Gold Coast Marathon

[FUJIMO]

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.kvek0Sq35cvvktzq7pZLnAHaEH?pid=Api&rs=1

[2us70]

Thank You FUJIMO. I am saving that one in my boat racing stash. I 'll bet Herb used up at least one cigar in that race.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.kvek0Sq35cvvktzq7pZLnAHaEH?pid=Api&rs=1

[GENE LANHAM]

Thank You FUJIMO. I am saving that one in my boat racing stash. I 'll bet Herd used up at least one cigar in that race.
Hey Jim--I'm pretty sure it was 1963

Herb had a great finish in the GCM that year--476380

[FUJIMO]

https://www.screamandfly.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=476380&d=1604341693

[2us70]

I was only aware of Herb running that setup the one time at Key West. The background in that picture is a little out of focus so I cant tell if it is Key West. The motors are black. When I arrived in Key West on the bus before the race started Herb was warming up . My first look at that rig was from the window of the bus with Herb passing us down the straight parallell to the highway. I had recently gotten home from the Army and I didn't have a car yet.

[2us70]

So many familiar names on that list.
https://www.screamandfly.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=476380&d=1604341693

[Tx Guy]

Thanks for posting!

[Lake X Kid]

Typical with something the Gubment does, they got the year wrong. This is the 1962 Gold Coast Marathon. Dave ran the Vee Wing in 63, and I ran Treasures boat. Still a pretty good video..

https://www.screamandfly.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=329412&d=1174877652 https://www.screamandfly.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=329413&d=1174877270

[Lake X Kid]

From 1949 until sometime in the early 1970s, speed boat enthusiasts raced in the Gold Coast Marathon, an unlimited race with as many as 13 classes from the Pelican Harbor Yacht Club at the 79th Street Causeway to West Palm Beach and back the following day. The brainchild of Sam Griffiths, founder of the Pelican Harbor Yacht Club, Griffiths himself was a powerboat racer who won the first Marathon and two others.

Top finishers completed the first 67-mile leg in one hour. The very best drivers in hydroplanes topped 100 miles per hour in the fastest stretches of the race course. In later years, the Marathon moved to the new Miami Marine Stadium amidst safety concerns when scores of small boats entered the race. Toward the end, the Marathon garnered the sanctioning of the prestigious American Power Boating Association.

The long-abandoned Stadium is now in the hands of preservationists who hope to restore the Stadium to its former beauty and style along with educational programming.
per author Bill Crawford - Florida's Big Dig.

1959 Gold Coast Marathon race start.

https://www.screamandfly.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=242441&d=1143406217

[Lake X Kid]

1964 GCM.
Charlie Wolff in George Griley's "Bubblecat".
I borrowed the engines from Phil Young.
They were Merc 700's and were completely frozen just a couple of days before the race.
I got one to turn by pouring oil into it. The other was so frozen I pulled it apart and rebuilt it.
I was working part time for Dade Marine and they had a crankshaft.
I worked all night rebuilding the engine with what ever parts I could dig up.
Without any testing I ran the race and the engines never even coughed!
The boat could only go about 70 MPH at the most. Ran wide open the complete race
and averaged almost the same as the top speed.
Came in about 6th or 7th overall out of around 200 boats.
Not bad for a 22 year old college kid with absolutely no money and a borrowed boat and engines!

https://www.powercatboat.com/race/64_CW01.jpg

[2us70]

!964 was my first Gold Coast. In those days everyone wanted to be in that race. I and many of my friends at the time worked furiously to put something together for this race. I was fortunate to run it to West Palm twice. Still some of the most memorable experiences of my life. It was never the same when they changed the format.

[GENE LANHAM]

!964 was my first Gold Coast. In those days everyone wanted to be in that race. I and many of my friends at the time worked furiously to put something together for this race. I was fortunate to run it to West Palm twice. Still some of the most memorable experiences of my life. It was never the same when they changed the format.

476825

[Bob V]

476831

[GENE LANHAM]

I think what is being failed to be mentioned here..... is the fact that this race was run on the inside of the Intercoastal.

Imagine from Miami to Palm Beach with the wildest and fastest boats of the day long before there were any kind of good navigation or channel marks ..... you get the picture.

Sam Griffith started it and once drove a 3 point hydro in the race.....but as already mentioned before....... the Switzer wings were the class of the event and stand out in everyones memory.

Many drivers who were new to the area, would find themsleves turning into dead end canals at speed and then trying to return safely to the main intercoastal..... while others were going by at full speed.

Many boats sank due to hitting floating coconuts.

WOW!!!

CHARLIE wrote this 12 years ago!!!!

[Tx Guy]

I'm somewhere in this mess in my Sidcraft BU.

[2us70]

And "it seemed perfectly reasonable at the time".

[Lake X Kid]

477256

477257

[FUJIMO]

...the gold rush... https://youtu.be/MMB0dtuoVOA

[Instigator]

Ive seen that great video before.

Thx for posting it.

As a 61 yr old, life long power boat racing fan, I still can’t wrap my head around this race.

These days everyone would be required to have capsules, helicopter manatee patrols and a 45 mph speed limit.
And there’d still be protesters!

I would have raced anything I had just to be a part of that history.

On a much smaller scale, the oval course outlaw races behind the Caribbean Club in Key Largo are also way up on my list.
A 17’ Whaler against a 17’ race tunnel!


...the gold rush... https://youtu.be/MMB0dtuoVOA

[2us70]

I still see Richard Bennett every once in a while. My wife's cousin Hugh Spencer (several time SD champ and record holder) is his brother in-law. I knew the Bennetts very well back in those days.

[Lake X Kid]

Post# 252.

Thank You FUJIMO. I am saving that one in my boat racing stash. I 'll bet Herb used up at least one cigar in that race.

