Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

[jackiewilson]

LOTS OF HAPPY MEMORIES THERE !!!!!! Quite a few sad ones too—— Pruett never raced again after the HAVASU FLIP—— he tore his hip out and other injuries , he was in a lot of pain . I never could tell whether it was Pruett growing old , or his natural bloody mindedness, or his downright cantankerous ness .
Sirois went to almost all offshore racing with Copeland ——-RITCHIE POWERS followed him_-_- La_mort went offshore —— Mert went and got himself killed —- Gene went with all the heavy hitters in offshore .——— 188th street in miami was the in place to be. CK got retired and opened up KAM —-
GG WENT ON TO GREAT THINGS WITH MERCURY BEFORE SWITCHING TO OMC . World of racing as i knew it changed forever.

[jackiewilson]

Fifty years on———- any winters morning at Seebolds bolthole in Naples Florida —- even the beers still the same, we just got fifty years older —— even Mike turned sixty this year !!!!!!!!!!!

[RogerH]

Fuji was busy

[FUJIMO]

...at billy's warehouse in nipples florida...?

[willabee]

...tell us why this was your mistake again willa...?

The 18' single Molinari's were not very forgiving boats. It seemed like the first mistake you made, they would put you in the water in a hurry. The one pictured had a much nicer personality. After we got to know each other, she would let me get away with a few experiments and a few errors. She would raise her nose and quiver, just to let me know she was paying attention, but always settled back down and ran across the water in front of us.
One day I let my mind drift as she was struttin' her stuff. She wiggled and wagged, but my mind was somewhere else. Ultimately, tired of being ignored, she lifted her nose to give me one last glimpse of how she was built, came back down for a breath and then took off for the heavens.
Definitely my mistake .....If I had given her the attention she deserved, she might still be skimming over waves today.

[jackiewilson]

...at billy's warehouse in nipples florida...?

for Gods sake Fuji——never mention „“NIPPLES“ in front of the SQUIRT ——-HE GOES ALL OF A QUIVER ——- needs restraints . Stamps his feet something chronic.

[jackiewilson]

The 18' single Molinari's were not very forgiving boats. It seemed like the first mistake you made, they would put you in the water in a hurry. The one pictured had a much nicer personality. After we got to know each other, she would let me get away with a few experiments and a few errors. She would raise her nose and quiver, just to let me know she was paying attention, but always settled back down and ran across the water in front of us.
One day I let my mind drift as she was struttin' her stuff. She wiggled and wagged, but my mind was somewhere else. Ultimately, tired of being ignored, she lifted her nose to give me one last glimpse of how she was built, came back down for a breath and then took off for the heavens.
Definitely my mistake .....If I had given her the attention she deserved, she might still be skimming over waves today.

Seem to remember Gary blowing over at least once ???????????
s

[FUJIMO]

for Gods sake Fuji——never mention „“NIPPLES“ in front of the SQUIRT ——-HE GOES ALL OF A QUIVER ——- needs restraints . Stamps his feet something chronic.

...sorry...forgot......

[GENE LANHAM]

This boat got around!

Attachment 485125

This was the famous boat from Havasu 69--

Bob Donahue--and Carole were the scorers for Bill and I--Parker 70

[FUJIMO]

[WaterZebra]

The 18' single Molinari's were not very forgiving boats. It seemed like the first mistake you made, they would put you in the water in a hurry. The one pictured had a much nicer personality. After we got to know each other, she would let me get away with a few experiments and a few errors. She would raise her nose and quiver, just to let me know she was paying attention, but always settled back down and ran across the water in front of us.
One day I let my mind drift as she was struttin' her stuff. She wiggled and wagged, but my mind was somewhere else. Ultimately, tired of being ignored, she lifted her nose to give me one last glimpse of how she was built, came back down for a breath and then took off for the heavens.
Definitely my mistake .....If I had given her the attention she deserved, she might still be skimming over waves today.

I don't know if the behavior was different between the wood and glass versions but my glass Moli had a predictable trait. You could trim out until the front nose slope was horizontal. Anything more and you were guaranteed to blow over.

[WaterZebra]

Mike looks like Grandpa Seebold!

[WaterZebra]

This boat got around! Back in 1968, Glastron and Molinari made some kind of deal that allowed Glastron to produce and market fiberglass Molinari tunnel hulls. The 21' orange with black twin was used for the mold. Here's a pic of the wood boat and a glass version .....
Attachment 485132 ....
Attachment 485131
They look the same. The glass boats ran pretty well, once earned a 2nd place finish at Havasu in 1969.

The wood boat was rigged in Oskkosh with 1250 BP's, was test driven by Gary Garbrecht and I think it's first race was the 1969 Parker 9 Hour, driven by Bob Thompson. Bob didn't do well, he never really got the boat to get up and air out. It came back to Oshkosh and was used for the testing of many different components. During that time Mr. K told Garbrecht that he was banned from test driving. We hadn't hired any factory drivers yet, so I was the lucky replacement. I spent many enjoyable hours in that boat that summer.

Bob Massey ran it with BP's at Long Beach 1969. That wasn't a good course for that boat, but I think he finished second anyway. He did know how to run that thing .....
Attachment 485122

More testing and then Bill Sirois ran it at the 1969 Havasu OWC still sporting BP gearcases. He finished 3rd, beginning a remarkable three year streak of great finishes at Havasu. Bill definately knew how to air it out.
Attachment 485123

Over the winter the boat was painted black with grey stripes, rerigged and given a name .....Up,Up and Away The first activity it saw in 1970 was the Parker 9 Hour, this time driven by our favorite guy, Billy Don Pruett. I recall that we put a pair of experimental powerheads on it, but still ran the BP lower units. Pruett blew the gearcases up three different times and had to call it a day.
Behind the red Molinari .....
Attachment 485125

Sirois won with it at St. Mary's, this time using speedmasters. It was really windy and rough, but that rig could get over some water. He even passed Kitson's wing on the straightaway!

From there it went to Havasu, still dressed in black and won the big prize .....
Attachment 485126

After Havasu 70, Merc's PR department took over. They put some BS PR paint job on the poor thing and sent it to dealers and to shows. It took a nice picture, but I'll always believe the boat should have toured as it raced (except for the chrome stacks, they were really cool ).
Attachment 485128

Pruett wanted to run the 1971 Havasu OWC and this boat was pulled off tour for him. He modified the fancy paint job so that he could put his number on it and it was fitted with a pair of new Twister I's. Turned out the boat had developed a bad leak which gave him some grief. It also proved to be not as fast as it was (probably due to the 500 extra pounds of paint it was carrying).
He ended up blowing over and I'm pretty sure the boat was used for a weiner roast at Lake X ..... sad ending for a Champ.
Attachment 485129

Did 998 run again after being used a plug for the glass version? Does this mean the Reggie Fountain's twin glass Molinari was a descendant of the 998?