Hot Multi's - Pictures

**willabee** · 12-14-2006, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by OLEGATOR

If I Ever Learn How To Use This Computer, I Could Post Some Of My Old Photos.

We're still waiting for your "Paris Six Hour - 1967" collection

.

**willabee** · 12-14-2006, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by OLEGATOR

Somewhere On Scream & Fly, My Son Posted A Pretty Good Drawing Of My Old Cowbell.

Bob V found it (good job)......and I agree that your son did a great job of showing what a cowbell would look like.......here is a "cowbell" by brianT2

**Backfire** · 12-19-2006, 10:38 AM

I believe that Bob Thompson's first driver was Alan Stinson in the Stinson Eagle/V4 Johnson. Then came Kenny.
I will get that 800' of 8mm '69 Havasu put on DVD,. Kitson did not win, blew a lower unit in front of the judges stand, got it on film.
Backfire

**willabee** · 12-19-2006, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by Backfire

I believe that Bob Thompson's first driver was Alan Stinson in the Stinson Eagle/V4 Johnson. Backfire

I think you're right about Stinson.....it was probably Alan, Ben and then Ken.

**Backfire** · 12-19-2006, 10:35 PM

Actually Alan first, then Ken and Ben. Ken was killed at the Puerto Rico race and then Ben came in.
If I can get the picture loaded, it's Alan's built and driven Stinson Eagle/V4 Johnson.
Backfire

**T2x** · 12-22-2006, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by Backfire

Actually Alan first, then Ken and Ben. Ken was killed at the Puerto Rico race and then Ben came in.
If I can get the picture loaded, it's Alan's built and driven Stinson Eagle/V4 Johnson.
Backfire

I thought that boat was a Baja.......?

T2x

**Backfire** · 12-22-2006, 07:26 PM

No BAJA. Alan designed and built the "Stinson Eagle" in Oak Ridge, Tn.
Backfire

**Jeff_G** · 12-23-2006, 08:55 AM

I believe Ken was killed at a race in the Bahamas, I think a Nick Cribs produced race with the old NPA.

**Fish** · 12-23-2006, 06:22 PM

Here is one to add to the collection of hot multi's...

Keep an eye out for a new hammer down gallery coming soon, I just came across a bunch of pictures from the early 70's that I am going to scan.

fish

**willabee** · 01-11-2007, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by Fish

Here is one to add to the collection of hot multi's...

Yes, that's our favorite guy, Billy Don Pruett, in the original Triple Trouble 9' x 22' Jones. That boat with yellow trim and a sister ship with blue trim (the boat that Parker's father now owns) first appeared at the Parker 9 hour in 1969. Pruett drove the yellow one and Broadway Joe Habay drove the blue one. They looked pretty good early, both coming back on the first lap in the top ten, which didn't happen back then against the inboards. But, they both succumbed to mechanical problems. That was the beginning of our learning curve about how difficult it was to keep three engines running well on one boat for a six to nine hour period.

I recall Pruett driving that rig at Parker, Smith Mountain Lake, Havasu and the Miami Nationals. In that picture, the driver looks more like Habay than Pruett and if that is correct, it would be Smith Mountain where the two had to share a boat after frying three powerheads between them by testing with white gas!

They were supposed to be identical, but I knew they weren't because I did a lot of testing in them. I never trusted this one, and felt the blue one was faster and safer. When Jim Merten was hired, Gary Garbrecht asked him which one he wanted to race and Mert picked the yellow one. I continued to run various tests in the blue one. One day, Mert and I were having a beer (after work

) and he was telling me that he was having trouble getting his triple to run the way he thought it should and I told him what I thought about the two boats. We took them out the next day and had our own little race and I could run circles around him. Since he was the better driver, it was obvious that the big difference was in the boats and he switched to the blue one. He went on to win the Galveston race with it before the new reverse 'S' Molinari twin arrived for him to run at Havasu.

**willabee** · 03-20-2007, 04:09 PM

Wasn't sure where to put this, but since this boat was a "Hot Multi", I figured this thread would be okay.

