Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[Amberjack1234]

A picture of an older Tommy Chandler he drove the GN 32 Boat when I owned it we chased Duff Dailey As hard as we could I think the only time we beat him was when he broke. Thanks to Doug Janish in the engines he built we were competitive most races. Tom Chandler was world champion and family J for a couple of years with a Hydro stream and a tower of power mercury. Thank you my good friend

[Amberjack1234]

I have to correct Jackie on one thing the black silk Mandela was owned by another character in GN boat racing named Bob Donahue who many people remember from South Florida racing. When I owned it it was re-painted red and ran under the name of mighty mouse because we ran small block Chevy‘s in it with either bud courier driving or Ralph Johnson. I did run the boat and a couple of local Caribbean Club races. The Rayson Craft GEN 32 as I explained was raced Bye Tom Chandler. Doug Janish built the engines for that boat. Joe Colt built the engines for the mighty mouse GEN 23. I just spent money.

[Amberjack1234]

Brings back a lot of memories. Charlie must have run with a few GN friends of mine including Dave Stoller from Dave Stoller's Pass-a-grille Marine. Dave had the "Sorry 'bout that" and "Kinda sorry 'bout that" GN boats. On occasion his beautiful wife, Nancy, would drive one. Then there was Hugh James from Green Cove Springs and Gary King from King Marine Engineering in St. Pete. driving "Hot 'n Nasty." Wayne Dokken from Clearwater driving "The Magic Christian."

Who could forget Mr. Stroller And the whole Saint Petersburg crew. Blackjack Withrow Gary King. Stoller‘s boat was named sorry about that because that was his favorite saying he was always telling Nancy sorry about that or when he show up at a race and he missed the drivers meeting sorry about that. Pass a grille Marina what is the West Coast headquarters Florida that is for the A.B. BA outlaw racing. David always came to the Caribbean Club for our boat races and we tried to reciprocate. Hugh James another GN Racer From the past good competitor built some fine boats I think he was involved with Ben Borden after Ben took over ownership of the GN 32. I remember the boat magic Christian and the driver Wayne. Gary King was like the Stan Erwin of the West Coast best engine builder around. So even though my memory may be a little off I do remember a long time ago

[jackiewilson]

See what i mean about recording history !!!!!!!!!!
Most of what we did is not written in stone ——— gets forgotten——retold —embellishments added [its what we do] and if its not recorded ,it will be blown out of all proportion —-or scaled down to nothing !

[Amberjack1234]

30 minutes with Jackie Wilson

See what i mean about recording history !!!!!!!!!!
Most of what we did is not written in stone ——— gets forgotten——retold —embellishments added [its what we do] and if its not recorded ,it will be blown out of all proportion —-or scaled down to nothing !

It’s like being around the Kentucky derby winner !!! Straight up class I hope I’m alive When I get to be 91 and not a slobbering Old fool in a wheelchair. He and Cadillac McDaniel or a pair of jokers. Everybody in South Florida knows Cadillac Mcdaniels the best marine salvage engineer in the business. An old Miami boy From the beach. Jackies is also a super salesman I think I ordered four of his creations and ended up with a houseful. I’ve got some good ones😎

[jackiewilson]

All i did Charlie was let you do the buying —- i simply showed you what i had and let you choose . All i brought back was an empty suitcase and a promise —-i can live with that.
Listening to you and Cadillac romancing the tale was far better than watching any movie .
Simply ran out of time — i was 200 miles from the airport and my flight was just six hours away , with Caddy who is about as reliable as a chocolate fireguard !!! But i made the flight home ok, thanks for a great time Charlie O Neal. [AMBERJACK] .

I LEFT YOU FIVE CONCEPTS CHARLIE——DONT TELL ME YOU LOST ONE ALREADY!!!!

[Amberjack1234]

Just counted

All i did Charlie was let you do the buying —- i simply showed you what i had and let you choose . All i brought back was an empty suitcase and a promise —-i can live with that.
Listening to you and Cadillac romancing the tale was far better than watching any movie .
Simply ran out of time — i was 200 miles from the airport and my flight was just six hours away , with Caddy who is about as reliable as a chocolate fireguard !!! But i made the flight home ok, thanks for a great time Charlie O Neal. [AMBERJACK] .

I LEFT YOU FIVE CONCEPTS CHARLIE——DONT TELL ME YOU LOST ONE ALREADY!!!!

I’ve actually got six Jackie the Karelsen 3 Wings and two metal tunnel boats. I’m going to try and get Some graphics for the skyway wing and the Kitson wing Been studying photos and YouTube four different pictures of the two. Second project may be after Christmas I’m trying to make a deal on a boat to go to Parker next year Or the year after as funds And time permit

[FUJIMO]

...the 80's was a fun decade in florida...

[jackiewilson]

Went to a celebratory dinner at AMBERLY CASTLE last night to commemorate ten years of wedded bliss between my eldest grand daughter LOUISE and her husband GARY STRAY>
Should you want to see what thins ancient fortress looks like —look it up on any of the dot-dot settings .
will post you some piccies later —— needless to say —like everything else this team does —its a winner .

[jackiewilson]

Nostalgic sort of time from now until the end of november . My 27TH wedding anniversary— today.
tomorrow 22nd november would have been my eldest and firstborn daughters 68th birthday . She died some 26 yrs ago. .
29th would have been my young brother Geoffrey’s 87th birthday .
November was never my favourite month———-but a lot always happened in November.

[jackiewilson]

Phill ROLLA once told me that propellors are not an exact science . When i asked him why— he said too many mitigating factors !!!!!!!!!
I have watched my son beat the crap out of a 30 inch diameter five bladed prop[off a 90 foot Pershing] for several days .
Asked him if it was even worth trying to get it back to the original. He said „“at 75 thousand dollars apiece its worth a shot .
so i found a brass sculpture that depicts a couple of days in the life of a PROPMEISTER which i will give him.

[FUJIMO]

...nice piece...

[jackiewilson]

Hell of a lot more to making a prop work than people realise .
My son Mark has nearly fifty years of experience in the manufacture —creation —upkeep—repairing —reworking propellors than any other person in the world .
He has done props for every winning team there ever was from outboard and inboard hydros over in Italy and the continent .
Done props for Seebold ——Jones——CAPPOLINI—— Pruett—— Betty Cook —— Rocky Aoki—-Ballesteros ——-.
He was always the last resort —— when tracers had tried everyone else —- then they turned to Mark for help ———still the same today .
RIVA—- SUNSEEKER —PERSHING——. When it wont work they all send for my son MARK WILSON because at the end of the day there is no substitute for experience and a life spent with marine propulsion .
you know what —i almost forgot —— when it comes to surface drives — he is also the very best trouble-shooter in the world —NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT—- BUT I DO .

[2us70]

Propellers were always the hardest thing to get right in racing. In 12 years of racing I had only 2 real good ones. The first one was from Olegator for my McCall which he later improved after I tore it up in a race. We won Nationals with that one. The second was a Bobby Soles stainless one. This was my only successful effort in propeller work. I wisely left the blades just as Bobby had finished them. My contribution was fabrication of an exhaust tube for this prop which helped with blowout and also made it a little faster. We broke the 5 mile record in SE and set a 1 Hour record in SD with this one.

[jackiewilson]

First got to know Phil ROLLA in the late 60‘s . Was MIKE BELLAMY who told me he was one of the few people who understood propellors . So i trotted over to Lugano to meet him . Struck up a lifelong friendship with him and his then girl friend RENATI who was my eldest daughters best friend . My son Mark worked with Phil for ten years so i have been around propulsion for some time .