Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[David Alaniz]

No way David do you get to even lick the plate !!!!!! That was sneaky, even up to Garbrechts standard, using Jon Winokur to prove a point and then claiming all the credit.
By my reckoning there should be at least 437 sprint 16's out there, [ according to memory lane drivers ] . These were in a minority to the 17's , then of course there were the twin engined jobs , all from a tiny factory in Torrigia on Lake Como. that on a good week would struggle to make one boat a week, and at full production two, [working overtime, Italian style that is]
From start to finish, i believe the Mercury involvement lasted something like four years before Renato and Mercury got disenchanted with each other and all toys were thrown into lake como. I watched in horror as trillions of $'s worth of equipment was thrown from the storeroom, including motors ,blocks, carbs ,gearcases, pistons ,gasket sets, heads, trays, and cowls were jumped on . The destruction lasted most of the day, and i can remember thinking, i wonder how deep it is !!! . well i have to tell you -----it goes down 600' so forget it. I did.
Yup i'm afraid i do try to hit that little white 2'' bastard down the fairway half a dozen times a year, usually with Seebold or my grandson, or my daughter who plays off 14 and still wins everything in sight. No , i do not take the game seriously and have never thrown a club. Been close to it when Seebold pulls his 'MULLIGAN' stunt.

Come ooooonnnnn, go back and look, I didn't claim it, I "quoted". Just didn't enclude the author. Mulligans can and will be used by those that are handicaped - Seebold is growing old so he may need some help. With his competitive nature you would think he'd take the ball back to his shop and add or decrease the ball dimples to get more distance. Oh, I almost forgot, you have to hit the ball first.

[Zonkercraft]

Come ooooonnnnn, go back and look, I didn't claim it, I "quoted". Just didn't enclude the author. Mulligans can and will be used by those that are handicaped - Seebold is growing old so he may need some help. With his competitive nature you would think he'd take the ball back to his shop and add or decrease the ball dimples to get more distance. Oh, I almost forgot, you have to hit the ball first.

Billy's having trouble finding his ball's???????? Oh ...sorry, mis-read your posting, David. I'd like to see where he installed the trim switchs on his clubs. I'm sure that Jackie does't have any trouble with his putter. Oh..sorry, again...his puttING! There I got it right now!
Now, where were we..How many Sprint's are there now???
Shall we try to figure out how many 17 footer were shipped to the US?
Let's see...17 wide tunnel (48"inside dim.) early ..AKA Marathon's
17 narrow tunnel (44" inside dim. ) 17 narrow tunnel cockpit forward ( 71 Hering single Havasu winner C6 ) 17 ft....
Next month we can move on to the pickelforks....
THIS is GETTIN' GOOD!

NOW...just to poke the embers some more ....How many Molinari's are still out there..hmmm??? David..do you know where your's went? Do you know where your Miles went?

Just my thoughts,
Zonkercraft

[jackie wilson]

There ya go Zonks, NOW, your cooking with gas.
JUST HOW MANY MOLINARI'S WERE THERE SENT OVER?
HOW MANY MILES MASTERS WERE SENT FROM ENGLAND?
HOW MANY MOLINARI LOOKALIKES WERE MADE
HOW MANY COUGERS
HOW MANY VELDENS
ANY MOLGARDS
AND HOW MANY ARE LEFT ALIVE ?
C'MON ALL YOU OLD FARTS WHO CAN REMEMBER EVERYTHING!!! WHERE ARE YOU WHEN YOUR NEEDED????

Just one more thing, when Renato made another boat, he always altered it a little, some of the time it worked, most of the time it didn't, so he shipped those boats to the U.S. Occasionally one would work better so he kept it until he produced something better. Hence the difference in length , width, etc. call 'em what you will , they were all Molinaris between 19' and 15'.

[Mark75H]

Just one more thing, when Renato made another boat, he always altered it a little, some of the time it worked, most of the time it didn't, so he shipped those boats to the U.S. Occasionally one would work better so he kept it until he produced something better. Hence the difference in length , width, etc. call 'em what you will , they were all Molinaris between 19' and 15'.

