"Vintage" boats...what do you remember about........

[Marty Davis]

Got bored with C/L and my Falcon 56 and built a Dumas DV10 about '75, that lead to a glass DV20 with a Supertiger 21, discovered hydros and built a Hughey 40 with a K&B 6.5 and about '78 a Gator '40 after seeing John Ackermans' acticle in Flying Models.
A buddy and I went to the '79 Indy Unlimited to try and race it, but at 19 I didn't have a clue what I was doing, remember Don Bilski helping a lot. Almost couldn't afford the gas to get his '70 GTO back to Ottawa! :lol:

Here's some "retro" boats from Jack Lawbaugh:

https://www.intlwaters.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=166

Terry, What ever happened to Bud and Ben Beard? I rmember them racing a boat at Memphis that had a motor that they built from a block of aluminum. Doc

Dunno Doc, didn't really know them, think they were from FL weren't they? I do remember them at the '83 Nats in Oxford MI though, good runners!

Gary:

Bud and Ben Beard were from Chicago area. They ran an inline twin engine that was really cool and ran great. They were some of the best racers around then. They won a lot of the big races back then.

Marty Davis

 

[Marty Davis]

I was 10 or 11 at the Hennesey Race in Indy and hit up dad for two quarters. One of them hit for a .60 G & M Models flat bottom mono (Misty?). It was a very quick build and was running in a few weeks with HP.61, side port, nonmuffled, mounted on an angle so most of the exhaust could maybe get out of the hull. When this boat was first set in the lake it arced left and we couldn't keep it from crashing in that block wall just pass the dock at the old "Just Add Water" pond. Some of you "Longtime Boaters" might rember that most unique race site. Later, Gary taught us to just slam it down in the water to get it on plane.
Sidebar: That race was cool! On Saturday there was a pontoon boat that would go out by the shore from the northwest side of the pond and travel counter clockwise following near the shore to the southeast corner and turn around to go back. This was all going on while the race was being ran. It was simulating ocean waves to get that realistic offshore racing feel. It was later decided to stop that practice, but the reason had noting to do with safety!

My next was a Ed Hughey round nose with a Veco .19 followed with I think a Daniels OPS.60 deep v.

Then came the riggers in the early mid 70's. Wing Dings 20, 40, 60 and twin 60 with twin shafts at the 75 Nats. I still have Dad's first place trophy for timed oval with his twin.

My next raffle winner was Detroit built .40 Crapshooter with the hardwood sponson booms powered first with OS.40s then later powered by K&B 6.5 & 7.5. Get this, I wanted to mount the water pick up and turn fin just like my 20 Hughey roundnose. I thought I knew my stuff. Boy that boat could get up in the air! DAD FIXED THAT PROBLEM QUICK.

Late 70's to mid 80's all Marty Davis Crapshooters, I had the black & dayglo pink. None of those other guys were man enough to take the pink, so they left it for the kid. See Andy & John it is a curse they put on me way back. I have to tell the rest of this story. At the 2001 Nats in Sarasota, Either Andy or John Brown sent his son over to inform me that my pink boat was a girls boat. I was busting a gut inside, but I could not let it show. I explained to him the only thing worse than owning a pink boat was getting beat by one.

Back on topic...Early 90's a Mr. Pinkert .60 Coyote made the fleet. Good runner. I narrowed up the center section.

93 to late 90's scratch built carbon fiber Raptors and Miss US1/8th scale. Still have some bare Raptor tubs laying around.

Late 90's to present Ralph Almirola buit Roadrunners.

Thanks for starting this topic, for I enjoyed reading and sharing on this one. My wife kept asking me why I was laughing while I was typing. I'm sorry for wandering and being so long.

MG

BOY AN COULD THIS KID COULD DRIVE !! He was the first competitor to beat Mike Meelbusch head to head that I ever saw.. Mike was Octura's Factory Driver and Mark put it on him at about age 12-13.

Mark is Still one of the best drivers in the Country.... I love to have a chance to race Mark and now his Kid Chad(who is about as good as Dad). I'm Getting a little old to be able to compete with these guys. You have to have some luck and a great running boat to beat either one of them.

The Day Glow Boats were a thing that I came up with to let people know that they were racing against a factory Crapshooter Driver in those days. Eash one of us had a different Day Glow Colored Cowling on an All Black Boat. Mark was just the last one to get a choice of colors since he was the "Pup". I can remember each color and who owned it, except one: Howie Whitaker = Yellow, Tom Grannis = Orange, Marty Davis = Green, Greg Huey = Red, ???= Blue. In the late 70's and early 80's Crapshooters were the boat to beat. I almost forgot, the only other Factory Driver during that time was Ed Lackey. He helped me with development almost as much as anyone and was one of the 5 best drivers that I EVER saw race. I miss racing with him a lot. Doc Turner can tell you just how good he was.....

