Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[jackiewilson]

Your boy did good yesterday
Won the start and didnt make any mistakes.
Boat seems to like the light air.

Take my hat off to you Pilgrim-------I know sod all about sailing------but Ben Ainslie is a man after my own heart, passionately patriotic and loves sailing, the way I love power-boating. If he ever puts it all together, no telling the outcome.

[powerabout]

How fast did your first race boat go?
Yesterday in light air they did 50mph

[jackiewilson]

How fast did your first race boat go?
Yesterday in light air they did 50mph

45 mph-------once I got that Merc 500 up to 46 mph , I left everyone for dead!
Most I ever saw out of the merc was 47-------I got the Carniti up to 48-------finally got the Konig to show a good clean 50 ! I tell you, that was seriously fast and a race winning speed!

[2us70]

Jackie. I was running Merc 500s about that time over here. We were all pretty much running 55mph or so. Were the boats you ran all sit down and about how much did the weigh.

[jackiewilson]

We were all running two up flat bottoms, Rya at that time decreed we should not run single sweaters until much later---------even so --------it was years before even they ran 50 mph.
We had heard the French, Italian and Dutch were running ridiculous times--------but in the early Paris six hours, the English always won--------we could always run sloppy water, the continentals were set up for top speed only and spent most of the time reaching for the sky. Used to go over the channel to Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, holland and Italy and Monaco,------we always brought the main trophy home.
We also ran stock motors with a club foot, half inch above the bottom with a touch of angle of dangle.
Michegan, Cary, Mercury or Record or Radice props-------that was it, the world of runabout racing in a nutshell.

[2us70]

Eventually I had my SD McCall running 62mph with a 500 in 1975. That boat weighed about 580lbs gross. I have heard that later in the 70s they got even faster with those motors.

[jackiewilson]

Did you run a quickie gear case!

[jackiewilson]

The 16' Levi's were the pick of the field--------the very best of these with a 100hp Mercury ran 60 mph at best!
Wasnt until the appearance of the tunnel boats early '64 that speeds went a tad more than 70 mph!
Top talked about speeds were a bit like Serra's size of fish, full of mystery and imagination!
Way back in time ---------a guy reached the magic 30mph and then lied about it-------he said he saw 35 on the clock !,,!!! It's been going on ever since!

[jackiewilson]

Took a while for the Americans to learn the value of racing in Paris, Nowhere else is it so critical to have your set up exactly right. It's a compromise between the tortoise and the hare, lose a bit of handling for top speed at your peril-------a boat with a thirty gallon fuel load and barges running both ways on the course, is a different animal to one that's empty, flighty, and wants to bite you on the bum.
Today most drivers are adept at setting a boat up and running within their capabilities. That is of course until somebody wants to get by you and then the adrenaline kicks in -------that's when the trouble starts !
I believe it's called "RACING".

[powerabout]

It amazes me when you look at horsepower and speed from the old days.
You could own a 70 and say my boat does 70mph
You could own a 100 and say my boat does 100mph
And today we have 300hp+ and we go a bit faster?
I wonder if the air or water has become more viscous in the last 40 years?

[jackiewilson]

It amazes me when you look at horsepower and speed from the old days.
You could own a 70 and say my boat does 70mph
You could own a 100 and say my boat does 100mph
And today we have 300hp+ and we go a bit faster?
I wonder if the air or water has become more viscous in the last 40 years?

There ya go again Pilgrim, not exactly lies, but nowhere near the truth either-----my very first race boat was a 15' Derry with a 700 ( 70 hp.) Mercury -------on a good day and only lying a bit-----downhill with a tailwind--------open one eye and wince , there it was-------agood clean 50 !
Wasn't until the second generation of tunnels that anything like a 100 mph with a 100 he was achieved.
Michael Werner ran 145 in the mid seventies with a 200 hp. 2.5 .
GG and the Karlson with a V8 400+hp reached 160 ( big FECKIN deal)?
After the Jim Merton episode, Mercury wisely kept away from record runs for the next fifty years.
To the best of my knowledge, Mercury have never tried for an outright WWS outboard record--------no mileage in it for the risks involved.
Butler would be the man to ask!

So to answer your question Pilgrim------both air and water have become "Less Viscous over the last 40 years!

This will make you laugh-------just received a RED ALERT from the hospital--------report for another X Ray immediately! DO NOT DRIVE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE-------You have a badly fractured elbow.
Guess it's the first time they ever saw the infamous "MOLINARI ELBOW" syndrome. Let you know what transpires. Me, I feel fine!

[2us70]

No. Stock production lower units on light boats with good aero qualities.

Did you run a quickie gear case!

[jackiewilson]

No. Stock production lower units on light boats with good aero qualities.

OK, now I get it-------straight line -------flat calm ------hang em out to dry stuf ?
All the races in England were five bouy circuits ---------most had a wicked right hander, times around the one twelve, one twenty mark.
No way could you ever get anywhere near sixty miles an hour with a fifty Mercury, not even with a firework up your rectum and a 100 pound boat!
Good aero qualities ? I said it before, those were dream on speeds, straight out of the comics, I tell you the facts man, nothing but the facts!

[GENE LANHAM]

No. Stock production lower units on light boats with good aero qualities.

Good Aero Qualities??

Full tunnel with sponsons

Jim--a few months after this picture-(1963?)-I ran this Rinehart/Holt designed tunnel through the Miami Beach Kilos at over 58 mph---

[jackiewilson]

Good Aero Qualities??

Full tunnel with sponsons

Jim--a few months after this picture-(1963?)-I ran this Rinehart/Holt designed tunnel through the Miami Beach Kilos at over 58 mph---

Not unlike the blue fin hulls (originally Sid Craft) that we ran in '58/62----- we had two up in the boat and ran closed circuits --------by 1962 I was running a Koenig ------5 mph quicker than the Merc so was probably running the low 50/s. I also had a lot neater gearcase than the clubfoot .