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  1. #16
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    [QUOTE=willabee]A couple of 18' Wings from the Parker 9 Hour in 1969.......


    We sold the Star so Merten would have the money to buy the engines for the Wing.


    The main issue is....where is that wing now?.....or the Star?

    T2x
    20 Foot Switzer Wing 2 X S3000 (Dust'n the Wind II)
    !6 foot Wood Eltro Vee (2X Merc 1500's) (Dust'n the Wind IV)
    15 foot Powercat 15C (2 X Merc 1500) (Dust'n the Wind III)
    (Single engine boats are lacking something)
    15’ Wooden Switzer Shooting Star...
    16 foot Lee Craft Merc S 3000-(Gold Dust II)
    (The exception proves the rule)
    Obsolete and Proud of it

  2. #17
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    Angelo Molinari was a designer/ builder of his own hulls. As I remember it, his shop was in downtown Como, Italy. They built sporty pleasure boats and early versions of the racing tunnel hulls at that location. He is widely credited as the " inventor " of todays racing tunnels. His oldest son, Renato, had a shop on Lake Como, in Tavernola ( sp ). All of the race boats were built, rigged and tested at that location. I'm sure people will disagree with me, but I would say that Molinari was the best in the world from at least 1967 through 1972. They had an arrangement with Mercury that worked out very well, and as the horsepower went up, the design changed along with it.

    Come on you guys, help me out with this answer.



    Quote Originally Posted by triple dude
    A question from the ignorant-On many of these historic threads, I see the name Molinari. Was that a designer for other companies boats or did he (????) build for himself?? Based on the number of times I see that name, he must have been pretty good.
    Last edited by willabee; 12-29-2005 at 04:36 PM.

  3. #18
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    Sadly, they're both destroyed.......the Wing at Galveston and the Star on Lake Butte des Morts ( a guy that tried to go fast on a rough lake )

    Quote Originally Posted by T2x
    The main issue is....where is that wing now?.....or the Star?

    T2x

  4. #19
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    willabee

    Thanks. Now I can say I DID learn something today.

  5. #20
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    Not exactly the type of multi's we're talking about, but.......


    Just wanted to slip this in for Parker, don't know if he has already seen it, but thought he might enjoy anyway. The caption says that "rookie" Randy Rabe (his father) took 1st outboard and 5th overall in the Sam Griffith Memorial off Ft.Lauderdale in May of 1971 ( Powerboat, July 1971 )
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Picture 003.jpg  
    Last edited by willabee; 12-26-2006 at 09:01 AM.

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by willabee
    Angelo Molinari was a designer/ builder of his own hulls. As I remember it, his shop was in downtown Como, Italy. They built sporty pleasure boats and early versions of the racing tunnel hulls at that location. He is widely credited as the " inventor " of todays racing tunnels. His oldest son, Renato, had a shop on Lake Como, in Tavernola ( sp ). All of the race boats were built, rigged and tested at that location. I'm sure people will disagree with me, but I would say that Molinari was the best in the world from at least 1967 through 1972. They had an arrangement with Mercury that worked out very well, and as the horsepower went up, the design changed along with it.

    Come on you guys, help me out with this answer.
    There were actually two competitive Euro designer builders who "pioneered" tunnel boats....Angelo Molinari....and Dieter Schultz.....As I recall the Schultz hulls arrived about 6 months to a year before the Moli's in the U.S....and the first Molinari's were open cockpit hulls....as were the Schultz's. Regardless of the timeline there can be no doubt that the Molinaris were the "creme de la creme" of their time. Later, Molinari's nephew, Cesar Scotti,until his death in Paris, began building boats for OMC as Mercury had an exclusive contract with Molinari.... Later yet, Cees Vandervelden began building hulls for OMC..... Neither the Scotti's nor the Velden's were in the same league with Molinari when it came to craftsmanship but they ran very well. Billy Seebold entered the picture after the Molinari/Mercury contract expired in, approximately, 1974. At that point Billy, benefiting from all of the testing and knowledge that Mercury had ...... annexed this information and signed a contract with Mercury guaranteeing him a minimum number of race boat sales to private individuals or Mercury themselves........... In response Molinari signed a contract with OMC.....and Cees V. made Mercury's European hulls........ the rest is history.

    It is my humble opinion that roughly the time period that Willabee refers to...... (I'll lengthen it just a bit) 1965-1973 (the inauguration of V-6 race engines)....... remains to this day as the single most significant development period in outboard racing history.

