stuff, i'm sure. Fit and well with 11 grandkids, and 5 great grandsons, a very understanding wife who makes sure i keep taking the tablets.
I rabbit on like this 'cos i have been barred from my workshop, and am not allowed to use any machines of any kind until a month after the next op which is on the 25th March. So could be boring you all to death with my old tales.

[Old fiberglass]

a very understanding wife

Humm, I bet that is an understatement.

So could be boring you all to death with my old tales.

Just the opposite..... Glad to hear your doing well after your health issues. I think you might have scared Willabee off....

Heard a first hand story where I think it was "Renato" cut Bob Massey off. This caused him to trip his boat in the corner flipping it. Bob's friends had to hold him back during the awards ceremony......he wasn't too happy about it.

[willabee]

WILLABEE HAS SOME PICTURES OF THE RIG, BUT IF THERE'S HALF A CHANCE YOU CAN RECOGNISE IT'S ME DRIVING ------HE WON'T SHOW YOU...... WILL PROBABLY SHOW YOU THE BOAT WITH THE DRIVER HIDDEN.

Here's one of my favorites, the story goes somethin' like this.....

A ceiling light went out in Jackie's shop. He positioned a step ladder under it, climbed a couple of steps and reached up to get a firm grip on the bulb. He then proceeded to carefully step in circles on the ladder to unscrew the bulb (remember, this is the same lad that put the big boat above the little boat on the trailer)! Suddenly. he became quite dizzy and tumbled the eighteen inches to the ground.

The result of this event was that Jackie developed a slight fear of height. That is one of the reasons that you don't see pictures of him really hanging a race boat, he didn't want to get too high. That also explains the photo below. The boat builder wanted a PR shot of Jackie with his new hull. The boat was sitting on the floor and Jackie would have to climb up on the deck for the photo. He didn't want to disappoint the builder, but he really didn't want to climb that high either. Always the quick thinker, Jackie found a way to allow the picture to happen while protecting his "pretty boy" noggin from a possible tumble from that staggering height!

You have to love the 1970's Wooly Bully under his nose.....also posted the trailer shot just in case some of you missed it the first time.

[jackie wilson]

OK. Widow cranky !!!!!! Tell me a better way to change a light bulb.
There were MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES as to why the boats were stacked that way. The end result was they came across the alps in the middle of winter and all three boats were delivered to England in perfect condition. Nothing ever stopped J.R. when he was on a mission.
Let me tell you Miss Misery, i could have flown Spitfires with that "WOOLY BULLY"-----------don't tell me you shaved off that bum fluff you sported for so many years. You know---the Errol Flynn lookalike bit.

[jackie wilson]

tell you what, all you guys out there have towed boats and built trailers for them------i wonder if any of you have sussed the reason why the boats were stacked like that. The kit i had to get the 3 boats back were a 15cwt, van, with a fair roof and a 2 wheel 1600lb trailer------------look at the picture and think about it and i am sure anybody who ever put a boat on a trailer can see the logic . EXCEPT UNO WHOOOO.

[willabee]

.....i could have flown Spitfires with that "WOOLY BULLY"-----------don't tell me you shaved off that bum fluff you sported for so many years. You know---the Errol Flynn lookalike bit.

I did once and my wife and kids, almost in shock, asked what happened to my lip. Then they started laughing so hard I thought they were going to hurt themselves.....grew it right back. With the exception of the blowhole the doc put in my neck, I look just as I did in the 70's.....a spectacularly handsome lad, mustache and all.

[jackie wilson]

That's my boy----Mr Modesto------The Hershey Bar Kid-------1970 in a Merc Shirt----You wuz never a lad and neither were you handsome----there must have been something about you i liked------but i'm damned if i can remember what it was ,

[Old fiberglass]

You guys are a hoot. Jackie will be able to sleep better now that he can have a picture of Bill on his night stand

What is a Corvair van doing in Europe ?? Front of it can be seen in one of the pictures.

[willabee]

tell you what, all you guys out there have towed boats ------i wonder if any of you have sussed the reason why the boats were stacked like that. ------------look at the picture and think about it and i am sure anybody who ever put a boat on a trailer can see the logic . EXCEPT UNO WHOOOO.

I can only imagine what this package would have looked like if Jackie had been responsible for getting it ready to head for Havasu. But with the Wing stacked backwards on top of the truck, I bet it would have scared the living sh-t out of a bunch of people driving down the highway!