Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[willabee]

Hiya Bob,

WOW !.....that is, without a doubt, the most intelligent response that Jackie has offered to date..... Hiya, Bob indeed

No, I never had the opportunity to run the 9 carb and I never did see it after that race. As I had mentioned, the Morgan 6 carb powerhead was also at this race (Dick Lanpheer was in charge of the 9 carb project not Ted) and apparently a decision was made to pursue Ted's version. Lanpheer's group then proceeded to start work on a Tillotson 6 carb system while Morgan continued to work with the rectangular carbs.

I must have my driver pairings a little mixed up, I thought that you shared the drive with Sirois in the 16' sprint/Twister at Berlin and that Downard ran the 18' marathon/9 carb with Tobino. Billy Don Pruett was given Morgan's 6 carb on a 17'er with Denny Berghauer and Tom Stickle teamed with Carlo Rasini in a 17'/Twister. It was this race that the formidable team of Renato Molinari and Bob Hering had it's beginning in the 17' extended transom/Twister that you ran at Paris.

[jackie wilson]

Hiya Willa,
Your forgiven for getting the pairings mixed. After the row with Renato in Paris, he chucked his toys outa the pram yet again and decided i was no longer his partner, so i was footloose and fancyfree in Berlin. I wasn' officially with anyone, but his majesty had asked me to go along as a 'just in case'. Freddie Miles said i could drive with him , but he retired early on and Doc Morgan asked if i would have a crack at the 9 carb, you know the rest.
By the way, the Hiya Bob came about 'cos i pressed the wrong damned button-------like i sometimes do as you well know-----FAUX PAS--- is what i believe it's called in downtown Oshberg.
And just one more little thing, how in the world can you print WOW in such large letters. William-----you are so good !!!!!!!!!

[BrianSmith]

Jackie: I used to race with Dick Summerfeldt who I'm sure you recall from the very early '70's. As you are on the "other side of the pond' as they say............do you know if Freddy Miles is still around?
We ran his boats back then with gret success and he visited us in Toronto in 1972 I recall.
Regards

[jackie wilson]

Hiya Brian, I remember Dick very well indeed. Bought an M.G. to tow his boat around, always stayed at the 'VILLA D'ESTE'. Only 5 star hotel on lake Como, drove a Miles Master, and paid his bills on time.
Got into big trouble when he blew over, his leg got tangled in the steering and bent forward at the knee, the ligaments and arteries got trapped when the leg snapped back, the problem was, none of the Italian medics picked this up, and i believe he had to have the lower leg amputated some time later.[ hope my memory served me right on that one ]. After Dick's accident, Freddie designed a steering column with the pulley at the bottom, he never got the recognition for that little bit of engineering and i believe it's still used today. Freddie never made old bones, and died in the early '80's. Just a last thought on Fred---------did you know he was the first guy ever to sponsor Nick Faldo the golfer.

[BrianSmith]

Hiya Brian, I remember Dick very well indeed. Bought an M.G. to tow his boat around, always stayed at the 'VILLA D'ESTE'. Only 5 star hotel on lake Como, drove a Miles Master, and paid his bills on time.
Got into big trouble when he blew over, his leg got tangled in the steering and bent forward at the knee, the ligaments and arteries got trapped when the leg snapped back, the problem was, none of the Italian medics picked this up, and i believe he had to have the lower leg amputated some time later.[ hope my memory served me right on that one ]. After Dick's accident, Freddie designed a steering column with the pulley at the bottom, he never got the recognition for that little bit of engineering and i believe it's still used today. Freddie never made old bones, and died in the early '80's. Just a last thought on Fred---------did you know he was the first guy ever to sponsor Nick Faldo the golfer.

Thanx so much Jackie; I am sorry to hear of Freddy, he was quite a guy.........and built some great boats for us.
Your memory serves you well about Dick. He had his lower leg amputated back in Toronto.
The inner strength of the guy was always impressive to me. It never slowed him down. After recovery time we started going to races in Canada and shortly after he bought the twin Glastron from Mercury. The following winter he started snowmobiling and I understand he still enjoys it.
Regards

[jackie wilson]

Hiya Brian, So The Old Boy Is Still Up And Running, Probably Still Got All That 'orrible Long Wavy Black Hair. I've Got The Usual Chrome Dome That An Over 40 Gets. Give Him My Regards. Suppose You Know That Fred Employed Burgess To Build His Designs, Long Before Dave Ever Got Famous. And Before That He Was Boatbuilder To Bill Shakespeare.just Another Snippet Of Useless Information---jw

[willabee]

Came across some film of a Molinari doing some testing on Lake Butte des Morts in Oshkosh. Jimmy Kubasta is doing the stop watch work and Boob Hetzel is changing the props and recording the data. I'm pretty sure this is summer, 1970. The boat appears to be a 69 rocker, has lightning bolts painted on the deck and rear cowl and goes by the name of Electrical, or something similar to that. I'm going to try to get some better shots of this boat, but I'll post what I got so far.....maybe someone will remember who drove it. It's a factory boat that must have been loaned to someone back in 69 or 70. The pictures just reminded me of how much fun these were to drive.....rode high, got over a ton of water and turned on a dime.

To be continued......the fun part is next

[Mark75H]

how much fun these were to drive.....rode high, got over a ton of water and turned on a dime.

Ron Hill said he and Jimbo had the same impression of these boats

[BrianSmith]

Hiya Brian, So The Old Boy Is Still Up And Running, Probably Still Got All That 'orrible Long Wavy Black Hair. I've Got The Usual Chrome Dome That An Over 40 Gets. Give Him My Regards. Suppose You Know That Fred Employed Burgess To Build His Designs, Long Before Dave Ever Got Famous. And Before That He Was Boatbuilder To Bill Shakespeare.just Another Snippet Of Useless Information---jw

LOL!