As we talked about on the "My Favorite Summer" thread, Merc took Renato Molinari's twin engine hull from the 1970 Havasu race and converted it to a small block KT in 1973. With the huge success of that project, Bob Nordskog decided to go that same route and purchased the 21' reverse "S" Molinari that Jim Merten drove to 2nd place in 1970 and Bill Sirois won with in 1971 at the Outboard World Championships. In my opinion, those were the two fastest OPC hulls on the water at that time. Powerboat magazine decided to do a series of articles about what it took to do the conversion and I thought you might like to see some of what they did.

The first shot is interesting to me because the boat has Billy Seebold's #190 on it rather than Sirois' #998. It has a small fuel tank installed, and what appears to be DSH'ings that are for the C6, so I'm thinking it was set up to run at the OPC Nationals in 72 or 73. One of three things is possible here.....I have completely forgotten about him running that boat, or the boat didn't test out well with that power and the project was abandoned or someone higher in the Merc chain of command than Team Manager (Jim Merten) and/or Director of Racing (Gary Garbrecht) found out about the project and said no. I would think that someone probably said that Merc agreed to stop supporting multi engine racing after Havasu in 1971, and they didn't want to go back on their word. If any of you recall that thing racing, please let me know. If not, Mr. T might be willing to ask Billy if he remembers the story about it.....that thing had to be a bullet if he did run a pair of C6's

.

Here is a shot of the boat as Nordskog received it, a shot from above that shows how it was rigged as they start to tear it down and a shot of the rigging they removed. The article said the rigging represented 255 lbs.....not bad when you consider it was a twin and that weight included the front and rear cowls and the dash (batteries not included).

To be continued ................

**willabee** · 03-21-2007, 03:59 PM

The next photos show the boat completely stripped except for the batteries still in the nose. I remember when Merten came back from his first test, he told me that it was going to be a problem keeping that thing on the water. We cut an inspection cover into the nose cowling and moved the batteries from the rear to the location you see in the photo. After another quick test run, we moved the fuel tank forward before he gave it a wide open throttle run downwind.

The 2nd photo shows Norm Teague and Ted May cleaning it out with soap and water before beginning the conversion. Norm was the engine builder, boat rigger, jack of all trades for Nordskog. He was a really nice guy, I got to work with in in the pits a couple of times. May was a driver for OMC and I don't know what he did fulltime.....I'm just guessing he was hired to help with this project.

The 3rd photo shows the new transom being installed. It was made from two sheets of 5/8ths marine plywood bonded together and braced with .187 inch 6061, T6 aluminum.

**BrianSmith** · 03-21-2007, 11:16 PM

As we had a later Moly twin...with seperated (sponson) engine mounting.......duals always held an interest for us. (ours went to South Africa).
We had heard that Mercury tested some of their "old style" duals with C6's and had problems due to the rocker design (overpowered). The only other twin like ours was run by Petty and we always wondered why it didn't appear with the new power.
The rockers were ideal as KT's due to the lift they had for the extra weight and we guessed it was a wonderful way to "dispose" of them.
Merc wouldn't step up to our requests for C6's and only came thru with one for me in South Africa untill we received our new sprint (Miles) singles in Canada which we ran in the east.

**willabee** · 03-22-2007, 02:32 PM

A few more pictures from the conversion.....

You want to use power steering with this package, so they had to remove the cable system and install Merc's Ride Guide.They installed the inner transom plates with the power steering cylinder and power trim pump and decided to mount the battery in the rear for easier access.

The 2nd shot shows the stern drive and has an arrow pointing to the water pickup.....an inverted scoop mounted under the cavitation plate at the rear. It sent an abundance of water up through the exhaust bellows and into the engine and oil coolers. On the Merc test boat, we did have problems cracking the rubber bellows.....we could test with one, but have to install a new one before each race. We found we could change the operating temp, thus the performance, of the engine by changing the size of the water outlet fitting.

The last shot is the 350 cu.in. engine that came with the package just before installation. They added a few cosmetic features like the valve covers and carb scoop.....also went with new style Hooker headers.

To be continued..........

**willabee** · 03-23-2007, 01:03 PM

I think the guys at Nordskog Competition Center spent about two months on this conversion project. The last photos show them firing the engine after completing installation and they reported that it lit on the first turn-over. The boat then went to their paint shop for it's red, white and blue treatment. Finally they put the finished product in the water at Longbeach and Bob Nordskog saw Keller readings of 109 mph on it's first pass. Like the Merc project boat, this hull was a very good outboard and the same was true for it as a KT.