Life at Lake X in the '60s

Following the earlier adventures of 1967, “Miss Sunshine” found herself idling smoothly out of Panama City Florida into the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Onboard that evening was a crew of four men. Doug Janisch, the Ace Kiekhaefer Mercury mechanic who had held the old girl together against nearly impossible odds from her inception, was clearly the brains of the outfit. Cotton Simms, another long time Mercury man, had been appointed to the crew by Mr. Kiekhaefer. Larry Smith was a photographer sent along to record the ski journey. It is significant to know that Larry Smith had a plaster cast on one ankle as a result of an earlier incident that had occurred while traversing Lake Erie. Also, please note that this is not the same Larry Smith that is the famed boat racer. Also onboard was a Thunderbird hull repairman that had joined the crew during the trip down the Mississippi when the hull was broken wide open during a crash on the river.
Prior to departing for the nighttime run from Panama City to St Pete Florida, the crew had checked the marine weather forecast for the crossing with local experts as well as the US Coast Guard. They had been assured that the weather would be perfect. Sooooo, they launched into the night. Trimmed out and running about 40 mph, the four Mercruisers had been singing their song nicely for a couple of hours.

Deep in the middle of the Gulf, things suddenly deteriorated as our intrepid mariners encountered a dreaded “whiteout” storm. Without warning, the squall line produced massive waves which were not favorable to a 40’ houseboat that was really meant for leisurely weekend cruising in calm waters. While Doug and Cotton manned the helm, Larry and the Tbird guy had retired to the back of the cabin. Finally the old girl slammed into a wall of water so hard that the front window bowed in and the steering console was pushed backwards several inches. The bow opened up like a big fish mouth and immediately scooped up enough water to fill a swimming pool. All 4 engines flooded and shut down. In very short order the decks were awash. “Miss Submarineshine” was headed for Davey Jones’ Locker. Doug knew that when it came to “sink or swim”, he would sink, since he could not swim and he was afflicted with negative buoyancy. He had once nearly drowned in a swimming pool at Bob Donahue’s house and this was considerably bigger that that pool. Meanwhile, they get the life rafts out and pull the ripcords. Nothing significant happens other that 2 rather flaccid would-be vessels are now only in the way. This is a Lake X lesson that we all learned eventually. If you really expect a life raft to inflate when you need it, it had better have been inspected and maintained on a regular basis. As Doug began to see his life flash before his eyes, a miracle occurred. “Miss Floatshine” refused to sink any further. During her infancy, 2 massive 250 gallon aluminum fuel tanks had been installed in her innards so that she might traverse the first half of the Bahama 500 without a fuel stop. The fact those particular tanks were nearly empty provided a huge trapped air bubble in the old girl to maintain a moderate degree of buoyancy. Sometime in the midst of the calamity, Doug heard a loud slam in the back of the boat and thought it prudent to go check on Larry and TBird guy. Much to his horror, he discovered that Larry was GONE, VAMOOSE, AWOL, MIA, NOT THERE, and NOWHERE TO BE SEEN!

