Life at Lake X in the '60s

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Originally Posted by seeroy

Bobby - I don't know where you got the idea that I don't like long stories. The fact is that I love them, as you can probably tell by reading some of my early ones. I would probably be writing some right now if it wasn't for some recent problems with my right hand. Recently had some surgery on my right thumb. If it ever heals properly I want to write some long stroies about Doug Janisch and Houseboat trip. Have you ever thought about how many things a healthy right thumb is necessary for? :o Best Regards - Steve

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Hiya Steve,
Without a shadow of a doubt, the right hand thumb is the most important of the 10 hand digits. Just think back to all the things you have used that great piece of equipment for and smile !!!!!!!!!!
Makes me realise the struggle we have to keep up with the Jones's. Feb 18th right cataract removed---March 28th. left one removed------that's on top of the Gout problems------the diabetic pills------- the athritic hands to name just a few. 20 years next month since the triple by-pass. But if you passed me in the street, you would comment on the finely tuned piece of kit i have left called a body. [i tell lies and tall stories].
But if anyone wants to take me on in a 10 yard sprint, i'm up for it as long as its for the over 65's.
If your living, breathing, can walk round the pits, and hit the centre of the can when you take a leak. be thankful, your in great shape !!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by OLEGATOR

Is Located In Panama City, Fl. I Live About 50 Miles Away And Have Been There Once. It Is A Saltwater Facility. It Is Called _x Site_. It Is A Whole Different Deal There Now. Seems To Be Run By A Bunch Of Bean Counters. I Was Thinking About My First Trip To The Lake And Wandering If Anyone Reading Here Was Working At The Lake Before The Road Was Paved Into The Front Gate. My First Trip Was In Late '58 Or Early '59 And Had To Ford A Creek. Fording The Creek Wouldn't Have Been So Bad If I Hadn't Have Been Driving My Boss's Chrysler 300c.

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Hiya Jim, Long time no see, !!!!! but we can rectify that if this here Florida get together comes to fruition.
Thanks for the info on the new Mercury test site called X, sounds imaginative [to a toad]. Didn't Bob Mc Culloch Call his secret lake SITE 7 or something like that.? Didn't It become Lake Havasu in later life. ??

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Originally Posted by jackie wilson

Didn't Bob Mc Culloch Call his secret lake SITE 7 or something like that.? Didn't It become Lake Havasu in later life. ??

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Yes, McCullough's location in Arizona was called "Site 6" when he bought it from the US government (US Army R&R Site 6, I think pilots went there to go fishing). It wasn't as much a secret as it was just plain remote and hard to get to. Yes, he did develop it into Lake Havasu City ... which I'm sure was his plan all along. To use it as a race development location was just a side benefit along the way. :cheers:

You have to admit if that's the case, Bob was a whole lot smarter than we all gave him credit for. I thought he was the guy who made chain saws, obscure outboards and kinky flying machines, and bought the odd London bridge when it was on special, as well as sticking up $64,000 in prize money.
Can remember Scottie offering me a lakeside plot of land he won as a secondary prize for $500 cash, there and then, but who the hell would want to build a holiday home beside a lake in such a god forsaken place as Havasu, [ it was the late 60's]
Which of us was the idiot. ????

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Originally Posted by jackie wilson

I thought he was the guy who made chain saws, obscure outboards and kinky flying machines, and bought the odd London bridge when it was on special, as well as sticking up $64,000 in prize money.

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You are right. He was also the guy who invented the supercharger that was used on Studebaker and Ford Hi Performance cars in the 1950's.

The Outboard World Championships and prize money were just a stunt to put Havasu on the map so people would know where to look in the desert for a nice holiday place.:cheers:

Beats the hell out of billboard, radio, classified, T.V. and gossip columns. Old Bob must have made a shilling or two from his erstwhile efforts. Well done sez i, we were there !!!!!!

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Originally Posted by seeroy

Jackie - Bobby could confirm, but I think Roy went on the Bass Fishing Tour as Mercury Rep in the later years. - Steve

Bernie - See post #840 on previous page

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Steve
Roy did if fact go with the service rep's and then to the bass tourn. He died at one of the tourn. and Bob Lee was in route to help him. ( Masive hart attact). I think it was in Alabama.

Mike Ramsey

To all the "old 'uns"
If any of you happen to be in Miami between the !2th and 15th February, why not pop into the Miami Boat Show and say hello to my grandson Craig. He will be working on Reggies stand. I'm sure he doesn't believe i still talk to all you guys after all these years. Hell !!!!! he wasn't even the twinkle in his daddies eye when we were playing boats. Anyway, you never know who you might meet there, go on, give it a try, you might like it. I think his P1 42' Fountain is on show. I know it's nothing like the kit we played with but at least it just needs water.