From what I know he's still kicking 'tho I doubt the hair is black any more.........nice to know about Burgess and Shakespeare. I do not understand why so many folks "this side of the pond" had disappointments with Freddy's boats. I guess we were lucky to have Freddy and Dick's buddies over there to help, whilst everyone else focused on Renato/Merc etc.

[willabee]

Now the FUN part.....guess what I found

I know this will be old hat to the Canadians , but it should be interesting to the rest. There has been a lot of chatter about the infamous Cowbell, the inline 1350 with the open Twister/silo exhaust system. It had a very short factory life span, just the summer of 1970. I doubt that more than a dozen were ever assembled. Based on what I've read on S&F, it appears that a lot of people had never heard of this engine and very few have ever seen one..... Mark 75H says that he's still looking for a picture of one!

Well, ol' Boob Hetzel and Jimmy Kubasta were out on Butte des Morts doing some secret testing with that 18' Molinari with the lightning bolts painted on it.....they were proping out a Cowbell! These things had a great sound, one all of their own. I'm old school, I think racing and noise belong together. Although I like all of the different sounds of open exhaust engines, for me, the perfect world would be a 21' twin Molinari powered by a pair of Cowbells .

Sorry about leaving Boob's nose in the photos, but if I had cropped that honker of his out of the frame, we would have lost most of the bells to manifold connection .

Ladies and Gents, the Mercury Cowbell..........

[willabee]

A few more shots of the same boat, just a little further back to see more of the exhaust system.....this is the best I could do to show the engine.

[Bob V]

I'm old school, I think racing and noise belong together. Although I like all of the different sounds of open exhaust engines, for me, the perfect world would be a 21' twin Molinari powered by a pair of Cowbells

Willabee...Seems like we both went to the same school..."Old School."
Having a 21' Molinari with twin cowbells would be like a trip to fantasy island. Those engines had such a unique sound to them. Slightly softer and a higher different pitch than the ear-shattering stackers, but much more enjoyable, for us "Old Schoolers," than the twister or twister 1.

Somewhere I have several pictures of Olegator's that he ran here in the Fun 'n Sun Regatta, circa 1970. There was just something about those two "cowbell" stacks exiting of the bottom of the silo that was unforgettable. Now that you have me motivated, I am really going to make an effort to find those pictures.

[jackie wilson]

Hiya Brian, At the Liege race Freddy was pissing all over everyone in dog nasty race conditions,[something like 2 laps up on 2nd place]. The boat just skipped across everything. At the 2nd changeover, Wilf Gregory came into the pits far too quickly and smacked the wall head on and wrecked the boat. Garbrecht bought the boat ,there and then, as was. He shipped it back to Oshkosh and Willa can probably fill you in on the rest of the story.
Earlier, we talked about the transition of boatbuilding from Italy to the rest of the world. Talked to Seebold and he told me it went like this.--------------
After Mercury moved out of Torrigia, Velden started to build boats for europe, but some of them found their way to the U.S.A. Mercury had a half hearted attempt to build their own boats, Twistercraft i think, 2 guys , Stippitch and [ help me here William] maybe Parish, they built only a handful , but couldn't have been that good, and Stippitch said he didn't want to build boats for a living. Anyway the upshot of all this is Seebold was commissioned to Build boats for the U.S. market . The rest is history.

[jackie wilson]

For Willabee to pick holes in.
Without doubt, the cowbell was the noisiest engine i ever drove.The noise reverberated from the motor ,back up the boat cowl to the driver. The first time i tried it, i got out of the 17' molinari and i could see mouths moving but no sound coming. Ever after i wore earplugs to drown the "HOWL". Sounded like Garbrecht on a bad day, when he was just a tad annoyed.

[willabee]

For Willabee to pick holes in.....the cowbell was the noisiest engine i ever drove..... i got out of the 17' molinari and i could see mouths moving but no sound coming. Ever after i wore earplugs....

For openers, you obviously never drove a stacker. They are plenty loud when you are driving one, but there ain't nothin' noisier on God's green earth than a stacked triple engine Jones coming past you in full song.....that actually hurts! That happened to me once when we were doing some testing in Oshkosh. Jim Merten and I were both running a triple Jones and at one point he came by me, no more than ten feet off my left side. When those nine pipes got to about the tip of my sponsons, that noise actually felt like a sting inside my helmet.

As to the gettin' out of your boat and seein' lips move but no noise.....After all these years, it's hard to believe that you haven't yet figured out the ol' lip-sync trick. Messing with the driver of Bloody Hoo-Ray was on our priority list.

Last, you have the memory of earplug use backwards.....how surprising . We all knew that you don't come back from a prop test and simply say "good" or "need a few more r-pums". No, we knew we were going to receive a dissertation about how the mating habits of the kangaroo in November played a role the the fact that Johnny Sanders had just driven by you. Soooooo, we were the ones that used the plugs and we just kept changing props until we saw you smile .

Some more memory makers from testing at Molinari's shop on Lake Como in 1970. The 1st is Don Clark and me heading out to the middle of the lake in our one and only "safety boat" to watch Renato run the 9 carber. The second is the man that taught me to drink tea, I think it's Don Ross. He is in the safety boat, probably to watch Jackie putt-putt around the lake. The 3rd is something you didn't see too often.....Gary Garbrecht changing a prop .