I added some light to the photo, so I could read the boat's number better.

477474

[Lake X Kid]

Post# 82.

You think you know your parents and then one day someone steps up and BAM...questions galore. The Parker 9 hour picture, lead me back to the GCM trophies of Dad's, what a surprise to find what I thought were Outboard trophies were actually inboard class F article to compare with.
247477247478

I added some light to the above photo, so we can read the plague.
Roy Ridgell's F10 first in class, and I also included are some other 1962 GCM boats.

477476

[GrewuponLakeX]

Wow, Devastating to my memories.
All these years I held my Dad up as one of the Good Guys.
Now due to the evidence shown, he's a thief - the man stole a Lady's boat number. And he didn't even do better than 5th.

1962 Mrs. Moesly 888 SeaCraft 5th Overall
1966 Roy Ridgell 888 Molinari 6th Overall

The shame of it all.........

[Lake X Kid]

Regarding post# 70.

I did some calculations on the return trip, West Palm Beach to Miami. The percentages numbers are based on each drivers own competing results. They compare his Sunday’s southbound finish improvement, relative to his Saturday’s northbound run to WPB.

Here are the top 5 drivers whom had the best improvements on their 2nd leg finish.

John Bakos + 1,160 %
Roy Ridgell + 500 %
Geo Skidd + 264 %
Mona Dally + 183 %
Odell Lewis + 175 %

One wonders what these drivers did, to greatly improve on their 2nd leg results, running southbound back to Miami.
Also John, Roy and Odell were running Mercury Lake X factory boats.

https://www.screamandfly.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=247369&d=1322522845

[Lake X Kid]

Is this a Gold Coast Marathon race?
Year?

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/82933002_3405367576201665_19616610289451008_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=2&_nc_sid=e007fa&_nc_ohc=gYID8gZ1t_oAX-INIpn&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.xx&oh=b9161c6e7edebd9611b263713fd75624&oe=5FF8D2D7

[2us70]

I just looked at that picture again. The venue is the Miami Outboard Club on McAthur Causway. I never ran a marathon there and I don't know what race this was. Butch or Gene can probably ID this race.
Is this a Gold Coast Marathon race?
Year?

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/82933002_3405367576201665_19616610289451008_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=2&_nc_sid=e007fa&_nc_ohc=gYID8gZ1t_oAX-INIpn&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.xx&oh=b9161c6e7edebd9611b263713fd75624&oe=5FF8D2D7

[Amberjack1234]

Bobby Erra. What a guy he and Dave Stoller were a lot alike though a few years apart. Patsy Arra theDad was another story and you didn’t mess with Leroy Brown. After Bobby lost part of his hand at Lake maggiore he had my aunt Dottie make him a prosthetic so he could hold a golf club. I remember the Holman moody shop has a kid. Right on the river at eighth Avenue across from Catherine Park’s Place. A lot of history on those two corners. I ran a home in Moody 289 in donzi copy that Pete at P&D built fo us in a couple o marathons atPhyc and in the Miami Key largo race. Later a 427 H&M motor in a California eliminator pic boat ever could catch old Harry Schoell. Along long time ago. Loved watching the GCM start from the 125th causeway as amid starting in the late 50s longago

[Amberjack1234]

Don’t remember a 7 L Hydro running out. But again I don’t remember what year I was just a kid but the old 266 class hydros Of I believe fuzzy furlong and Lou Nuta Used to have some rivalry in the GCM

[FUJIMO]

Regarding post# 70.

I did some calculations on the return trip, West Palm Beach to Miami. The percentages numbers are based on each drivers own competing results. They compare his Sunday’s southbound finish improvement, relative to his Saturday’s northbound run to WPB.

Here are the top 5 drivers whom had the best improvements on their 2nd leg finish.

John Bakos + 1,160 %
Roy Ridgell + 500 %
Geo Skidd + 264 %
Mona Dally + 183 %
Odell Lewis + 175 %

One wonders what these drivers did, to greatly improve on their 2nd leg results, running southbound back to Miami.
Also John, Roy and Odell were running Mercury Lake X factory boats.

https://www.screamandfly.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=247369&d=1322522845
...living on "tidal" waterfront all my life, watching the water go back & forth every day of my life, high tide coming in, then slack tide for 20 minutes or so, then low tide going out...we always pay attention and are aware of this & consider them for many reasons. clean water versus dirty water, stationary bridge height to come & go for the day, what schools of fish will be in front of us, getting to the inlet faster on outgoing tide, and so on. "maybe", just maybe...the tide was in they're favor...who knows. you would be surprised how much tide movement can alter things...

[Amberjack1234]

I think the guys and the Merc Factory boats ran faster on the second leg because they were afraid of Mr. K Putting his foot up there behind in a cigar and someplace worst

[OLEGATOR]

...living on "tidal" waterfront all my life, watching the water go back & forth every day of my life, high tide coming in, then slack tide for 20 minutes or so, then low tide going out...we always pay attention and are aware of this & consider them for many reasons. clean water versus dirty water, stationary bridge height to come & go for the day, what schools of fish will be in front of us, getting to the inlet faster on outgoing tide, and so on. "maybe", just maybe...the tide was in they're favor...who knows. you would be surprised how much tide movement can alter things...

overall winner was a lake x rig. jim stough worked at the lake at this time.

[GENE LANHAM]

overall winner was a lake x rig. jim stough worked at the lake at this time.


This may help clear up the confusion about the GCM and the years?503709

[GENE LANHAM]

Don’t remember a 7 L Hydro running out. But again I don’t remember what year I was just a kid but the old 266 class hydros Of I believe fuzzy furlong and Lou Nuta Used to have some rivalry in the GCM

A City of Miami Firefighter---J D Wooldridge finished third in a 7 Liter in 1966--

503710