Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[2us70]

All that **** was what finally ended my boat racing. I found my self racing against either guys who had dealership and/or factory connections or guys who had money they had to burn off somehow. Couldn't keep doing it on a Fire Fighters pay. Wound up racing road bicycles for quite a while. Except for the crashes it was way better for my health.

[Redbirdman]

When I was working at Action Marine we experienced a resin shortage due to a strike. Barney got a line on a couple of drums of good resin in Hialeah. I was sent to pick up these drums in his El Camino. When I got out there to the shop where it was they had to move some stuff around to get them out. While I was waiting I noticed an ocean racer type boat in the other bay of the shop. This boat was painted flat black and had no markings of any kind. Also a full canvas cover was rolled up on the bow. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

I was able to experience it all Jim----

The people that came in my shop on 17th were difficult to identify

---and some of the people DOWNTOWN were difficult to identify---

[jackiewilson]

Why the hell is it that an awful lot of the boat racers i have known in my life that appeared to be as normal as apple pie , sailed even closer to the wind than i did ??????????????
“But for the grace of God”. has never been more apt.
Both sides of the pond !!!!!!!!
At least a hundred come to mind —-will i ever mention even one of them—​NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS !!!!!!!!!!!

[FUJIMO]

When I was working at Action Marine we experienced a resin shortage due to a strike. Barney got a line on a couple of drums of good resin in Hialeah. I was sent to pick up these drums in his El Camino. When I got out there to the shop where it was they had to move some stuff around to get them out. While I was waiting I noticed an ocean racer type boat in the other bay of the shop. This boat was painted flat black and had no markings of any kind. Also a full canvas cover was rolled up on the bow. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

...lotz of all black gelcoat offshore boats around back in the day. many not owned by grass hoppers, but by legimate business owners. this isn't the best photo, but here is just one example of an all black 34' coyote offshore named "chaos", owned by a friend named al shwencke. chaos was intentionally spelled backwards, just on one side. he raced offshore for years & years with a couple different boats. he owned a company named consolidated building products which built office partition wall /dividers & many other products & did well for himself. he kept it in a nice warehouse he rented in lauderdale. many other local offshore boats that were black, just wanting to look cool like everyone else back then. stupid color choice really. can't walk on it, its so hot...

[FUJIMO]

...know that big company along I-95 in hollywood, named acr electronics? fellow named lance ruble was sponsored by them, a very successful marine electronics manufacturing company. business stills exsists there. lance made good money as drywall contractor, who's business was close by acr & was goods friends with them. lance passed away back in 2008. he raced offshore with this triple mercury 2.4 efi powered 28 manta. black gelcoat hull. he was the national champ two or three years running...

[FUJIMO]

...lance then, in 1984, bought and rigged and raced the first outboard powered chris*craft cats in black of course. won many races in his production class. had a nice warehouse in hollyweird...

[2us70]

I remember that guy. In 1976 he was running a Hydrostream in G Production. I was running an Action Marine in the same class. That was my last season.

...lotz of all black gelcoat offshore boats around back in the day. many not owned by grass hoppers, but by legimate business owners. this isn't the best photo, but here is just one example of an all black 34' coyote offshore named "chaos", owned by a friend named al shwencke. chaos was intentionally spelled backwards, just on one side. he raced offshore for years & years with a couple different boats. he owned a company named consolidated building products which built office partition wall /dividers & many other products & did well for himself. he kept it in a nice warehouse he rented in lauderdale. many other local offshore boats that were black, just wanting to look cool like everyone else back then. stupid color choice really. can't walk on it, its so hot...

[FUJIMO]

David Gilmour from Abbet and Gilmore and I used to be pretty good friends and we traded Wellcraft back-and-forth my shop mostly sold small boats fishing center consuls and David’s shop in North Miami Beach sold a lot of scarabs. So if I ever needed one I could get it from him at the factory price Are used to have a guy from down on the keys that are coming in buy Motors a half a dozen at a time all 200s or 23 fives Johnson’s or 200 to 25 Mariners. I keep them until he needed them rigged and then usually it was the late afternoon deal and I had my mechanic stay, and he paid cash fun times back then, as Jackie says cash is king

...man oh man did abbott & gilmore sell a lot of 30 scarab center consoles & 200 mercs...holy moly. knew one guy that bought three at a time...

[jackiewilson]

Shift the right rock and you can create an avalanche !!!!! I once said that there’s very little difference between “ONCE UPON A TIME” and “YOU AINT NEVER GONNA BELIEVE THIS”——-
Difference is —ones a fairy tale ——YOU DECIDE !!!!!!
Without a doubt every power boat racer there has ever been , has a tale to tell. Hollywood has tried a couple of times and failed miserably. Maybe thats because the author was not the racer and could not possibly know the extremes of winning and failure .
I do know that i have always been extremely disappointed with the film industry’s effort to portray boat racers —— i can only compare with my own experiences, and man i have to tell you their portrayals fall well short of even my experiences !!!!!!!!

[Amberjack1234]

I was able to experience it all Jim----

The people that came in my shop on 17th were difficult to identify

---and some of the people DOWNTOWN were difficult to identify---

as Jackie says, and read Birdman knows once upon a time in Miami, nobody would believe it the people downtown we’re just a shifty as the people you met at the boat races, and everybody was just “ plain folks” but that was the way it really was. Black was beautiful back then way before Black Lives Matter. Fancy gelcoat was great, but regular old rubber based house paint was more readily radar absorbent. A friend of mine who was in the flying business and had a Hughes 500 helicopter, I’ve gotten a contract with customs to test their radar installations that they had installed on a few of the high-rises along the beach to monitor the comings and goings of “ local night fisherman” he painted the helicopter with several different paint jobs all at the expense of the US government and flew up and down the coast testing the signature return. And that’s not a once upon a time story as they say in New Orleans. “TRUE DAT”

[Amberjack1234]

The triple engine 28 foot Mantas that Tommy built for most prevalent in the local outboard racing scene driven by guys that we all remember and knew. Al Schwanke and his big coyote triple engine another name from the past at the local ocean racing level. help patrol some of those races, especially the one in Islamorada and off of Miami Beach.

[Amberjack1234]

I had a local boat hauling business from a bad 85 to 94 went up and down the East Coast into the Midwest quite a bit. Did a lot of local moves to one of the most non-mobile I was moving some molds for a local Hispanic friend of mine, who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent. We picked Molds up in a local nondescript neighborhood warehouse deep in Hialeah and move them to his local production factory location after we got there I told him it would probably be best if he swept the seeds out of, the mold before he started to build that particular hull. Again, not a once upon a time story

[Amberjack1234]

I remember David Gilmour was a big fan of Formula One, and I think I may have posted this story before, but one of the things he got to do before he passed was go to Monaco and he would talk about that experience at length to anyone who would listen. And if you knew Gilly and you got him into the local Flannigan‘s just around the corner from his Shop in the keystone point marina, or up to regions, place at mwile lake marina. He could spin some tails when he got lubricated.

[Amberjack1234]

The last post should say mall, MAULE Lake, Marina. Regis was the owner and maître d’ of the place and everybody knew him another drink and hole up. There was Tony Roma‘s next to the railroad tracks.

[Amberjack1234]

With all these ramblings been meaning to ask 2US70 if he remembers the coconut grove, bike races, up and down the hill, coming off of Bayshore, and on the grand Avenue by Peacock park. My cousin Allen, who was from Fort Lauderdale and had lived in Miami back in the day going to the University was a constant competitor helper promoter of that race with a couple of other guys. He was also part of founding the king mango strut parade down in Coconut Grove. Yeah, Allen was a true Miami character.