Another long slow day in the shop———- got the top half of the hydro motor done ( well, assembled) need to mount it so it looks like it belongs—- not just hung there !
Did the flywheel and flexiplate, then a pair of oversized fuel intakes, ( used to call them Venturi in the day’s when Pontius was a Pilate)
Remember this thing was so bad, I chucked it in the bin—— I have to make a “silk purse” out of a pug ugly “sowsear”!
Got one or two trimmings to ornate the craft with——— a couple of bright ideas——a bit of flare and imagination—— thinking outside the box—— a bit sideways and upwards who knows how it’ll turn out eventually.
Got myself into a pissing contest with Lassie—— I sometimes get a bit uptight when some folk think they know a hell of a lot more than they actually do ?
You get folk like Roy Ridgell (who should know better) attributing a collage Of men who improved the safety of powerboating yet no mention of Hodges who was solely responsible for the safety cell as we know it today !
How do I know—— I was there—— told him it wouldn’t work—— nobody wanted to be strapped into a boat ! —— we argued—— he hung himself from a crane, strapped into a cell and dropped into the water. He was unhurt, I gradually changed my mind.
A week later, he took all his drawings with him to Holland and showed Cees how to build a safetycell.
Cees had been working with one of the Dutch universities on how the best way forward to improve driver safety———- Chris just wanted all boatbuilders to have access to the cell ——- for free—— no charge—— no patents.
Parkinson did manage to get Mercury to cough up £500 towards the cost of development!
I do not know if OMC contributed in any way?
Bill Brown Tried with an aluminium cell which went disastrously wrong——-he had “borrowed”. a mannequin from the British Motor Corporation that had all the readouts as per the human body—— reputed to have cost over a million pounds—— Bill managed to “Destroy” it the first time it was dropped from a crane!
I was wrong about safety cells——- But was passionate about boat racing, and had opinions of my own, not always right——— but I believed them at the time.
Today, there have been great strides in the development of safety cells——-even beyond the “ Crash Box”—————- how do I know this———-my son and grandson got involved.
All there is to do now is get officialdom to Agree As to where it’s going and what’s allowed !
Chris Hodges and I and all my family !have been very good friends for nearly fifty years——