    T2x
    20 Foot Switzer Wing 2 X S3000 (Dust'n the Wind II)
    !6 foot Wood Eltro Vee (2X Merc 1500's) (Dust'n the Wind IV)
    15 foot Powercat 15C (2 X Merc 1500) (Dust'n the Wind III)
    (Single engine boats are lacking something)
    15’ Wooden Switzer Shooting Star...
    16 foot Lee Craft Merc S 3000-(Gold Dust II)
    (The exception proves the rule)
    Obsolete and Proud of it

  7. #22
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    A little design comparison.....


    Picture on left shows Molinari's thinking for a 21' to handle a pair of 1250 BP's in late 1968/early 1969 - the one on the right is his thinking for a 21' to handle a pair of 1350 water injected stackers with SSM's in 1970. The 1970 version was easily 15 mph faster and got over the same water.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Power Boat Mag 011.jpg   Power Boat Mag 053.jpg  
    Last edited by willabee; 12-30-2005 at 10:51 AM.

  8. #23
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    Another comparison......


    The " engines over sponsons " twin that Renato drove at Havasu in 1970 was the class of the field. Borrowing a line from Sherlock, "he would have won, but"....he did lose a gearcase late on Saturday and just couldn't make up the 1/2 hour in the pits. That boat was converted to a KT in 1973 and was the class of the field in all 4 races it entered.......it won 3 and was leading the 4th when it broke. At speed, it carried itself the same way it did as an outboard......I guess it was a great design.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Power Boat Mag 053.jpg   KT22.Provo.03.speed.jpg  
    Last edited by willabee; 12-07-2006 at 09:58 AM.

  9. #24
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    Molinari

    Here is my two cents. I started at Mercury in late 1975, after the strike. I came in during the later stages of, what I consider, tunnel boat racings heyday. It was a real treat to be working there at that time. I had raced mostly local stuff so it was impresive seeing the likes of Hering, Molinari, Spalding, Percival, Seebold, Fountain, Bentz walking through the halls.

    Billy had been building boats for, I think, about a year. Dick Ingebretsen/Bob Degrenier got one of the very early full tunnel Seebolds. They ran it during 1975. Seebold really didn't have a contract yet. Molinari was pretty upset that he was building boats as well as Mercury building the "Twistercraft". Here is how I saw things happening. It started with Bob Hering blowing over during the Kaukauna Kilos in mid 1976. I was in the pickup boat and was the first one to Bob. I thought he was gone. He was hurt and spent time in the hospital. At around this time Angelo and Renato were over to discuss a new contract. I remember the tempers were pretty short. I had to drive Angelo, Renato, and his girlfriend to Fond du Lac to meet with Jack Reichert who was the Prez at the time. I think I did this two or three times. Gary drove seperate. Well the last time Angelo and Renato were really upset and you could tell from the conversation. I didn't understand a thing. I whish I had spoken Italian. That was the end of Mercury/Molinari. Hering, Molinari, and Ron Anderson were close so Bob and Ron left Mercury too and the rest is history.

  10. #25
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    As I understood it there was also some bad blood between Renato and Mr. Bill over Renato generally building 2 boats and choosing the better one for himself ... forcing Mr. Bill to out drive Renato to beat him with an inferior boat time after time ... this was supposedly what lead Seebold to start building his own boats

    I don't think there was much time lag between Mercury terminating the Molinari contract and Molinari supplying OMC with boats

  11. #26
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    I don't think there was either. The way I heard it, mbd29 was rather infatuated with Miss Titti ( Renato's girlfriend ) and drove them directly from the Mercury meeting to Waukegan, just to get a little more "eyeball" time

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark75H
    I don't think there was much time lag between Mercury terminating the Molinari contract and Molinari supplying OMC with boats

  12. #27
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    willabee .....thanks ...for the pic of 202
    parker
    SEEBOLD CHAMPBOAT MERCURY S3000

  13. #28
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    A couple of boats that seemed to race forever.......


    The 1st shot is of Gene Lanham in his 18' Wing with 1250 stackers winning the Roaring 100 from Miami to Key Largo in 1971. He ran the same equipment for a long time and won several races in the Florida area.

    The 2nd is of "The Iceman" Harold Eis in what I think started life as a Stylecraft and became an Eis Super Cat. As horsepower went up, he continued to modify this boat to handle it and always ran competitively. Here he is finishing 4th at the 1971 Parker 9 Hour ( he led for several laps ). I think Merc did "loan" him a pair of 1350 stackers for this event.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Power Boat Mag 062.jpg   Power Boat Mag 064.jpg  

  14. #29
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    Did Eis win first outboard a couple times at Havasu with that rig?

  15. #30
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    Harold Eis

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark75H
    Did Eis win first outboard a couple times at Havasu with that rig?
    He won the first Outboard World Championships in 1964, then won again in 1965.
    Here's another picture of Salty Cat.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails image-1.jpg  

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