As I understand it, that is what lead to his parting of ways with Merc. Merc got tired of paying for 2 boats and receiving the slower one

[willabee]

Bill,Your Memory Is Starting To Fall In Line With Mine. On Post #450,I Cannot See A Steering Bar On The Nose High Shot Of Sirois. I Beleive This Shot Was Taken At Parker The Same Race I Ran The Orange Boat. I Think You Are Correct About The Steering Being Changed. In The Photo Of The Merten Boat, In The Same Post The Steering Bar Is Visible.

Ya, I didn't think that one all the way through. Obviously, all of the early Molinari's rigged in the states had ride-guide. One reason was because we didn't have any proper hardware for cable. The other, and more important at the time, was that Merc sold ride-guide and it wasn't about to use something different. But, as things became more sophisticated, cable was the way to go.

I had forgotten that when we started rigging with cable that we had experienced some failures of different components. I checked some stuff over the weekend and found that the orange 16 was switched to ride-guide before it was shipped back to Europe for the 1970 Paris race and the black one was switched during the repairs from the blow-over at the Lake before the 1970 Miami Nationals.

I also recall writing a memo to Garbrecht for all of the engineers involved which listed the various different pieces of cable steering each of our boats were running at the 72 Parker race. I think we had rear bars from tubing, flat thick anodized aluminum bars and the aluminum plates that were ultimately put into production. There were also different style clevis' and pins, pulleys and most all components of the cable system.

[willabee]

As I understand it, that is what lead to his parting of ways with Merc. Merc got tired of paying for 2 boats and receiving the slower one

This is all starting to sound like a wives tale to me. Jackie, if Renato did something different and it didn't work, why would he send the boat to the people paying the bills..... knowing that his best customer wouldn't be very happy? We received lots of boats that had never hit the water, they were built to the spec that had been ordered. Mark75H, if Merc always paid for two but got the slow one, who was getting all of the fast ones. He frequently was tinkering with the boat that he had built to race himself, but that doesn't mean the rest of the team was driving some experiment that didn't work. Nah, I'm not buying into "the slow ones were sent to the U.S."

[peterse90]

[quote=jackie wilson;1273997]There ya go Zonks, NOW, your cooking with gas.
JUST HOW MANY MOLINARI'S WERE THERE SENT OVER?
HOW MANY MILES MASTERS WERE SENT FROM ENGLAND?
HOW MANY MOLINARI LOOKALIKES WERE MADE
HOW MANY COUGERS
HOW MANY VELDENS
ANY MOLGARDS
AND HOW MANY ARE LEFT ALIVE ?
C'MON ALL YOU OLD FARTS WHO CAN REMEMBER EVERYTHING!!! WHERE ARE YOU WHEN YOUR NEEDED????

Here's my 2-cents for what I remember in Canada in the 70's;
Molinaris; OMC Canada had a Glastron/Molinari (Jim Cascadden 1971) and 1 wood Molinari that Reg Hilman drove in 1971. Tom Wood had 2 Molinaris in 1978; a Mod 50 and a Mod-U. Mark Rotharmel drove a V6 Molinari for OMC Canada 1980 that Mark recently re-acquired.
Mercury Canada had 9; They started with Don Clark's boat that Barry Taylor drove in 1971. Also Dick Summerfeldt had a 21 twin. Spencer Dunn had 3 different ones (1972's 16 ???; his 1973 sprint and the 1974/1975 pickle-fork). Oley Berkis had 3 different Moly's (a rocker bottom, his 1973 marathon and a 1974/1975 pickle-fork). Mark Rotharmel had a pickle fork 1976/1977 (may have been from Earl Bentz).
Milesmasters; 2 Dick Summerfeldt/Brian Smith
Moilinari look alikes; at least 2 Pinels that looked very Moly-like.
No Cougars.
One Velden; Spencer Dunn 1979.
No Molgards.
Where they are now I don't know other than Rotharmel's 1980 hull.

Jackie; does this qualify me as an OLD fart???

[jackie wilson]

This is all starting to sound like a wives tale to me. Jackie, if Renato did something different and it didn't work, why would he send the boat to the people paying the bills..... knowing that his best customer wouldn't be very happy? We received lots of boats that had never hit the water, they were built to the spec that had been ordered. Mark75H, if Merc always paid for two but got the slow one, who was getting all of the fast ones. He frequently was tinkering with the boat that he had built to race himself, but that doesn't mean the rest of the team was driving some experiment that didn't work. Nah, I'm not buying into "the slow ones were sent to the U.S."

