Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

Now That is WICKED----some sort of nobody wouldn't you say Gary, makes my OBE/s look most insignificant ( own bloody efforts).

May have to call on your services once we start " The Cosworth " project.

maybe you can show us the progress of the shed and shop.

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Thanks Jackie. Much appreciated.

The nobody comment was in reference to the racing history that you and your mates (my heros) post about, and allowing us, average citizens to post.

Cosworth project? I'm in. Always thought an up to date power plant and a good outdrive would be fun in the proper tunnel boat. We know it's been done in the past. Some with success ;)

A friend of mine is driving 1000 miles to help build my garage.
Material arrives Tuesday, he arrives Thursday and we start swinging hammers Friday. I am a senior laminator at Piper Aircraft and work 10 hr days so we'll see how this old man holds up ;)

Before:

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps3055d66d.jpg

After:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...psf0def2f2.jpg

Keep the posts coming Jackie! I always read this thread to see what you are up to in the shop. I grew up poring over the magazines that had race coverage. The Merc guys were my heroes on the race course and James Hunt on the F1 circuit. It is great to be able to "talk" with some of the team.
Dave

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Originally Posted by CNC_Guy

Keep the posts coming Jackie! I always read this thread to see what you are up to in the shop. I grew up poring over the magazines that had race coverage. The Merc guys were my heroes on the race course and James Hunt on the F1 circuit. It is great to be able to "talk" with some of the team.
Dave

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Most wonderful bunch of individuals I ever met were part of the Mercury "family", not just the drivers, but everyone employed and nearly employed and it all started with a mighty confrontation in the pits at the Paris six hours.
Pit space was very limited and each country had an allocated space on a barge that was moored to the bank, OMC and Mercury actually got up at crack-o-sparrow and hogged the whole barge with lifting cranes and fuel rigs.As you can imagine the Europeans were not much thrilled by these tactics, so we had a face to face stand off----------still laugh like a drain when I remember Shakey Bill ( all five foot nothing) sticking his chin into Sirois ( six foot + ) and telling him to get the hell off our barge.
Weather took a turn for the worse and it started to bucket down, so discretion being the better part of valour we moved fifty metres upstream under a bridge and out of the rain and ran our race from there.
Many friendships were formed that day and I was lucky enough to be part of it, later when Mercury financed the Torriggia project I was already well known and had a toe hold, so I got to meet all the Mercury gang from top management to drivers, mechanics and crew, hells teeth I used to cook them all breakfast at lake Como after they got tired of Italian style eggs.
There I go ,rambling and reminiscing again, time to get up and get a haircut, lucky that Jilly had her own hairdresser shop for twenty years, so I get a haircut and beard trim for free once a fortnight .
If you can call keeping a very expensive woman in the lap of luxury and comfort FREE. Whoops, maybe I shouldn't have said that!!!

Attachment 296200Attachment 296201Hellu
va friend that will drive 1,000 miles to help you build a garage, you don't get many of those to the £.
give us a day to day, blow by blow account of the project-----looking forward to seeing lots of posts
Played about with the high hopes piece, inserted different kinds a wood, had the bear looking through an ice hole, ( you heard it right the first time).
Its coming, but is still way off where it's going to finish up.

Had the beard trim and haircut earlier today, now got a tiny goatee, would look great on any cigar box.
No pictures today, started with the nearly piece and decided to do a bunch of windsurfers rounding a marker buoy ----the board and sails have to be cut out of solid so it's a lengthy process, doing four of 'em rounding the marker. Was going to nail the boards straight on the base but it's a no brainer, they have to be mounted individually to look half right. Will show them tomorrow.
That is one mother of a slab Gary, maybe I'll get to see it later this year.
Should give you all the room you want to work magic and create whatever.

Went to collect the box to put the guitar into despatch to Canada, girl behind the counter asked why I would want a GPO box when it would be far better to just bubble wrap it and cover in brown paper.
that's how it's being shipped, so look out for it Don.
Got every last leaf out of the pool, trouble is ----it's a bracing 14 degrees, can't see there being a queue to be the first to dive in over the weekend. tBC. J.

