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1outboard
10-31-2002, 10:59 PM
FT lauterdale 1991 :D

Outboards Unlimited
11-11-2002, 12:12 PM
Have you ever heard of a Vision Craft? It dominated Mod VP for about 2 years with Rickey Comer , and Rusty Cambell was right on his tail.

Rusrog
11-11-2002, 12:32 PM
Ricky Comer was from Georgetown Tx. and raced a Seebold Eagle before building the Vision Craft. I had heard that after Ricky's death, the molds were bought by Allison. Also Danny Kendrick (I think) ended up building a boat that was based off of a Vision Craft with some mods. Vision Crafts were good rough water boats.

Russ Rogers
Ft Worth TX.

Outboards Unlimited
11-12-2002, 10:48 AM
Wow! You are up on the Vision. This might interest you. My father and Rickey were very close freinds back in Levelland, and stayed freinds when Rickey moved to Georgtown. When Rickey sold the Black eagle it sold to a guy in levelland and then to my dad. When rickey was prototyping his vision my dad was their to watch it run. I was about 10 years old in Rickeys shop when he was showing my dad and I about the new resin he was using in the visions. He also showed how the two he was building for him self were not all glass but used Kevlar and Carbon fiber cross woven for super strength. The first boat was doing very well when Rickey and Rusty Cambell started Bumping in tight corners. Rickey decided to build a second vision that could withstant this abuse. He ran it some and then sold it to a guy in levelland for drag racing . On the madin race they were testing it and Rickey took her for a spin, he most likely had a seizure at about 105 mph and lost conciousness allowing a violent blow over which resulted in his death. My dad along with the guy from levelland ( Andy), and a couple of others jumped in to a boat to resque him. My dad cut the straps in the capsule to get Rickey out of the boat but he could not be revived. After Rickeys funeral in Levelland their was talk that the vision was going to be burned, so we made a deal with the owner to buy it. We now own the second of seven visions , we cut the capsule out and built a top deck similar to a merage. it is more of a in memory of Rickey than look at my fast boat type thing. I am glat to meet you, and hope to talk with you some more.
Jeff

gemini
11-12-2002, 08:19 PM
Rickey took the original Mod VP Seebold and worked it over and over till he got it right with Mercury power. Seems like he got fast during his relationship with Glen Reynolds and Reynolds got the molds later. As I recall he was killed testing a friends boat with the heavier OMC and just lost it. My lake house was about a mile from the race site and we had just gone to watch the testing when he went over.

Outboards Unlimited
11-13-2002, 11:05 AM
Your right about glen getting the molds, and I think Kindrick has some stuff too. I am not sure but I am thinking he took the bottom off of his seabold that he liked so well ( pre- capsule) and worked it, then made a top cap with a LOWERED capsule in it from either a mirage or a seabold. It sure did work good. The freind is the guy from Levelland that is a good freind of the family named Andy. He had a HOSS of an omc on the vision, and Rickey had driven a vision with an Omc on it previously. With the amount of seat time that Rickey had in a Vision I find it too hard to beleive that he just lost it. They say , and you may remember that it got high, then kindof settled back down, got really high again, , stayed their for about a second and then finally went over in a pretty nasty landing. It sounds like he would have had every opurtunity to get it down, and that is one reason I and most everyone else thinks he was un contious. He also had a record of previous sizures in the past. The boat that went over has the same omc in it today, and is super forgiving and easy to drive,, I dont see how it got so high. Thanks for the input, I hope to talk with you soon.
Jeff Renegar
Levelland Texas

BK
11-15-2002, 01:53 PM
The owner of the Vision Craft that blew over was at the Mirage Boat factory just before the acccident. He was asking for suggestions on some handling problems he was having with it and the big OMC.

When he got to Cedar Creek, Ricky drove it for him to see if he could help figure out the set-up problem and why it was acting erratic. Since we had lost Red Hindman just months prior to this, and Red and Ricky were close friends, Ricky had all the safety gear, & I feel certain he also owned a set of helmet restraints at that time.

But - Ricky didnt bring this safety stuff with him to Cedar Creek because he had planned to only be there as a spectator. (Drag race) So, he borrowed someone else's safety gear to make the test runs.

We arrived just after the accident happened, and people were telling us to clear the road for rescue workers to get thru. By the time we parked and got to the shore, (about 3 minutes) the boat was still upsidedown with Ricky still in it! Then watched in horror as spectators dove in to try and help. Since this was a test session before the race, I dont think the real rescue team was on the water yet. (This was over 10 years ago - safety rules on rescue and testing have changed a lot since then).

I do know that he was underwater for a very long time -- I cried and cried. :(

When they finally did get him out and bring him to shore, he was going into cardiac arrest, I saw his legs flailing. Ro and Charlie stayed beside me or I would have lost it. These are things you never want to witness, because they stay with you forever. :(

I was told that he died from the same thing Red died from -- a spinal or brain stem injury caused by the crash impact, and not from drowning like many had assumed at the time.

But if this isn't true, I'd sure like to know what really did happen, just for peace of mind. I didn't see the crash, so can't comment, but what stories I heard agree with yours: The boat was acting erratic before the blow over.

Thanks for the info, Jeff.

BK

Outboards Unlimited
11-18-2002, 11:16 AM
Ya Ricky was wearing a helmet without the restraints and it was too big for him,,, slightly. We never wore restraints because we were just drag racing and that was safe,, right. Any way that has all changed now,, and that is good. I thought that the boat was actually getting dialed in pretty well because most of the kinks were worked out of the vision with a Johnny looper with Mike W. in the year prior. I will have to ask Andy about going to Mirage with his problem and see what kind of problem the boat was having,, but it will be a long time because we dont really talk about that day much in Levelland. My dad knew Red pretty well, and I knew him when I was pretty young. I still remember the day he died and the phone call my dad got that night. I am 99.9% sure that Ricky died of nervouse system damage and not drowning just like you. I forget what the actual corronors report was. That boat was built super strong and when it went over they sayed that it would hit, then reverse direction and hit and spin and tumble etc etc,, not crumble like champ boats and other light weight composite boats do now. I think that the massive G force just stressed his neck way too much, so much that the helmet came off and was floating a ways from the boat. I cant really make my self talk about him much more right now, and I bet you dont wanna hear much more today so I think I will say bye. Please wright me back and we can remember Ricky and the vision later. Jeff Renegar