Wow this is fun thining about the "old days".

One of the coolest things was the Indy Unlimited. We allowed 120 boats entered. There was ONLY 1 class. Everyone raced against each other in a "run what you brung". The prize table was over 5,000-$8,000 and the winner got either a lathe or a mill and even down to last place got a nice prize. Took about as long as Atlanta to fill up. Some of the most competitive racing EVER. Maybe some day, we will get someone to host an unlimited race. Bet it would be as big a hit as back then.

Marty Davis

 

[Mark Grannis]

I was 10 or 11 at the Hennesey Race in Indy and hit up dad for two quarters. One of them hit for a .60 G & M Models flat bottom mono (Misty?). It was a very quick build and was running in a few weeks with HP.61, side port, nonmuffled, mounted on an angle so most of the exhaust could maybe get out of the hull. When this boat was first set in the lake it arced left and we couldn't keep it from crashing in that block wall just pass the dock at the old "Just Add Water" pond. Some of you "Longtime Boaters" might rember that most unique race site. Later, Gary taught us to just slam it down in the water to get it on plane.
Sidebar: That race was cool! On Saturday there was a pontoon boat that would go out by the shore from the northwest side of the pond and travel counter clockwise following near the shore to the southeast corner and turn around to go back. This was all going on while the race was being ran. It was simulating ocean waves to get that realistic offshore racing feel. It was later decided to stop that practice, but the reason had noting to do with safety!

My next was a Ed Hughey round nose with a Veco .19 followed with I think a Daniels OPS.60 deep v.

Then came the riggers in the early mid 70's. Wing Dings 20, 40, 60 and twin 60 with twin shafts at the 75 Nats. I still have Dad's first place trophy for timed oval with his twin.

My next raffle winner was Detroit built .40 Crapshooter with the hardwood sponson booms powered first with OS.40s then later powered by K&B 6.5 & 7.5. Get this, I wanted to mount the water pick up and turn fin just like my 20 Hughey roundnose. I thought I knew my stuff. Boy that boat could get up in the air! DAD FIXED THAT PROBLEM QUICK.

Late 70's to mid 80's all Marty Davis Crapshooters, I had the black & dayglo pink. None of those other guys were man enough to take the pink, so they left it for the kid. See Andy & John it is a curse they put on me way back. I have to tell the rest of this story. At the 2001 Nats in Sarasota, Either Andy or John Brown sent his son over to inform me that my pink boat was a girls boat. I was busting a gut inside, but I could not let it show. I explained to him the only thing worse than owning a pink boat was getting beat by one.

Back on topic...Early 90's a Mr. Pinkert .60 Coyote made the fleet. Good runner. I narrowed up the center section.

93 to late 90's scratch built carbon fiber Raptors and Miss US1/8th scale. Still have some bare Raptor tubs laying around.

Late 90's to present Ralph Almirola buit Roadrunners.

Thanks for starting this topic, for I enjoyed reading and sharing on this one. My wife kept asking me why I was laughing while I was typing. I'm sorry for wandering and being so long.

MG

BOY AN COULD THIS KID COULD DRIVE !! He was the first competitor to beat Mike Meelbusch head to head that I ever saw.. Mike was Octura's Factory Driver and Mark put it on him at about age 12-13.

Mark is Still one of the best drivers in the Country.... I love to have a chance to race Mark and now his Kid Chad(who is about as good as Dad). I'm Getting a little old to be able to compete with these guys. You have to have some luck and a great running boat to beat either one of them.

The Day Glow Boats were a thing that I came up with to let people know that they were racing against a factory Crapshooter Driver in those days. Eash one of us had a different Day Glow Colored Cowling on an All Black Boat. Mark was just the last one to get a choice of colors since he was the "Pup". I can remember each color and who owned it, except one: Howie Whitaker = Yellow, Tom Grannis = Orange, Marty Davis = Green, Greg Huey = Red, ???= Blue. In the late 70's and early 80's Crapshooters were the boat to beat. I almost forgot, the only other Factory Driver during that time was Ed Lackey. He helped me with development almost as much as anyone and was one of the 5 best drivers that I EVER saw race. I miss racing with him a lot. Doc Turner can tell you just how good he was.....

Wow this is fun thining about the "old days".

One of the coolest things was the Indy Unlimited. We allowed 120 boats entered. There was ONLY 1 class. Everyone raced against each other in a "run what you brung". The prize table was over 5,000-$8,000 and the winner got either a lathe or a mill and even down to last place got a nice prize. Took about as long as Atlanta to fill up. Some of the most competitive racing EVER. Maybe some day, we will get someone to host an unlimited race. Bet it would be as big a hit as back then.

