Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[2us70]

Hey Butch are you retired now? Jim

[mbd29]

I'm looking at an old magazine "Vapor Trails", Bill I'm sure you remember Mr. Ricky, from Havasu 1971. It shows the same boat only running numbr 98 as owned and run by Wendell Haley from Stockton, CA. It lists it as a Schultze hull. It seems a stretch to me as a Schultz but if you look at the front cowl at the nose on the #95 shot from earlier it sort of does look a little like a Schultz.

[willabee]

I'm looking at an old magazine "Vapor Trails", Bill I'm sure you remember Mr. Ricky, from Havasu 1971. It shows the same boat only running numbr 98 as owned and run by Wendell Haley from Stockton, CA. It lists it as a Schultze hull. It seems a stretch to me as a Schultz but if you look at the front cowl at the nose on the #95 shot from earlier it sort of does look a little like a Schultz.

Why do you guys always say "old" .....is there a "new" Vapor Trails mag out there? .....You're just trying to make me feel old (and it's working ). Yes, I certainly do remember him, I spent some time with him when I was on the KT project.....remember, that Horizon? he raced did fit into the KT class.

It may be a Schulze, the problem here is that Vapor Trail was known for it's many mistakes in listing stuff like this. I don't know what it is, but something about it tells me it's not a Molinari.

[T2x]

.....is there a "new" Vapor Trails mag out there? .....

It's still around ...although Mister Ricky has become a bit older and only publishes issues around offshore races that he is somehow paid to attend. I had heard that he has the magazine (newsletter?) for sale.

The main thing about Vapor Trails that always gave me a giggle was his refusal to give women names...... i.e. "Our Candid camera spies Al Copeland with his devoted wife." or "The candid camera caught Bob Kaiser enjoying a drink with his comely girlfriend." ........ even "Our roving lense captures Bob Latham getting a victory smooch from this lovely red headed girl".

It happened with every picture at every race..............

Freud would have a field day.

T2x

[peterse90]

[quote=willabee;1075566]...You have any thoughts on that #95 hull ?

Trying to see how the #95 and the old 18' rocker Molinari's (Mark 75H's "banana" )compare.....The Glastron/Molinari's were made from the design of the #177, #251 and #457 18'ers that came immediately after the #S36 which is shown in the center. So if it is a glass boat copied from a Molinari, it would have to look like the three I mentioned on the far right. If it is a wood Molinari, then the one in the center is it's mate.........

Willabee, I'm with you...there's something about #95 that leads me to believe it's not a Molinari. I'm sure you've seen more Molinaris than anybody but the early (1971 / 1972 era) Molinaris I remember had a cockpit that was quite rounded from front to back and single Moli's had rear cowlings that were high at the back, near the engine, then sloped down noticably just behind the driver. The cockpit on #95 looks different? And the rear cowl looks like it is almost the same height from front to back.
Maybe it's time to get all my Powerboats out from 1969 to 1973 to see if there is any reference to this boat.
I have attached a picture of a Glastron Molinari that illustrates my 2 points above and you can see that Glastron Molinaris had very long outside 'splash rails'. The other picture is a Shultze at Havasu 1970, notice the rear cowling 'spoiler' that I remember Shultze used on many of his boats.
#177, Don Clark's Molinari came to Canada in 1971 and became the first real Mercury Canada Factory boat, driven by Barry Taylor.

[BrianSmith]

I recall Barrys' boat.................It had a "Cowbell" engine on it and Dick and I were really envious about the sound. (It wasn't very fast but it sure did sound good!)

It was the first 'Moly" I ever saw and the woodworking set it apart from all others.

[Old fiberglass]

Got a little more info.....the 95 boat was a wood hull. Still claims it was a Molinari. It was last seen in the Stockton ~ Sacramento Ca area..... back in the 70's. Probably didn't survive the ravages of time.

[willabee]

The main thing about Vapor Trails that always gave me a giggle was his refusal to give women names...... i.e. "Our Candid camera spies Al Copeland with his devoted wife." or "The candid camera caught Bob Kaiser enjoying a drink with his comely girlfriend." ........ even "Our roving lense captures Bob Latham getting a victory smooch from this lovely red headed girl".