…..Zoom to the mind of Larry Smith. Suddenly you are overboard in the aformentioned conditions with only an inadequate life preserver and that is it. The lights of the boat quickly disappear and now you are alone. The cast on your leg is now water logged and is making it very difficult to stay above the water, and getting worse with time. Larry is one of those guys that is a born survivor. This is the real thing. Many people would have just given up and taken the big gulp. Not Larry. He remembers that he has a motel key in his pocket with a large metal tag on it. He very carefully extracts it and taking big breaths, ducks under and starts to saw away at the cast with the key tag. Good God Larry, don't drop the key! After some time and Hurculean effort he manages to cut the cast away and is now more buoyant. But he is still up a creek without a paddle. Barely floating and alone in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, dark night, raging storm……Meanwhile, back onboard , fortunately the radio is still alive and Doug is calling, “Mayday, Mayday. This is the Miss Deadshine, we are sinking” to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard is working two other boats in distress far to the South and it takes them awhile to answer Doug. Finally the Coast Guard responds and as night morphs into morning and the weather is now calm, a Coast Guard amphibian is in the air searching and asking for long counts on the radio in order to accomplish a DF steer which is successful. Soon the Amphibian is overhead and drops pumps. Half of the pumps do not work, but the ones that do work do the job. Now Doug is in the engine compartment changing points, distributors and any other ignition spares he has that are dry. Miraculously, he got 3 of 4 engines running just about the time that the Coast Guard locates Larry in the water about a mile away from the “Miss Phoenix Rising Shine”. They vector the wet and weary mariners to Larry and they fetch one very fortunate photographer from the clutches of Davey Jones. Shortly thereafter a Coast Guard Sikorsky Helicopter appears overhead and lowers a basket to the deck. Doug and Cotton manage to roll Larry into the basket, face down, and he is hoisted aboard the Sikorsky for the ride to dry land. Then a Coast Guard Cutter arrives on scene. Earlier in the fog of catastrophe, our crew had jettisoned a sliding door that had broken loose and was beating them up. It was now barely submerged but still lurking just below the surface. While circling the recovering crew and vessel, the Cutter found said sliding door. Unfortunately, it was actually one of the Cutter’s propellers that actually found it. Having sustained a significant “ding” to one prop, the Cutter was now vibrating badly. Realizing that they were now also in some degree of peril, the Cutter Captain announced that the “Missfortunate Shine” would have to follow them into Clearwater. Otherwise, they would have to sink the girl on the spot. Having made sufficient repairs to maintain good headway, our intrepid mariners managed to do so and arrived in Clearwater where Don Pruett was waiting for them. Time for a bit of rest you ask! Hell No! You are expected to arrive at Port-O-Call tomorrow morning at the APBA Annual Conference where you will appear as if nothing unusual had happened. Doug, Cotton, and Don work through the night to make the “Miss Cosmetic Shine” look and act like a frisky teenager instead of the rundown hag that she now was. Believe it or not, that is exactly what they did. The next morning the incredible “Miss Sunshine” arrived at Port-O-Call amidst much fanfare and was presented much like a Debutante at her coming out ball. A 6,600 mile odyssey.

Wow!

simply

Wow!

Great read...... I have been in some bad weather situations in my life but none could compare to that. Good stuff....keep'em coming...There are more stories out there with this group -I know because I've heard the stories at the bars in a time long gone. Shake the cobwebs and write the stories...
Doug - Steve great job.....Never knew that that happened.....


BobbyR

<HR style="COLOR: #72a5d8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #72a5d8" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->Things are starting to happen fast. While the parties have been our focus from the beginning (Jim Hauser tells me every day, "We started out with a 6 pack of beer and a bag of potato chips, and now look what is happening."), we now believe we may have 20-25 old and not so old boat on display. During the last 24 hours, Rich Luhrs ran into a little glitch in transporting his Switzer Wing, but he immediately contacted Kenny Kitson, who said, "No problem. I will bring my Switzer Wing "El Diablo". So now it is possible we will have 2 Wings there.

Additionally, I have had contact from both Dave and Bob Switzer. It is entirely possible that both Switzer brothers will be there.

To add to the festivities, Bob Walwork (Builder of Raveau boats since the 1950s) will be there with his DU Raveau.

Things just keep getting better :cool: - Steve

Steve....That is an incredible adventure or should I say "near disaster." You, like Willabee, have a gift with your words. I can almost see this all unfolding in front of me. Your writing is in such good detail that you actually paint pictures with your words. Thank you for sharing.

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Originally Posted by Bob V

Steve....That is an incredible adventure or should I say "near disaster." You, like Willabee, have a gift with your words. I can almost see this all unfolding in front of me. Your writing is in such good detail that you actually paint pictures with your words. Thank you for sharing.