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

trouble is ----it's a bracing 14 degrees, can't see there being a queue to be the first to dive in over the weekend.

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Thats celsius right?
So remembering my many, many Canadian trips....., double the 14 = 28, add 25 and you're expecting 53 farenheit???

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Originally Posted by Instigator

Thats celsius right?
So remembering my many, many Canadian trips....., double the 14 = 28, add 25 and you're expecting 53 farenheit???

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Always thought you added 32-----that being the turning point, what do I know, last school was 66years back!,!
Sounds about right, whichever way you want to cut it, it's still nipple hardening cold and only for the foolish or the brave. There's hope however, had wall to wall sunshine today and at sundown temp had risen to 16 degrees------only another 14 to go before I'm tempted.l Maybe a quick dip the last week in August if we have a good summer, talk more tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by Instigator

Thats celsius right?
So remembering my many, many Canadian trips....., double the 14 = 28, add 25 and you're expecting 53 farenheit???

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Pretty close, Instigator - 57 F.
I've heard a similar tip, double the C temp, then add 32 to get Fahrenheit ... they both are close, but within a few degrees depending on which end of the scale you are on. Still a bit chilly, whatever the number is!

Did you ever get to watch a Canadian boat race while in the country?

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Originally Posted by Watermark

Pretty close, Instigator - 57 F.
I've heard a similar tip, double the C temp, then add 32 to get Fahrenheit ... they both are close, but within a few degrees depending on which end of the scale you are on. Still a bit chilly, whatever the number is!

Did you ever get to watch a Canadian boat race while in the country?

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You mean me or Gary ?
when I did Valleyfield in '76 went to Toronto and watched the Unlimiteds, fruit and nut racing that was----real heart attack stuff.
Thats it for tonight---I'm bushed.

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

You mean me or Gary ?
when I did Valleyfield in '76 went to Toronto and watched the Unlimiteds, fruit and nut racing that was----real heart attack stuff.
Thats it for tonight---I'm bushed.

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That was mean for Gary, Jackie... Both replying at the same time.

I do however remember meeting you in Valleyfield. I was running Mod 100 ... you had to go up against the Inboards.. There was a mention of us in Powerboat Magazine that year... You were part of the Molson Invitational Grand Prix in what they called your "British Mercury powered tunnel hull"... see second paragraph.

Attachment 296228

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Originally Posted by Watermark

Did you ever get to watch a Canadian boat race while in the country?

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I did not.
I do have a autographed (to one of my Canadian friends, Sean Goodman), framed 8" x 10" of you in my shop though.

Mark, when I was still Lake Erie boating, my favorite get away was Pelee Island which was in the Canadian water of Lake Erie. Back in the day, I was one of very few Yank's that made the trip due to the distance from U.S. dirt and that lake educating you on your boat handling abilities ;)

Side bar to Jackie......, 15 miles (you'll have to do the math to kilometers.....,24??) straight north of that island was a port/city named Leamington (Ontario) that had a killer harbor. They used to have a party called Pirate Fest.
I made it there a few times and high light was Black Beards court. You could accuse any of your crew of anything you wanted and then it was voted on by Black Beards court which was all us drunk people :)
I accused my first mate of letting my beer get warm.
She was found (unanimously) guilty by the court and forced to walk the plank in front of everyone!
I had a little tip ahead of time that EVERYONE was ALWAYS found guilty!

Always loved Canada and it's people.

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Originally Posted by Instigator

Mark, when I was still Lake Erie boating, my favorite get away was Pelee Island which was in the Canadian water of Lake Erie. Back in the day, I was one of very few Yank's that made the trip due to the distance from U.S. dirt and that lake educating you on your boat handling abilities ;)

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My wife still owes me a trip to Pelee Island for a wine-tasting weekend. That was to be a birthday present one spring...we were all set to go and the ferry service union went on strike. Yes, Lake Erie is a tough one... "stuffing" water, to say the least. By the way, Sean and I talk and get together regularly - another boat nut, through and through.

On the Florida front, we used to take family vacations on Hutchinson Island - leased a condo for 15 years or more.. loved the place. Hope to return to that area one day soon..

