Killer Molinari open cockpit tunnel on ebay [Archive] - Scream And Fly Powerboat and High Performance Powerboating Discussion Forums

06-03-2002, 01:03 PM

these two look awful close.

The boat cowlings may have been reconstructed?

Buddy - isn't this your dad?

http://www.helmetgraphics.com/scotti/images/24-stlouis.jpg

06-03-2002, 01:04 PM

The E-bay boat:

http://abacus.sj.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_EBAY_77e56f9fee293b73fa146348d3/i-1.JPG

06-03-2002, 01:12 PM

of course, if the cowlings have been messed with, then it can throw it off...

Here is a Seebold hull of about the same vintage:

http://www.helmetgraphics.com/scotti/images/schubert1.jpg

KG4

06-03-2002, 01:45 PM

I would love to have that boat with a T2X on it.

Raceman

06-03-2002, 03:36 PM

The boat cowls clearly have a Molinari look to em, but I think all the Molinari's of that era were wood boats. The other thing that's unusual is the apparent break between the front and rear cowls going all the way down to the deck. (unless the pictures are foolin' me) I've never seen that characteristic on a tunnel, going all the way back to the old cab over type without pickle forks. That thing's got to be an abortion to run with that old 6 cyl 800 and 3 blade aluminum prop. I'd be real surprised if it'd run over about 45.

Tom Stanley

06-03-2002, 11:11 PM

Looks like it has the Molinari long afterplanes too (Beavertails)

Ron Hill

06-03-2002, 11:18 PM

The cowling looks original to me. This hull was new about the Earl Bentz era of Mercury Racing.. about the time Rick Keller tried to get AMRA going... Rick didn't like the low cowlings...Old St. Louis pictures should have this boat...about 1980...

T2x

06-04-2002, 09:27 PM

Ron:

My guess is older...........probably 1976-77....a Paris boat...by 1979 Molinari only built OMC boats with a slightly different cowl shape.........I drove a 73 with the afterplanes and a 76....... the 73 had a higher nose (before breakaway steering).

T2x

T2x

06-04-2002, 09:34 PM

Come to think of it , I drove a total of 6 Moli's with afterplanes.... 3 sprint, 3 marathon........one of them had the port sponson tapered outboard at the front ......so when you dropped the bow it turned left all by itself..........it was a Reggie thing..........needless to say we "fixed" that in a hurry........... The deadrise on this one is tough to see..but looks rather deep....... hence my Paris conclusion..........

T2x

Ron Hill

06-04-2002, 11:47 PM

I'm tending to agree with you on all points... What year (s) did Rick Keller's AMRA conduct races???

I'm sure this is the cowling for this boat, usually Paris Boats had more fuel, thus larger tail cowling....but the sponsons do look deep, but weren't all the early V-6 boats deep tunnels....?

I just looked at helmet Guru's web page..looks like the same Molinari, 1975, class OZ... Billy Seebold at the wheel... check it out.. (Under OUT OPC Pictures, in history)...

06-05-2002, 08:49 AM

When I lived in Abilene Texas a couple years ago, Alan Thompson had a red Molinari sitting in his yard. I believe he got it at Alan Yaw's estate sale. I heard that Yaw had quite a few racing goodies he kept all those years.

It sat at Thompson's for a few years - I never got to see it close up. But when Thompson sold his Thompson Marine and moved to Georgetown Texas about 2000, someone from up north bought the Molinari and took it away.

I'm wondering if this is the same boat?

Tom Stanley

06-06-2002, 12:22 AM

Could also be a Hering (Bob Hering). It has the Montana (Gene Hedman) trim button system, and there were a couple of Herings there. There was also a Hering owned by Jeff Amik who lived close to Moses Lake. The back cowl doesn't quite look like a Hering though. My old Molinari that I got third hand in 79 had the long afterplanes but still had the high cowl, and aluminum between the cockpit and the sponsons at the front.

There was only one Molinari in the Northwest that had the low back cowling and it was destroyed in a flip.

06-06-2002, 08:48 AM

I bought a big 18' Cougar Cat in 1982 from a dealer in Denver. The nose and rear cowlings had been destroyed, so the owner built his own -- they were boxy, and the nose was a triangle shape -- so it didn't really look like a Cougar anymore.

But it still had the arrows painted on the decks. I wondered whose boat this was. But I was told it was one of twin enduro boats built for one team. & that they each had arrows pointing forward down the sponson decks.

Perhaps this boat above had aftermarket cowlings added too?

T2x

06-09-2002, 08:32 PM

No way it's a Hering......... Herings broke downward at the sponsons (deck canted down at a 35 degree angle or so....they had no fins coming off the aft shear either...... This is definitely a Molinari or a close copy...............

BK:............ it's not a Cougar either. By the way did you buy a Cougar or a Bunky Bowerman copy?

T2x

06-09-2002, 09:56 PM

I knew it wasnt a Cougar, just making note of how home-made cowlings can be added after the originals get damaged.

The Cougar I had came from Vaughn Peters who ran OMC's out of Lakewood (Denver) Colorado. I dont know who he got the Cougar from, but he said it was built for marathon races such as the Havasu Classic.

When I took it to Arizona, I was told that this boat was the twin to another hull out of California. But I never knew who's it was.

Would like to find out some day.