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I agree

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Originally Posted by seeroy

<HR style="COLOR: #72a5d8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #72a5d8" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->During the last 24 hours, Rich Luhrs ran into a little glitch in transporting his Switzer Wing, :cool: - Steve

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Imagine that, with all that trucking and transportation business background? Go figure.:o To see Kenny's Switzer will be very cool indeed...rigged period correct as well.:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by AirRide

Imagine that, with all that trucking and transportation business background? Go figure.:o To see Kenny's Switzer will be very cool indeed...rigged period correct as well.:thumbsup:

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Get a life.

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Originally Posted by T2x

Get a life.

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Rich has been one of our strongest supporters from the very beginning of this OFF2009 effort and we truly appreciate that - Steve Sirois & Jim Hauser

Steve- In 1967 I was a 12 year old boy on a Pee-wee box lacrosse team out of Vancouver, British Columbia. That summer we journeyed to Montreal, Quebec for the Canadian Championships. We were the first kids team to travel across Canada in any sport. Anyways, while we were in Montreal we attended the Expo '67 Worlds Fair. One of the highlights of the Fair was the Marine Show on a man-made Lake in the middle of the Exposition. I remember watching "Miss Sunshine" & the 40 bathing beauties doing there thing on the lake. I also remember an over-powered deep-V with 3 or 4 big Evinrudes (X-115's) on the transom doing awesome wheel-stands across the lake in front of thousands upon thousands of Fair-goes! To make a long story short- I filmed "Miss Sunshine" & the "X-115" with the Super 8 movie camera I used to film at Havasu & Parker in the early to mid '70's. I will open the vault & blow off the dust to see if I can produce some kind of short video & slide-show of that historic event as part of the infamous history of "Miss Sunshine!" to go with your stories. Have fun at OFF 2009 & give my regards to the guys. Mark E-mail [email protected]:cheers:

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Originally Posted by mark benson

Steve- In 1967 I was a 12 year old boy on a Pee-wee box lacrosse team out of Vancouver, British Columbia. That summer we journeyed to Montreal, Quebec for the Canadian Championships. We were the first kids team to travel across Canada in any sport. Anyways, while we were in Montreal we attended the Expo '67 Worlds Fair. One of the highlights of the Fair was the Marine Show on a man-made Lake in the middle of the Exposition. I remember watching "Miss Sunshine" & the 40 bathing beauties doing there thing on the lake. I also remember an over-powered deep-V with 3 or 4 big Evinrudes (X-115's) on the transom doing awesome wheel-stands across the lake in front of thousands upon thousands of Fair-goes! To make a long story short- I filmed "Miss Sunshine" & the "X-115" with the Super 8 movie camera I used to film at Havasu & Parker in the early to mid '70's. I will open the vault & blow off the dust to see if I can produce some kind of short video & slide-show of that historic event as part of the infamous history of "Miss Sunshine!" to go with your stories. Have fun at OFF 2009 & give my regards to the guys. Mark E-mail [email protected]:cheers:

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Great buddy.. JP Love:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by seeroy

..... someone came up with the brilliant idea for a trek from Florida to end up at the Montreal World’s Fair (Expo ‘67)…..while pulling a bevy of vivacious water skiers behind the Sunny Lady. Red lips painted on her bow, “Miss Sunshine” cast off ..... “Miss Sunshine” and crew got to rest briefly, then it was off to the command performance issued by Mr. Kiekhaefer . Now Doug had to prepare “Miss Sunshine” for yet another seemingly impossible journey from Canada to Oshkosh, Wis. Mr K. would have the skiers perform at Mercury’s annual press conference on Lake Winnebago. 4000 miles-so far!

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This is one of the Thunderbirds that was at the dealer conference in Oshkosh in 1967. Note the "red lips painted on her bow".....this has got to be the now infamous Miss Sunshine. Really enjoyed reading her story. :thumbsup:

What is the significance of St. Pete. Florida on the side of the boat?