Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[lars strom]

Another picture from Mike Bunting

[Instigator]

That is correct.

You can clearly see them in the jump scene stills.

Yeah................I remember those too. I'm thinking they were added to keep the hull level during lift off?

[Instigator]

Yrs ago I bought a motor off of Little Barney who’s father started Action boats and we went to a storage unit in Key Largo and there was a small OB vee bottom upside down in the unit and when quizzed about it, he told me it was a 16’ Checkmate that they splashed to build the first Action from.

Not to say they never splashed a Glastron but that’s what I was told of that particular hull.

I ran a 16' Action in J class a few times. The hull on that boat was taken from a Glastron. Sometimes it was like trying to race an outboard powered oil drum.

[2us70]

I knew Barney from before he started up Action. He was at my wedding almost 57 years ago. Action was spun off Banshee Boats. Banshees were basically Glastron hull bottoms with a SK boat deck. Banshees were made as both outboard and inboard jet drive boats. Action was started with the outboard version of the Banshee molds. This was the original Action 16. Barney then built or acquired molds for 13 and 15 foot Checkmates and later another 15 Checkmate with a custom deck mold. I raced the plug boat for the 13' in G class a couple of times. I worked for Action a couple of times. The first time we were building the 16,15 and 13 which we stretched out to a 14' just before I left. The second time Action had changed over to building pretty much Hydrostream based boats and I worked on a couple of those molds. I also got the chance to drive a few of those boats. I was amazed at how easy those boats were drive at speed.

[oldschoolltv]

Cleaning out my warehouse this is my dad's old prop box it used to hold 6 props

[Instigator]

Very cool story and thx for the history lesson!

Do you know Bobby Pezos?

I think he was involved in Action at some point.

And yeah, Monty gave me his 18’ Action w/a hot rod JohnRude for a day.

Ran 94 and was very predictable at speed.

I knew Barney from before he started up Action. He was at my wedding almost 57 years ago. Action was spun off Banshee Boats. Banshees were basically Glastron hull bottoms with a SK boat deck. Banshees were made as both outboard and inboard jet drive boats. Action was started with the outboard version of the Banshee molds. This was the original Action 16. Barney then built or acquired molds for 13 and 15 foot Checkmates and later another 15 Checkmate with a custom deck mold. I raced the plug boat for the 13' in G class a couple of times. I worked for Action a couple of times. The first time we were building the 16,15 and 13 which we stretched out to a 14' just before I left. The second time Action had changed over to building pretty much Hydrostream based boats and I worked on a couple of those molds. I also got the chance to drive a few of those boats. I was amazed at how easy those boats were drive at speed.

[WaterZebra]

this jump took a lot of work and a number of boats to complete. after almost giving up. bob hammond of glastron, called my boss, tommy hagood, about this project as they were good buddies and we were glastron distributors. we had an employee who had a lot of experience with jumping boats at cypress gardens. he went to louisiana and finally got the project done. his name was buddy boyles. as far as the part about chine walk, i spent many a weekend in a gt150. never had a pad, and steering on starboard side. it ran straught as an arrow, no chine walk, into the 70's on a keller speedometer. i was so impressed with this rig, i was tempted to run it in the fj class. i was running in the fj class at the time with a allison and the glastron would not turn as good as the allison.

There was a second Glastron with 2 bad guys chasing Bond. The movie footage showed the boat clearing the cop car and landing in the canal completely out of control. Were the 2 bad guys crash test dummies or 2 very brave stunt people?

[lars strom]

Jerry Kashmerick

While working at OMC I designed and built two reverse 3 point hydroplanes. Using a 115hp Evinrude the first boat went 55mph, the second boat (lower one) went 82 mph. The wings achieved lift to reduce water drag, and reduce chance of flipping over from the front.

Jim Nerstrom
Jerry Kashmerick,
Thanks for posting those pictures. I still remember our last outing and driving the lower boat, certainly fast, 82mph is what some of the best race boats were doing at the time. The end of our day was somewhat surprising! Take care my friend.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

Reverse hydros could be fast in a straight line but would lose all of their speed in the turns on a course running laps. They work extremely well in radio control model racing. (with inboard engines)

[lars strom]

Jack Aylsworth

Group expert / All-star contributor

1920’s Racing Champ Helen Hentschel ran Evinrude, Johnson & Lockwood


Helen, a New York native, was a serious competitor running the top performance engines from all three brands in various classes. She is shown here early in her racing career in Miss Circuit Rider powered by a Johnson (photo lower left) for the President's Cup on the Potomac River. She pilots her Evinrude Speeditwin powered Miss RC Century racer (upper right) on Lake Templiner in Germany where she won the Class “B” Outboard Races at an average speed of 28.7 mph. Helen is also shown at the USA International Motor Boat Race with a Johnson TR-40 Racer (photo center) in 1928 and with Lockwood Chief power (photo lower right), also that year.

Timeline – Lockwood was part of the merger of Evinrude and Elto in 1929. Johnson joined OMC in 1935 - so all of Hentschel’s featured racing photos were before the OMC founding. It’s unclear if Helen was sponsored by any of the engine brands, but certainly possible.

[lars strom]

John-Brenda Sheldon
OMC paying me after I left for a patent. Their patent assignment policy was

"$1.00 and other valuable considerations"

[22R]

I doubt you was the cause of em going broke!

22R

[lars strom]

Interesting comment from OMC's Jim Nerstrom who was part of the deal..

[lars strom]

Thanks Hot Boat Magazine.

[WaterZebra]

Interesting comment from OMC's Jim Nerstrom who was part of the deal..

No surprise here. The people providing the $$$ get to make the decisions and determine the outcome. F1 boat racing was never going to be as big a show as F1 auto racing. Boat racing was always a novel summer side show for many people. Chances are that if the boat clearly won, the future of F1 boat racing would have been different?