I've got to do a Willa here and backtrack, on the grounds that i may have been misunderstood.
All i meant was, Renato was the foremost innovator of his time and was also in the unique position of being designer, tester , owner, driver, and every boat was his until it was signed off to the customer. He "TWEAKED" the design configuration of virtually every boat that was ever made. I do not believe the Mercury quality control was up to the task of checking if every boat ordered was delivered to spec, and anyway, what would you have done about it ?????????? I do believe however that it was an unholy alliance, and a rocky road to boot.
Renato never liked the fact that WIRABECK was housed in Torrigia to keep an eye on things, and then RIDGELL Was installed next door which severely cramped his style.
In a nutshell, any advances that were made, went on Renato's boat first, and on other boats later.
It was very rare for him to race the same boat twice, unless it was head and shoulders above any other.
Again, the top 2 drivers in the world at that time were without a shadow of a doubt Seebold and Molinari. Bentz had not yet arrived.
If Mercury were happy with the situation ,how come Velden and Seebold started manufacturing. Shall we turn a few stones Bill. ?????

[Mark75H]

If Mercury were happy with the situation ,how come Velden and Seebold started manufacturing. Shall we turn a few stones Bill. ?????

Good question

[mbd29]

Well here is my two cents. Bill you may have a better handle but the many conversations I had with Mert, after I started, lead me to believe the beginning of the end, with Renato, was with the building of the Twistercraft. From there when Billy started to build boats I think GG had a little more control of what was being built and it was just a matter of time before Renato left. Cees had already started when he was running for OMC.

I had the pleasure of driving Renato, his girlfriend and his dad back and forth between Oshkosh and Fond du Lac for the meetings between Reichert, GG and Alex. It wasn't pretty. I couldn't understand the conversations but I remember Renato being pretty upset.

[jackie wilson]

Now We Got The Stew Cooking Nicely , Who Wants To Throw In A Few Herbs And Salt And Pepper

[Zonkercraft]

Peterse90's list updated

Cascadden's G/M unknown
Reg Hilman's 17ft Molinari still in Canada actually a '67 boat
Tom Wood's Mod 50 Molinari in transit between Ala. & ?
Tom Wood's Mod U picklefork unknown
Mark Rotharmel's Mod U picklefork still in Canada obviously
Spencer Dunn's Mod U Velden destroyed
Spencer Dunn's Pinel Laydown Mod U unknown
2) Pinel full nosed look-alikes ( Molinari's ) unknown
3) Pinel SE/Mod 50 pickleforks unknown

Barry Taylor's 17ft Sprint aka Spencer Dunn's destroyed
M. Rotharmel's SJ unknown
Spencer Dunn's 17ft Marthon unknown/may have gone to Lee Davies
Spencer Dunn's picklefork destroyed
Dick Summerfeldt's 21 twin South Africa
Oley Berkis 18ft still in Canada
Oley Berkis 17ft Marathon unknown
Oley Berkis 18ft picklefork see T2X
Oley Berkis 17ft picklefork (may have been Dunn's) destroyed or unknown
Mark Rotharmel's 17ft picklefork unknown
Summerfeldt's Milemaster early fulldeck unknown later picklefork went to Fred Finchim SJ then unknown

Hope this helps
Zonkercraft

[jackie wilson]

Now How About Throwing In A Bottle Of Wine To Improve The Flavor

[Zonkercraft]

Now How About Throwing In A Bottle Of Wine To Improve The Flavor

Imported...or domestic?
red, white, blushed?
shaken, or stirred...opps..too many Bond movies.

Zonkercraft

[Mark75H]

My impression was that the Twistercraft boats were proof of concept boats ... to prove that Mercury could continue to win if they dumped Renato, which was a tentative plan, based on whether the Twistercraft boats were successful.

If the Twistercraft boats had turned out to be unsuccessful, they would have suffered on.

That guy that lives out near St. Louis could resolve this ... maybe someone should call him and ask ... otherwise it seems to be pure speculation on our parts.