As I said before, Vapor Trails didn't work extra hard to make sure the little details were correct and, just like building an engine, if the little details aren't done right, everything can blow right up in your face.

My favorite story about what can happen when someone misses the little details is Joe Racer kisses his wife goodbye as he and his buddies head for the Provo 250. Walking through the pits, Joe bumps into another racer and his wife, who happens to be a very attractive woman. As they are talking, Mr. Rickey hollers "Smile for the camera". A few months later Joe reads the Provo coverage in the new Vapor Trails, his picture is not included with the article. He leaves the magazine on the kitchen counter as he heads off to work.

Upon his return home, he is greeted by a very angry wife who is demanding to know "how long has this been going on". Joe pleads with her to calm down and tell him just what is wrong. She points to a picture of Joe in Vapor Trails.....he is standing next to the attractive wife of the racer he had been talking to at Provo, but there are several problems..... the womans husband is not in the photo.....the caption reads "Caught up with Joe Racer enjoying the sun with the vivacious Mrs. Joe Racer".....and the picture was placed in the coverage of a race in San Diego .

Poor guy never had a chance

[willabee]

I recall Barrys' boat.................It had a "Cowbell" engine on it and Dick and I were really envious about the sound. (It wasn't very fast but it sure did sound good!)

For an engine that was very rare, you guys in Canada sure had a lot of them .....seems like after we talk about them, they end up being the "closed" version of the cowbell .

That style Molinari wasn't very fast, I'm thinking about 88 mph with a stacked 1250 on a BP lower unit. However, it could run at that speed across almost any water and out-turned everything else at that time.

I remember Garbrecht and I getting into a little debate about the "advantage" of the tunnel over the "V". This was when the first of the 18' rocker bottoms had arrived, the generation before the Don Clark boat you are talking about. Those boats were 8/10 slower than the Clark style boat. We had a 1250 BP on the Molinari and a 1000 BP on a new 16' or 17' Checkmate. I had done a bunch of testing in the Checkmate and only a little in the Molinari. Gary made a statement that I disagreed with and I ended up betting him that I could take the Checkmate (with the smaller engine) and beat him in a race to Fond du lac and back. He asked when I would like to do that and, like a dummy, I said "pick your poison". He knew it was windy that day and that Lake Winnebago would be pretty rough, so he said "let's go".

We did a standing start at the plant on the river, and I was gone. I looked back when I got to the lake and couldn't even see the Molinari. Out into the lake I went and it started to get rougher and rougher. I had to start playing with the throttle to keep the boat upright. I looked back and could see him coming and it wasn't too much longer when he pulled alongside. He was laughing and mimicking the ride I was getting and being the smart a-- that he was, he started running circles around me . I signaled that I was convinced and we went back to the plant. He, of course, got there first so there was no way I was going to be able to BS my way out of this one.....beers at Judy's Gin Mill were on me that night.

[peterse90]

[quote=willabee;1081370]For an engine that was very rare, you guys in Canada sure had a lot of them .....seems like after we talk about them, they end up being the "closed" version of the cowbell .

In the "Hot Multi's" thread Watermark posted 2 pictures of Barry Taylor's #177 Molinari (post #168) and indeed in post #169 willabee identified them as silos.

I remember #177 was on display in the Mercury booth at the Toronto Boat Show in February, 1971. It was still painted that 'orange' colour, still had Don Clark's name on it and had a 'stacker' on it. Obviously there weren't too many Canadian's with tunnel experience and if I remember Barry Taylor was a pretty good FJ driver and was recommended by Ted Quinn to Mercury, so he got the ride.