The Rampage exhibit where I"ll be is very close to Sir Reggies Fountains will make it a point to say Hello,,,,,, and tell him "How it used to be" Hell we can even compare heart attack stories,,,,,,, BTW Reggies stock today is trading @ 11 cents a share...... Pretty expensive boat show to go to when business is like this.........:cheers:

The Lake </ST1:pwas a buzz of activity preparing for the coming ocean race. I was helping anyone that could use a hand and especially George Thompson with an 18’ Ted Jones catamaran sporting a couple of full gear shift 800’s, I thought. Wooden at that, with the old flat pads that made it take up the south end of the lake to make a turn. All the boat assignments complete… I wasn’t in the hunt…
The boats being prepared were not the sleek Cigarettes, Donzs or Scarabs of later years but mostly fishing and cruising boats off the production lines along with a few one offs like the Mabry Edwards boat. The boat George had chosen was not a typical boat that the sound minded boater would have picked for an almost 200 mile open water ocean race, but then at the Lake who’s sane or sound … <O:p></O:p>
I believe that this is the same year that the specially made Power Cat cabin cruiser (another story) had been cut down and a couple of 409’s with No.2 drives installed. Two brothers from <ST1:p<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comhttp://forums.screamandfly.com/forum...st1:City w:st=Key West </st1:City></ST1:pwere to drive it…<O:p></O:p>
(Disclaimer) If at anytime my memories and yours differ please jump in and help me make this Lake “ X” History… add your memories….I stayed so busy and there was so much more going on around me…no way I can remember it all or correctly.<O:p></O:p>
George had asked for my help and I was glad to give it. The boat was hard to top over (get on plane) so we had rigged a rope from the bow to the engines that the co-driver could hold on to in order to find his way back to the small seat behind George after riding the bow to get on plane. I had helped him find a place for all the safety equipment in this small boat, also helped in foaming in the new fuel tanks in each sponson, rigging the porter power jack and ram for the jack plate in the tunnel. I would say that finding room for all the required equipment, tools, spare props and enough room for a crewman was by far the most challenging. In the floor between the driver and crewman legs were a couple of WW11 bombardier compasses with the parallel lines and a rotating bezel that allowed you to swing the lines to a position that when you were on course all you had to do was make sure the compass line was inside the parallel lines. EASY – it was on the lake in a chop.<O:p></O:p>
Then the ECK game started …. No we’re not going… Yes we are…. No we’re not…<O:p</O:p
The game was played like this if the “no we’re not” flag was up we did not work on race boats if the ole’ man was around, as soon as he left or they could get someone to distract him it was full steam ahead… <O:p</O:p
Every day was filled with installing engines, rigging controls and prop testing. You could look around and see glass work, engine work, wood work, rigging, welding and anything in between happening. Everything was at such a pace that I went for three days without more than a couple of hours sleep at a time.<O:p></O:p>
The ole’ man had us all load up to go to <st1:City w:st="on">Miami</st1:City> for the pre-race meeting at the <ST1:p<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">DuPont</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Plaza</st1:PlaceType></ST1:p. This is the third year for a race started by Sam Griffith and Dick Bertram. The 1961 Miami-Nassau Race, 187 miles from Government Cut to Nassau Yacht Club, with a stop in Cat Cay for a transire to enter the Bahamas.<O:p></O:p>
That’s right, 60 miles into the race we had to stop a get a piece of paper that allows us entry into a foreign country. I believe there were 60 + boats for this race. Got crowded at the docks in Cat Cay… I’m getting ahead of myself…<O:p></O:p>
Don’t remember what happened but I do remember the ole Man came over and asked <ST1:p<st1:City w:st="on">Roy</st1:City></ST1:p if it was okay for me to ride with George… Yes!….Yes! I was going on the race. We had crash courses in navigation and if everything else failed, follow the day glow orange tailed Grumman Goose…. Izzy would set it on top of you if you got off course.<O:p</O:p
The race committee had decided (for the spectators) that the start would be in rows motoring out Government Cut. I believe George drew row seven or eight… <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:pRoy</ST1:p</st1:City> in a 25’ Bertram was a two of rows ahead of us along with a couple of Coast Guard Diesel entries. A young lady in the front committee boat was standing with a flag. Now the whole group was to parade down government Cut and spread out outside of the jetties and she (the young lady) was to lower the flag. Nothing to it….. About half way to the Coast Guard station she (the young lady) slipped and fell... The flag goes down…..<O:p></O:p>
All hell breaks loose… I see <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:pRoy</ST1:p</st1:City>’s Bertram stand straight up, I see billowing clouds of smoke from the diesel entries including the record holder, Jack Manson’s Allied GX, a 42 footer that holds the record in the mid forties for this race. I jump up on the bow and George gets ’er on top. We immediately head to the south side of the cut in the shallow (calm) water dodging crab trap buoys. (There were no big docking facilities there then). There is total chaos on the north side; one of the Coast Guard entries has run over another entry…No harm to anyone, but one maybe both boats out of the race. She (the young lady) is back up and tries to raise the flag… too late; the race is on….. George and I out drag everyone to the jetties. And then………they must have been at least two footers… huge waves for an eighteen foot boat…<O:p</O:p
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To be continued……….:cheers:<O:p></O:p>
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Bobby - You are exactly what this thread is about. Thank You - Steve