Marty Davis

I think Bill LeFeber was the blue, remember "slow had to go" his white hull w/ blue cowl and rainbow trimmed super sprint 60. I remember his smile and tears when he got his 80mph patch with that boat. What a great guy! Dee Hughey was peach.

During the Unlimited you were racing multiple very good racers in every heat. It would be outstanding to have an open unlimited again. Nitro, Gas, and Elec. power as monos, hydros, & even outboards single engines & twins all racing each other....reliability vs. speed. Bring back the Saturday night hot dog roast followed by the boat burning party for the guys that totaled their boats. I remember an IMPBA hall of fame member buring his "yellow belly mud sucker". Then he won the event the next year! Any guesses?

How about those Rothisberger scratch built monos. He won an Unlimited with a perfect 2000 points. Yes the Lead Sled was ultra cool. The reliability of that boat was unbelievable! Gary Preusse and his Stars & Stripes Hustler. It would hit a rpm band rarely duplicated. Meelbush and his 60 wing ding won back to back. Nobody ever backed in to wining this race, for it was always truly earned.

MG

 

[Hydro Junkie]

The first event I ever went to were a NAMBA SAW event back in 1983. I was watching guys hitting in excess of 70 with the "Stiletto" style hulls with K&B or OS 11CC engines. All I could think back then was WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Built my first boat the prior year, the ever present 30" Dumas Pay N' Pak, only to be told at that race I wasted my time and money on it. Only tools I had to build with was a hand crank drill, a couple of drill bits and set of Exacto knives. Never did get it to run right, might have been the HB 20 under the cowl. Followed that with a 36" Dumas Atlas, which was verbally torn apart by the likes of Troy McIntyre, Ron Ericson and several other R/C Unlimiteds drivers. Learned a very valuable lesson that day, NEVER TRUST A BOAT KIT'S INSTRUCTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To this day, I still don't

What was really sad was that Atlas weighed in at over 8 pounds empty, even though I followed the directions. I now have a Dumas Circus Circus kit in my garage, lets see how I do with that one for weight

 

[Jorgen Andersson]

Hi

This is an interesting subject!

Here we have some pictures from 1982-1983.

All boats are original Crapshooters bought from Marty.

He was always a good support. I remember that I wrote papper letters to him with all sorts of "stupid" questions and he took time to answer most of them.

The boats are 21, 45 and 67. We also had good support from K&B and Mr Broadbeck during 1983 when I think the K&B67 saw daylight. Here we have engine/shaft offset and front sponson offset as well.

On the next set of Crapshooters the rudder was moved to the right. I still have the manuel for those boats and Marty has written by hand "revised, rudder on right!"

Keep the stories and pictures coming.

All the best

Jorgen Andersson

 

[jetpack]

I've added a few early advertisements I think you all can enjoy in My Albums. Click on them and they will all open up in large format.

If you look at some of my other albums, there might be some engines you might remember also.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Oops, wrong thread :huh:

 

[mercguy]

My first boat was a Dragonfly with a .40 K&B rear intake side exhaust (very loud). It was a blowover special. Next was a .60 and .40 Wing Ding. Remember that drop snoot carb 60 OPS with a Kool Clamp? Had a 40 A&L Hustler rigger, .21 Hughey rigger with 3.5 OPS. Next came the 60 and 40 Gators. Still have the 40 Gator and a Dumas Hot Shot 45 tunnel. (another blowover special). Sure wish I had pictures of the boats, just wasn't into photos at the time.

Mercguy

 

[Marty Davis]

Really cool pictures guys, thanks for sharing- Neat thread !!!

Anybody got any more of this with maybe the cowl off ??

Marty ?? - share any stories about it ?

I would really like to see the lay down engine design....

https://www.intlwaters.com/gallery/displayimage...=166&pos=15

Phil those JVS Hydro's look pretty cool too- how did they run ??

https://www.intlwaters.com/gallery/displayimage...=116&pos=19

That can of Missile Mist in the background shore brings back some memories of dad at the flying field...

Andy

Andy:

That laydown 60 boat was one of my all time favorites. Looked really cool. Was a real chore to get the engine mount made for that with front carb.

I had great success with the laydown 21's. Was easy to mount since it was a crank induction and was easy to just mount to the 4 lugs on the front of the case. Maybe I will revisit that some day if I get the urge and time.

Here is one that I have very mixed feelings about...... The El Diablo Outboard. It was so dominant in outboard class that IMPBA reclassed it to an outrigger outboard (was no such thing) so it just kind of went away. Dominated at ponds like Bell Isle Detroit in 20 hydro class because the water was so rough usually. Jack Garcia (recently passed away) loved that boat and worked really hard to make it run super well. **** Jones (past IMPBA Presidnet) also loved that boat and made some really good gains with it.

