Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[Mark Poole ModVP]

I have a question about these and decided to post them here since they are hot singles!

The Merc stacker on the tunnel boat has a BP? mid section and of course racing foot.

The stacker on the Ally has what looks like a fishing motor mid and what looks to be the same foot? How many combinations of lowers and exhaust housings would work with a stacker?

[willabee]

.....The Merc stacker on the tunnel boat has a BP? mid section and of course racing foot.

The stacker on the Ally has what looks like a fishing motor mid and what looks to be the same foot? How many combinations of lowers and exhaust housings would work with a stacker?

I think you're looking at the MCI speedmaster with an adapter bolted to the SBP housing on the tunnel. The people motor just has a SSM bolted directly to the housing.

Back then there were three lower units running on stackers with BP style housings.....the BP, the MCI and the SSM with an adapter. The SSM was used on the people motors but you had to install solid mounts when using a stacker.

[Mark75H]

The MC1 SSM has a distinctive skeg that goes straight down from the back of the housing rather than the regular SSM's boss that sticks back for the rear seal area (symmetrical above and below the prop shaft).


Stacks were available as a separate kit that would install on any 125 or 135, ditto on the SSM, which could be adapted under the BP tower.

You didn't have to buy a whole race motor to get stacks.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

Thanks for the info. And speaking of stackers, I just like these things......

[MN4V]

Both boat designs at Madison, WI race. 1974 or 1975?

Mark N

[JP Love]

Wow dont give up memories... Good racing.. I was young born in 58 but allway watch everything about outboard racing when a was youth.. Misters you really make my day ... Like to read all.. Sometime I like to return in 70 to be a racer.. I have a couple race in my life, about 15 races.. But not in super modified engine like you.. A good year full of health friends... J-P Racing..

[Rocket]

This has got to be one of the Coolest Threads on this board!

Where are all these boats and Motors now???

[Mark Poole ModVP]

Well, I'm 47 and watched all this stuff when I was a kid and teenager. I raced v bottoms in the 80's. Most of the boats are gone but many of the engines are still around owned by collectors. I was a little to young to realize how rare all of this would be when it was racing or I would have wagged as much of it home as I could everytime someone sold it. A lot of it blew up and was scraped and many of them are at the bottom of a river somewhere! I would say some of it is leaving the country with our money the way it is.

[T2x]

To me, the #101 looks a lot like Old Blue IV, shown below at Memphis in 1973. I think the #101 is a Molinari.

I just can't get my memory banks to kick in on a full nose Seebold. He ran a pickle fork Molinari at Havasu in 72, so he knows they are superior to the full nose hulls. He and Cees won Parker in 74 in a Molinari and they ran a sister boat to the Molinari/T3 combo that Hering & Renato won Parker with in 75. So that means we are at the beginning of 75 and he is still driving Molinari's. Seems like he'd be driving a boat of his own construction if he had one.

I think that in 75 a plan was put together with Merc for Billy & Cees to build boats. Billy's for the US races and Cees to supply hulls for the European events. The boats were to be identical and those two guys were to share 100% of the info required to build them and set them up. The plan launched in that fashion, but something happened that put the builders on their own.

Willabee:

The first Seebolds were full tunnels. I was told (I think by Grampa) that the design was taken from Old Blue...almost directly. The first one I saw was at St Mary's and shortly after that George Nicholson bought one and brought it home to Jersey for Steve De Feo to drive. That boat eventually was damaged and during the repair it was "pickleforked". Billy was already making his own pickleforks by then.

Rich

[jackie wilson]

Jackie:

If it's a Seebold why does it have Molinari cowlings? The Seebolds had a different (higher, more square) cowl set. It may be neither because I can't see the telltale up sweep in the rear outer deck corners that all Molinari's had. Of course they could be flattened in this picture since they were only about 3/4" channels over the last 18 inches of the deck.....

