Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[FUJIMO]

...jack(dad) & benjamin barry kramer didn't enter the offshore "scene'' until many, many years later. comepletely different era.

[jackiewilson]

I was at an APBA meeting in Miami with Pruett in 1971. The Kramers were both there at that time.. George Morales was in clink and 188th street was in full swing .Aronow was gone, The offshore scene was at its height / Seemed like money was no object. Coastguard had faster boats than the drug runners But as any boating fan will tell you , fastest boat doesnt always win. Age , guile and old age will win nine out of ten.//
Brett May showed me round the Apache Factory in Miami. He wasnt happy doing it and it showed .

So, Fuji. Are you telling me Pruett, Odell and Sirois did not compete against the Kramers? And never sat around the same table at an APBA meeting?

[FUJIMO]

...benny was 16 years old in 1971...

[FUJIMO]

...don aronowitz was killed in febuary 1987...

[jackiewilson]

...don aronowitz was killed in febuary 1987...

Dont worry about it Fuji, told you before, sh- t happens and you lose the plot once you get past fifty.
Cant ask either Pruett or SIROIS, but i May be able to ask Brett May when it was!

[jackiewilson]

...benny was 16 years old in 1971...

Well he was FECKIN big sixteen year old!!!

[GENE LANHAM]

[FUJIMO]

Dont worry about it Fuji, told you before, sh- t happens and you lose the plot once you get past fifty.
Cant ask either Pruett or SIROIS, but i May be able to ask Brett May when it was!

...have no idea when you were there with brett, but maybe sounds like late 80's? (after aronow gone). last i knew bretsky was still selling hi-perf steering & other complimenting rigging hardware out of his little condo on the water in east ft. lauderdale. brett's a good egg.

[jackiewilson]

Last time I was in the States was for the ‘79 Parker race.
Brett May drove with me on that occasion. But that’s 3000 miles from Miami.
Retired from the world after that, apart from the FONDA series .
i still think the APBA meeting I went to was in the early seventies. The Kramers were there and Pruett was warned not go down 188th after dark by Jack Kramer.
Brett showed Pruett and I around the Apache factory, Im not ever far out in the old memory stakes, but it was over ninety degrees all last week so maybe I got a touch of the sun. But i will find out exactly when it happened.

[FUJIMO]

...this was Fort Apache Marina on N.E. 188th Street(Offshore Alley) North Miami Beach(now called Aventura). It was "mostly" a high & dry rack storage facility. Ben's engine building shop was in the middle of it though, ran by Keith Eickert. On the water/canal in front of it was his restaurant & his office called the Apache Grill. It was the first boat related place on the left side of the street, as you began driving down the street. this photo was taken right after Aronow was shot...which was about a couple hundred yards further down on the same side of the street....

[FUJIMO]

...this was one of ben's earliest 41 Apaches in that engine shop. only enough room for one, maybe two boats, to have engines installed into, and a climate controlled engine building & extensive machine shop & dyno room. pick any corner of the shop & you could eat off the floor it was so clean...all painted in an epoxy light seafoam green color. walls, doors, floors, everything.

[FUJIMO]

...this is what the dyno room looked like after the shi t hit the fan, so to speak, and Keith departed...

[FUJIMO]

...this is a rare photo of the only 65' Apache Super Chief that Ben got a chance to build, diesel powered...in the canal coming into the Apache Marina......note that the opposite side of the canal was nothing but pine tree's, the entire length of the canal...

[Lake X Kid]

...those shoes were what everyone wore in the states if you had anything to do with the water or boating in the mid 60's into the early 70's. they were ked's brand, who i believe started the style. they were sort of the boat shoe that you wore when you dressed up, but could also be the every day boat shoe for kids or adults. when they first came out, white were the only ones most people wore, as a shoe of color was considered a bit "out there" still. out of pure coincidence, they are currently back in vogue.

I personally preferred and owned the later boat shoe styles. The tennis shoe look was okay, but these later shoe styles even found themselves walking on yachts. Some boat shoe soles were better than others on slippery floors and wet boat decks.

[powerabout]

...this was Fort Apache Marina on N.E. 188th Street(Offshore Alley) North Miami Beach(now called Aventura). It was "mostly" a high & dry rack storage facility. Ben's engine building shop was in the middle of it though, ran by Keith Eickert. On the water/canal in front of it was his restaurant & his office called the Apache Grill. It was the first boat related place on the left side of the street, as you began driving down the street. this photo was taken right after Aronow was shot...which was about a couple hundred yards further down on the same side of the street....

I got a tour through the shop back in the day and Cig...a few months after the Don was shot
Fujimo, would I be right saying KE had just left and started on his own?