This is great reading. Oh I said that before. But it really is great. TKs

Steve, How is your thumb???? ---:thumbsup:I hope.........
Thanks guys, I wasn't sure how my rambling would be accepted. As I write I remember more things that happened.
The fuel tanks that were used for many years were surplus aircraft wing tanks. The ends were cut off, painted with a reflective paint and put on water pipe to mark the endurance course at the lake. The welder thats was hired for this job spent so much time before the '61 race that he had some bad burns.
George and I found some pipe and plate and had him weld a grab bar that we installed in front of my seat right behind his back. That bar stopped the batteries when he stuffed it at Baker's Haulover later in the Round -The- Beach-Race.. George said that judging from the damage they (the batteries) did it probablly saved his life. Pictures are in "Letters from Heaven" Miami 1960
I mention that I had seen the bow of Roy's Bertram go straight up, well after the race he told me that he had stepped to the back of the boat (remember - these are open production boats) to check something around the engines when the flag fell. His co-driver that he had left at the wheel was Nat Tashman (Editor & Chief of Go Boating) who had little to no experience with a boat in a race. This was not unusual for the ole' man to have someone from the News media riding with you.( i had the pleasure of Hank Bowman for the Around Long Island race.)
Nat had pushed the throttles forward hard and the boat when up and fell over on it's starboard side. Roy said that by the time he could pick himself up off the floor and get back to the wheel they were heading south in a race that was going east. He doesn't know how they missed everyone but was glad they did.
Johnny Bakos won the race in a 25' Moppie this year and Odell in '62.
If they are reading this I know they have a lot of Lake X stories to tell.
I know that Chet has stories along with many others... We have lost so many (Bill, Roy, Jim) it's a shame to lose all the history of the lake...
thanks Steve........

Bobby - Great stories! Keep them coming. One of the things that I really like about them is that they are from the time period before I got to the Lake. Consequently they are very informative to me. Therefore they fill in a lot of blanks for me...and others. BTW...thumb is about 95% now. I'm very glad I did the "Trigger Thumb" release surgery. My thumb and hand are feeling better than they have for about 6 months.
Best Regards - Steve

George and I had left the field in a confused mess and were the first boat out the jetties. High flying and stalling off the waves got our attention... Let me say now that I never had any doubts about George’s abilities at the wheel… My thoughts were about how long this ole’ Cat would take the pounding. George backed off and we started watching the field pass. I mention the Allied GX earlier, as it passed George jumped the waves and we got right on her fan tail, letting her knock the tops off the waves. I may have given it too much credit; the record may have been the low forties. So that’s the picture the cat hugged up close to larger boat for 187 miles
Now history lesson, Helmets and life jackets recommended but not required. (You had to have your coast guard equipment on board)<O:p</O:p
Yep, there we were looking at a comfortable crew (no jackets or helmets) moving about their spacious boat having coffee as George and I bobbed along behind, staying close to escape the “heavy” seas. Now the seas were running 2 to 3 which were ideal for the big boat, just a nice ride. They even had to rub it in a bit by walking to the back and offering us a cup of coffee. Not really an option, by now the diesel fumes were getting a little over whelming. <O:p></O:p>
George dropped back as far as he could and still have a ride we could live with. We watched as more boats passed…<O:p></O:p>
This continued for about forty plus miles, that’s right the first hour was spent looking at the transom of a diesel cabin boat and crew….Then the seas disappeared, just swells with no chop. George jumped the wake and in seconds we were at top speed. The ten +or- miles to Cat Cay went quickly. As we entered the small harbor it was obvious that the transire process was having some trouble. There must have been ten or so boats trying to get to the dock. I motioned to one of the Bahamian’s to wad the paper up and throw it, I am riding the bow and we are off plane in the harbor. The gentleman grabbed a stone, shell or something, wrapped the paper around it and sailed it our way. I don’t know how but I caught it and in the harbor George gets ’er on plane. Later on we learned that were in 36th place at Cat Cay…<O:p></O:p>
more to come…..:cool:<O:p></O:p>