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Renato's 69 Havasu Twin - flipped.....
When you look at the photo below, you can see that this boat was named Miss Titti. Although it doesn't look like it, that name is pronunced "teetee". It was the name of Renato's girlfriend at that time and he was generally quick to correct an American that he overheard mispronounce her name. There were the usual smirks and such from competitors as they stopped to look at this boat in the pits (because of the name), but those sarcastic grins faded quickly when they saw that thing on the water :cool:.
On one of the trips for the European races, we stayed at the Villa d'Este on Lake Como while we were working on the boats at his shop. One evening Renato, Titti, Georgio and a couple others came to our hotel and we meet in the lounge. A neat place, pretty much Americanized in terms of decor and music. At some point that evening, after I had consumed a six-pack of backbone, the DJ played T Rex"s Bang A Gong.....a good fast dance number. I asked Ms. Titti if she wanted to trip the light fantastic with me on the dance floor. She looked at Renato to see if it would be okay, he smiled at her and wiggled his shoulders as if to say "let it all hang out" . We were out there lookin' like John Travolta & Uma Thurman :D and when we finished I reluctantly returned her to Renato. He had this huge grin on his mug as he leaned over and whispered "As a dancer, you make a great boat rigger!".....remember, on the previous post I told you what he thought of my boat rigging skills :o .
From Gene Lanham's collection, here are a couple more shots of the boat before and after the flip. I also added a shot of the Villa d'Este, at the time I think it was ranked one of the ten most beautiful hotels in the world.....these days, a Lake view room runs around $1700 per day :eek:.
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Renato's 69 Havasu Twin.....
One other thing I'd like to mention is that if Renato doesn't flip that boat, I suspect that the outcome of the race would have been different. I say that because Cesare Scotti won driving a twin Molinari, a new boat, but the old style. This green entry was the first radical change in design that Renato had made on his twins since the style used by Glastron/Molinari.....the same as Sirios used at this race and very similar to Scotti's twin. I think this boat was the first reverse S that Molinari built and think he needed more testing time before trying to run it flat out. I recall that Merten needed quite a bit of test time to get the reverse S that he ran at Havasu in 1970 balanced. Those boats needed to run flatter in the nose like the photo below. When they got their nose up like the boats in the other two pictures, they became kites :eek:.
Since Renato knows exactly what Scotti is going to be driving at Havasu, it's a good bet that he built something that ran over as much water and was faster for his entry. After this green twin, he built another reverse S. Although fast, that boat also proved to be a little testy to run and he then built the engines over sponsons twin. That thing seemed to run over any water and was faster than it's predecessors. During this time frame he also built some multi engine boats for his use that never came to the States. I do remember one was a triple and was the reverse S design.....we ran it at Paris with a single C6 sitting on the transom.
Here are shots of the original twin design, the reverse S that won Havasu in 1971 and the engines over sponsons twins.....I think it was Mark75H that posted a really good explaination of the reverse S concept. I can't find it and thought maybe he wouldn't mind posting it again :cool:.
Engine over sponson Molinaris
I can attest that these were awesome boats. After the original Glastron we had (sold to Paul Fingold), it was a joy to drive. I guess part of it was that the Glastron rode so high it was scary to look down at the water!
A far superior design.
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From Lanham's Closet.....
I'm thinking that in 1969, there were six 9x22 Jones boats on the race circuit. Two triples with engines in the tunnel, two triples with engines spread and two sterndrives. Billy Don Pruett drove one of the engines in the tunnel, Triple Trouble, to win the Elsinore 500 and I don't remember that boat ever coming back to Oshkosh. The other was owned by Lou Burnette and he kept his quite a while.....it first ran Mercurys, then OMCs and then he converted it to a KT with the package we had developed with the Gary Peacock Molinari in 1973.
The photo below of #39 is from the Parker 9 Hour, 1970. Based on how many triples I think were out there, this might be that rascal Renato Switzer Jones (you know, the great tunnel drivin'.........), but my guess is that this shot is Bob Massey in what was Pruett's Triple Trouble. Bob blew over and hurt himself pretty badly during that race. He recovered, but I believe the accident had some lingering effects :(.
I was talking to Lanham about the number of 9x22 Jones boats around back then and he said that I had forgotten about the one with four (4) engines in the tunnel! I told him that no such boat ever existed and he told me I was wrong.....again :o. He claimed not only to have tested it, but that he also "snuck" a picture of it (top secret project of course) while he was driving! I said I'd believe it when I saw "the Picture".....this is what he sent :D.
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From Lanham's Closet.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by
2us70
I recall John McCall building a twin engine " Molinari" looking boat back in about 1969. I got the idea that it was ordered by the "Factory" and Jeff Titus was to be one of the drivers. Never saw it run or heard of it after that. What was the story on that boat?
Gene sent some more cool stuff this week and included is this shot of the 21' McCall twin, the Molinari copy we were talking about :cool:. This is Havasu 69 with Jeff Titus driving.....apparently, this was it's first race, not Parker 1970.
He also sent this shot of a "Mystery Twin", also from Havasu 1969.....he was wondering if this might be the wood Dutchman prototype Old fiberglass has been talking about. I don't know what it is, what do you guys think?......kind of DeSilva looking
Looking over the top of Big Job McCall, I see four Switzer Wings. It looks like two are the 20' models and without looking this up, I think this was their first race....I think the yellowish 20' furthest from the camera is the boat Bob Switzer brought to race, but he got hit on the start and never went anywhere.
Note the Ride-Guide steering on both the McCall and the 18' Glastron/Molinari next to it :).
