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Thread: Dutchmen tunnel

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    Question Dutchmen tunnel

    Has anybody ever heard of a Dutchmen tunnel boat, I think they were built in the early 70's in Ohio maybe. Any info would be very helpful.

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    Jan Schoonover from Lima, Ohio built them. I think Bill Petty helped with the financing. They were a wing type boat...Probably only built a half dozen. As I recall they were nose heavy, maybe by design, but they sure could get both "Stacker" Mercs out of the water at the same time....I've got a picture or two of one around here somewhere....

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    Jan Schoonover drove boat named "Flying Dutchman". Boat was early style Switzer wing built by Bob and Dave Switzer, Lake Crystal, Illinois.

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    More--Bill Petty built some of the earliest tunnels out of riveted aluminum--era late 60's. Jan Schoonover built some fiberglass tunnels a year or two later but could not compete with the Molinari's. You had to have Mercury's "blessing" to get a Molinari at that time and not everybody could do that so Schoonover boat was an option.

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    Flying Dutchman

    Baldy


    Ron Hill is right.

    Jan Schoonover from Lima, Ohio built a line of lake / ski boats ranging from about 16' to 20' back in the sixtys. The brand of the boats was "Flying Dutchman". (I used to have a brochure of the boat line - see note below about flood). Additionally he raced the "Flying Dutchman" wing that Ron refered to.

    In 1967 Jan's brother in law Bill Stanyer married my mother. For a number of years Bill worked with Jan. When he married my mother Bill had a Switzer tunnel hull with a 100 Merc.

    I remember Bill telling me a story about how Jan got hurt testing one of his early wing boats. He said that a one time Jan's wing held the record for twin engine outboards at 108 mph. I'm guessing that must have been about 1965. Bill said that the record stood for about one month, then Kenny Kitson took the record.

    About 1970 Jan Schoonover sold his business in Lima and moved to Cody, Wyoming. He bought a ranch and guided Elk hunting / vacations.

    I used to have some pictures of Jan's boats (but I lost them in a flood years ago). I remember one in particular of Jan's wing. The boat had very nice lines. It was black and yellow in color. The twin inlines had stacks, and chrome plated lower units. The particular picture is from a left rear view point, and as Ron Hill said - it is up and flying!!!

    Regards to all,

    Gold Bear
    My wife says she is going to have my gravestone engraved "I'd rather be fishing".

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    Bill Petty, Wapakoneta, Ohio.... built aluminum tunnels designed roughly along the lines of a Schultz and called them Pettycraft...they were finished with a beautiful swirl with tinted lacquer finish.....After a fatal accident to a brand new driver in a twin engine version at Elyria, Ohio , I never saw one again. (the boat pitch poled and wound up upside down and backwards...when it re-entered the fuel tank broke loose and crushed the driver against the dash.... and yes, I was there...unfortunately)

    At about the same time, or shortly after, the Dutchman hulls arrived on the scene, made in nearby Lima, by Schoonover and co.
    These had very similar lines to the Pettycraft/Schultz derivatives..... You can see those (approximate) lines on the original 18' full tunnel Skaters.

    T2x
    Last edited by T2x; 08-27-2003 at 07:26 AM.

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    I recall that Dutchman drivers lived in fear of the "Dutchman stumble". For some unknown reason the twin engined Dutchman boats would suddenly lose lift and drop the nose. The result was always unpleasant and sometimes disasterous. Tunnel boat design was far from an exact science back then.

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    Here's the Flying Dutchman..Salton Sea 1967...blew the field off for 2 laps

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    one more

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    pretty sure Jan blew over a Powercat in a kilo run, either at Lake X or close by...help me out here Olegator...

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    That was Jan's boat, but that was a Switzer wing... The Dutchmen hulls were different on the pickle forks, much different...

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    The Dutchman tunnels I remember were all full tunnels with no forks. Back then every builder seemed to have a diferent idea on how to make tunnels work.Sometimes success was achieved by accident. In 1973 Action Marine wound up with an 11 foot tunnel boat built to run in Pro Outboard with a little Koenig. The boat didn't work with the alky motor so I got the job of converting it to an OPC boat. We had to stretch it to 13 feet to make it legal so we raised and laid back the transom and extended the front of the tunnel to make the length. The boat had 11 foot sponsons and an almost 13 foot tunnel. It looked like a duck bill. We took this thing to the 73 Nationals at Eufala with my EP motor and prop and won the first heat of the finals. Bobby Drewery in one of Paul Angel's McCalls got me on time in the second heat and won the race. There was little science and alot of guesswork in this case and I suspect that was true of many boats built then.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 255-eufala1.jpg  

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    Question Dutchman Picklefork

    Anyone have a photo of a 16' fiberglass Dutchman Picklefork tunnel? Anyone out there, own one now? thanks

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    To my knowledge, they never made a pickled 16/17'. They did make a 20' pickle. I have seen several 16'/17's that have been pickled.
    2005 APR FORMULA 2 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

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    In the '69-70 era Mercury High Performance acquired a Dutchman 16-17 tunnel from Schoonover. It was a fiberglass duckbill type of hull--definitely not picklefork. Was rigged with twin 125 BP's.

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