[jackie wilson]

Paris 6 Hour - 1970 ( continued )......
well i'll be damned. even when your sitting in the tree, you can't see the wood. I told garbrecht that my boat was a better and quicker boat than renato's and to please let me put A hot lap down on the saturday !!!!!!!! he knew better, so i was destined to run with Renato. at the first change i kept what i then believed was 1st place, same again in the second stint, After the race Renato accused me of losing the race, till i informed him in a most polite and gentlemanly manner NOBODY PASSED ME IN EITHER OF MY STINTS, SO IT CAN ONLY HAVE BEEN YOU WHO LOST THE RACE. DINGLEBERRY !!!!! this argument carried on well into the night to the "George V hotel. Then came the bitter argument about props, Rolla took care of me and i usually had the best of everything, G.G. had a built in dislike of everything non merc so he was blinkered when it came to props, so when Alex asked why we lost,? i flat told him you need to look at your props set up factory wise . the rest is history at 1am. we called it a day. I lent my boat to pruett who ran 3rd overall for the first 3 hours and then threw a blade off my Rolla prop. Till today------i honestly believed Molly and me won that race ,and we wuz robbed. What a bummer, to have to eat humble pie after 37 years

On Friday, I ran into Levio Prada at the hotel and he informed me that all of the boats had arrived safely. I then told the guys what time I wanted everyone to meet in the pits on Saturday. When I got there, some of the guys had already arrived and were gathered in deep conversation. As I approached, it was obvious that they weren't very happy about something. I asked what was up and Merten told me to go look at his boat.

There it was, the 16'sprint, just like it was when we left Italy except for one little change......the powerhead was missing! Upon futher inquiry, I learned that Renato had suspected that we had put our best powerhead on the Merten/Sirois boat, so he decided to try it during our absence. Although we had not done that, he felt that his test results confirmed his suspicions and he kept the powerhead. I don't where he got this idea, I think we all really liked Renato ( I still do ) and he was the winner of this event the last two years, so common sense would dictate that if we had a "best powerhead", we would put it on his boat. To me, he had done the unthinkable ( you just don't mess with someone elses' race boat - especially a team boat when you're all on the same team ) and I told Mert that I was going to put the powerhead back where it came from.

Enter Garbrecht.......he instructed me to leave it alone and to put a new one from the truck on Mert's boat. I told him that I didn't like the idea of the tail waging the dog, but he made it clear that we were to make no waves over this issue. When I infomed Jim of the plan, he said to me privately that he didn't know where and he didn't know when, but " one day the Prince will get his due "........he was very angry. None of us knew then that a few months later, Mert would become the manager of the outboard race team and one of his priority projects was the development of the Twistercraft..........coincidence???

Here is a shot of the OMC tunnel that Jimbo did his nose dive in.....he passed Renato on the 2nd lap, but then had to fall back as the water got much rougher. The 2nd picture is of Arie deBoom ( from Amsterdam ), who with his son, finished 3rd in a Molinari/Johnson.

[willabee]

Jackie, somehow you managed to get all of your garble into the blue box which makes it look like what you said was said by me!.....That entire first paragraph is you talking, but I can't figure out what it is you are trying to say.....you want to try again?

[BrianSmith]

For an engine that was very rare, you guys in Canada sure had a lot of them .....seems like after we talk about them, they end up being the "closed" version of the cowbell .

That style Molinari wasn't very fast, I'm thinking about 88 mph with a stacked 1250 on a BP lower unit. However, it could run at that speed across almost any water and out-turned everything else at that time.

I remember Garbrecht and I getting into a little debate about the "advantage" of the tunnel over the "V". This was when the first of the 18' rocker bottoms had arrived, the generation before the Don Clark boat you are talking about. Those boats were 8/10 slower than the Clark style boat. We had a 1250 BP on the Molinari and a 1000 BP on a new 16' or 17' Checkmate. I had done a bunch of testing in the Checkmate and only a little in the Molinari. Gary made a statement that I disagreed with and I ended up betting him that I could take the Checkmate (with the smaller engine) and beat him in a race to Fond du lac and back. He asked when I would like to do that and, like a dummy, I said "pick your poison". He knew it was windy that day and that Lake Winnebago would be pretty rough, so he said "let's go".

We did a standing start at the plant on the river, and I was gone. I looked back when I got to the lake and couldn't even see the Molinari. Out into the lake I went and it started to get rougher and rougher. I had to start playing with the throttle to keep the boat upright. I looked back and could see him coming and it wasn't too much longer when he pulled alongside. He was laughing and mimicking the ride I was getting and being the smart a-- that he was, he started running circles around me . I signaled that I was convinced and we went back to the plant. He, of course, got there first so there was no way I was going to be able to BS my way out of this one.....beers at Judy's Gin Mill were on me that night.