T2x

Hiya Again T2X, Remember Mercury had given Renato the big heave O, and niether Billy or Cees were "boatbuilders". They only had the last boats that Molly had sent, so from the off, both builders made totally different boats. Cees always seemed to me to build a longer version, whilst Billy went for a sprint type model. The upshott of this funny 5 minutes of mine is that the boats were NOTHING like each other, and the gate is wide open for WILLA to throw some of the brown stuff in my direction------------'WHAT DO I KNOW'----I WAS ONLY A SECOND ROW DRIVER--------BUT NOISY AND NICE TO KNOW.

[T2x]

Ok, here are two more pics of the red and white boat no.101. One pic is from the rear and one at the transom from the side. In the rear view you can see that it does have the channels at the rear sides of the deck. Hope this helps.

Better view...but!...The channels in the Molinari's were rounded at the joint...this one has a square joint...... I'm not sure what this is. There were a couple of guys in Florida and California who were making pretty close copies of Molinari's back then....and I still don't think this was a Seebold.

T2x

[T2x]

After looking a little closer, I was sure it was Douglas as that was the only race I had no sponsor's name on the white area on the rear cowl behind the cockpit. After winning my class that day, two guys walked up to me and wanted their names on there for Hazlehurst. Their names would be there for every Hazlehurst race untill I retired.

You retired? I thought that you merely switched careers to Karaoke singing.



T2x

[T2x]

Hiya Again T2X, Remember Mercury had given Renato the big heave O, and niether Billy or Cees were "boatbuilders". They only had the last boats that Molly had sent, so from the off, both builders made totally different boats. Cees always seemed to me to build a longer version, whilst Billy went for a sprint type model. The upshott of this funny 5 minutes of mine is that the boats were NOTHING like each other, and the gate is wide open for WILLA to throw some of the brown stuff in my direction------------'WHAT DO I KNOW'----I WAS ONLY A SECOND ROW DRIVER--------BUT NOISY AND NICE TO KNOW.

Jackie:

I can't recall precisely when Molinari went to OMC, but I believe it was 1976 or later..... My last Mercury imported Molinari was a 1976 sprint hull and Seebold had been in the "business" for a couple of years by then. I also remember the year (1976) that Merc and OMC squared up at St Louis with the OZ rules (Methanol and Nitrous) and Merc still had the low cowl Moli's, while OMC was using the (then brand new) Velden hulls. I agree that Billy built smaller hulls as the originally where designed for the T2x. Cees debuted in the states with the bigger V-6 hulls. A year later all of Merc's boats were Seebolds and some had been stretched to accomodate the v6's while others had deeper tunnels for Bristol and Paris.........

Man! it must be nice sitting on your arse in the south of France....you're my hero. See ya next year at OFF?

Rich

[willabee]

Both boat designs at Madison, WI race. 1974 or 1975?

Mark N

Just looking at the yellow boat, I would have said 75. But with Berghauer in the picture, driving his 1973 Parker winner, I think it is 1974. I don't think they had that white Molinari in 75. Maybe my real answer is "I don't know".

I still don't remember him building any full nose boats. If I had to make a wild guess, I'd guess this photo is 74 and the yellow hull is the first Seebold! I'm thinking he may have been building "U" & "S" hulls in 74, but not something you could drive with a T3 strapped to the arse end.....that might be why he was driving the Molinari at Parker in 75.

PS: "Olegator singing".....I believe we have discovered another oxymoron.

[T2x]

I still don't remember him building any full nose boats. If I had to make a wild guess, I'd guess this photo is 74 and the yellow hull is the first Seebold!

Sorry Willabee....but he started with a few full nose hulls and pickleforked the design later. You are correct in that they were all U and S class (T2x) hulls.

As far as Billy running a Molinari T-3 after this photo.... Gary still had the contract with Molinari and that's all the team raced until the agreement ended. After that it was 100% Seebolds in the States and Veldens in Europe.

T2x