Best of luck with that garage, Gary.. I have an older one up north, but right now the floor is covered in 3" of ice from all of the snow that's melting faster than it can be absorbed.

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Originally Posted by Watermark

My wife still owes me a trip to Pelee Island for a wine-tasting weekend. That was to be a birthday present one spring...we were all set to go and the ferry service union went on strike. Yes, Lake Erie is a tough one... "stuffing" water, to say the least. By the way, Sean and I talk and get together regularly - another boat nut, through and through.

On the Florida front, we used to take family vacations on Hutchinson Island - leased a condo for 15 years or more.. loved the place. Hope to return to that area one day soon..

Best of luck with that garage, Gary.. I have an older one up north, but right now the floor is covered in 3" of ice from all of the snow that's melting faster than it can be absorbed.

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Just goes to show what a small world this is, you and I first meet 45 years ago in Valleyfield, you get my little sprint Molly-----you go to Hutchinson Island (probably before the advent of million $+ pads) seebold keeps his boat there, Mike lives there, I go down to Naples regularly -----half the surviving boat racers seem to reside in Florida anyway, even swedes migrate to that neck of the woods-------and if an Englishman has a few bob going begging, he invests it in Florida.
Youngest daughter Sam also has a pad in Stuart, and no1 son resides there permanently .
As I said-----SMALL WORLD AINT IT.?? Suns shining bright here, have a nice day y,all. J.

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Originally Posted by Watermark

My wife still owes me a trip to Pelee Island for a wine-tasting weekend. That was to be a birthday present one spring...we were all set to go and the ferry service union went on strike.

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If you like quiet and nature, you will love Pelee.
While I was still in Ohio, I broke more junk getting to that island than I care to remember. It was my get away.
Most of my Yank friends stopped at the islands that were only 3 mls from the ramp. I found that it took me the additional miles and effort of getting to Pelee to forget my worries of the work week.

On the ferry service there......, it is the support of the island. That island has a long, challenged past w/them. They are in design stages for a new one and just like the last one, the locals are fighting w/the government over what it should be. The last one (the Jiimaan) , though still in use, has been a disaster. So tall that it's stranded often due to heavy wind.

One early spring weekend, many yrs ago, we were in the old Sonic taking my labs ashes to spread on his favorite beach (Fish point) when we popped a powerhead on one motor and hit a shoal w/the other one. We hit the shoal due to zero visibility fog and there being a Walleye tournament going on where we could hear the boats blowing past even though we couldn't see them! I was hugging the shore line around Pelee and even though we were following previous tracks on my GPS I didn't account for the additional draft of being displacement speed on/one motor.
Told the girlfriend (at that time) that we'd go the rest of the way in so at least we could start the season by partying w/the locals.
The Jiimaan was down most of the previous season while they sourced a replacement for one it's engines. That strangled many of the local businesses who now had no supplies for their short season.
Turns out, they got the wrong rotation motor so the ferry was still down! So we arrived to their dock for a weekend of fun, after a day of hell to find that we were the only one on the island!

Always liked this picture from that day. I don't think it ever hit 50. Fahrenheit ;)

PS, Seans a great guy. Ask him about that picture. I bet he will remember when/where he gave it to me ;)

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...udderinfog.jpg

Mark, did you ever come across a character called Jim Thompson from Valleyfield ???
He took us out for a meal one evening, the restaurant was on an island several miles up the seaway, was real nice evening when we took off in his little tub with a cuddy and an oversized outboard, marvellous trip up there-------different story coming back------mountainous water, fog, rissing down with pain and he thinks he's Aronow !!!
Took an hour to get there----and all night to get back----got back to Valleyfield at 4am, where he immediately took us to a diner for breakfast.
Could write a few chapters on that trip-----including how the guys from Lake George fed us coke cookies and Flashmans and the Mayors wife tried 'em and finished up starkers in the pool with my mechanic Chas. Doesn't bear thinking about when your sober, resulted in my ex jumping on the first plane back to London ------it was 76 for crying out loud and the Olympics were on in Montreal and we were living the life. Ah well, that was one lifetime ago-----is till two more to go.!!!