When the "Cowbell" was on it the Boat was orange as I recall. Ted Quinn also had a Stacker they played with now and again.

[jackie wilson]

O.K. O.K. I appologise . Told you i always had better things to do than play with a modern day overengineered typewriter. But i guess now i got one ,i suppose i ought to learn how to use it. Just to make it clear to all, Bill Welch did not write the garbage in the first paragraph of 325. I DID. LET'S START AT THE BEGINNING-------------------- in 1970 i had the best boat i ever had, won every damn race i entered. In fact ,it was the best boat ever to come out of the Molinari factory and was looking forward to cleaning up in Paris. Then Garbrecht dropped his bombshell , you are racing with Molinari. "you have got to be kidding, no way". GG had spoken, it was written in stone. GG was God and Molinari J.C. Being a good disciple, i went along with it. We decided to do a 3 stopper, each one of us would do one and a half hrs with renato taking the start. CLOCKWORK. The boat was a typical Paris boat , heavy, safe, and very average, propped for a rough race , but good enough to stay in the lead. I took over and had an uneventful armchair ride, with Jonny Sanders 100 yards behind me for the whole one and a half hrs. Came in ,renato took over and then we did the same thing all over again, For the last one and a half , right up to the finish Johnny was still 100 yds behind me. Job done.!!!!! there was a long delay before they announced the winner as Posey and Sanders. Thats when Renato and i got into this big fight ,when he said i lost the race, so i told him in no uncertain terms, NOT ONE BOAT EVER GOT BY ME DINGLEBERRY IT HAD TO BE YOU !!!!! To fight an italian you have to push your nose into their nose and wave the arms violently, on no account must you ever clench fists or strike your opponent [ como convention rule 24b 1367 a.d. ] much unhappiness in Mercury camp. Bugger the prizegiving, urgent crisis meeting in the GEORGE V hotel. Charley Alexander took the chair at the inquest and the debate lasted into the early hrs,. I didn't understand the workings of MERC politics in those days ------ie, if a driver has something to say, tell the crew chief [ Welch] he then tells GG [boss or god] Who then passes it on to Charley. So when i told Alex himself he should review the prop situation at Mercury 'cos they stink, i had stepped way out of line. anyway until i read willabee's statement that Posey did for Renato at the very start., i always believed we had won that race, but then again how come if we were so evenly matched did Johnny Sanders wind up BEHIND ME, bear in mind Merc pit stops were always much slicker than o.m.c.s. and a lap in those days took some 3-4 mins. In my own mind there is a doubt. Before the race i spoke to Pruett about the camel of a boat he had brought to race. and told him he could use mine if he paid for what he broke. He tried it and fell in love with it. He laid in 3rd place for the first 3 hrs until he broke the prop [ Rolla].

[willabee]

Told you i always had better things to do than play with a modern day overengineered typewriter....... anyway until i read willabee's statement that Posey did for Renato at the very start., i always believed we had won that race

Okay, now I know what you were trying to say. However, you are making it very easy for me to say that apparently you don't read any better than you type .Go back to post #77 and read the last paragraph again.....I said Jimbo passed Renato on the 2nd lap, not Posey.

Are you sure they also ran hour and one half fuel loads? I seem to recall that they ran two hour loads, as we usually did. If you guys made three stops and they made two, and the boats ran as even on the course as you said, they made the pass during the extra stop.

I remember that extended transom boat as being the class of the field. I didn't recall that Jimbo had gone by it on lap #2, I read that in Powerboat before I made that post. I only remembered that as the water got rougher, Jimbo was flying all over the place until he finally did the nose dive. I'm thinking that the Sanders/Posey entry didn't get a very good start, but it made a steady climb in the standings all day long. I'll dig out that article and see if it tells when that boat took the lead.....if it does, we'll know who was driving the Molinari/Wilson rig when it happened or if it happened during a pit stop.