 

[Norm Doerr]

Really cool pictures guys, thanks for sharing- Neat thread !!!

Anybody got any more of this with maybe the cowl off ??

Marty ?? - share any stories about it ?

I would really like to see the lay down engine design....

http://gallery.intlw...e...=166&pos=15

Phil those JVS Hydro's look pretty cool too- how did they run ??

http://gallery.intlw...e...=116&pos=19

That can of Missile Mist in the background shore brings back some memories of dad at the flying field...

Andy

Andy:

That laydown 60 boat was one of my all time favorites. Looked really cool. Was a real chore to get the engine mount made for that with front carb.

I had great success with the laydown 21's. Was easy to mount since it was a crank induction and was easy to just mount to the 4 lugs on the front of the case. Maybe I will revisit that some day if I get the urge and time.

Here is one that I have very mixed feelings about...... The El Diablo Outboard. It was so dominant in outboard class that IMPBA reclassed it to an outrigger outboard (was no such thing) so it just kind of went away. Dominated at ponds like Bell Isle Detroit in 20 hydro class because the water was so rough usually. Jack Garcia (recently passed away) loved that boat and worked really hard to make it run super well. **** Jones (past IMPBA Presidnet) also loved that boat and made some really good gains with it.

The El Diablo was the first outrigger I ever owned. VERY cool if you were a beginner and were already into outboards. This was before they had real outboard pipes.. some very interesting pipe configurations came from this, (all the pipes were straight then) finally somebody ran the pipe back towards the front of the boat under the cowl with a "car stinger" coming out of the thing straight up. JG props were the way to go then. Late 1978 or early 1979 I think.

 

[Norm Doerr]

Oh and notice all the bolted down radio box lids, International Prodcucts and Irwin Pipes huge sponsons... LOL. I like the big huge circus tent in Indy...

 

[Marty Davis]

As for Bill Lefeber's 60 hydro:

Joey Albanese built it for Bill. Joey was one of the finest builders of that time and it was an awesome looking boat. I remember helping Bill run it at the Dandy T lake to try to set the 60 SAW record. That same day a guy from Norway, Tereje Haugen used a 40 Crapshooter with an OPS 60 to set a new E SAW record. Bill was right there with his big Super 60. Bill finally went 80 mph with a Beardslee trimmed 2.8 Octura Prop.

Norm Doerr has that boat in it's original condition. I gave it to him when I sold him all my stuff. Bill had asked me to tak care of that boat so I told Norm that if there were ever an IMPBA Mueseum, that it should go there.

LOTS of great memories of that time period for me.......

That was probably the best SAW pond in the country at that time and was nicknamed RASC lake (Ries, Albanese, Sweet, Churas) Guys that spent a LOT of money making runs.

 

[Al Hobbs]

Jim Whitlatch was the man setting many IMPBA and NAMBA records back in the 60's and 70's. He and Steve Muck were racing partners when Steve still lived in southern California. Steve designed and built boats. Jim was an engine man.

For X Hydro record trials, Jim was setting up OPS engines geared together, running one prop in a modified Octura Wing Ding. I've got one of his twin OPS 60, geared setups. I bought it from him a few years ago as he tried to clear out as much of his boating stash as possible. I've also got some of his early gears that could not take the stress and didn't hold up.

The first time I saw it and heard it made a lasting impression on me. You should have heard it, The sound of two OPS 60's on open pipes and the open gear drive winding up was awesome. Plus, there was a volume of gear lube in the air.

It is a piece of model boating history and has a spot on the shelf in my shop.

Al Hobbs

 

[Big roy]

I had my first boat about 23 years ago, a Graupner electro V, never got to run it but it was a pretty boat. I love the old boats myself, ya not as fast but a peice of history and a trip down memory lane. I still have a 90 crapshooter in my mancave, if it does not get a new home I may rebuild it.

Roy

 

[Dr Hydro]

After crashing my first rc plane I took the engine(Fox 29) and machined an aluminum cooling ring to fit the machined down head. Put it in a Dumas Pay and Pak hydro. Then got a book to hop up the engine. I think it was Harry's Handbook....something like that. Every trick I did to the 29 made it run faster and faster. I was hooked bad by then. Found out about tuned pipes and made a water cooled header to attach it. Talk about bolt on power. Dang! My friends all had K&B 45's and I ended up using their engines as guinea pigs for my engine work. I modded a K&B 45 and put it in my Pay and Pak. Talk about a screamer. I was working on a scratch built hydro but crashed my hydro and we all sort of lost interest at the same time. Kept all my equipment and got back into it a few years back. Wish I would not have wasted all my money on gas boats and racing. Had some great times just clowning around with my podnuhs. Guess I'm not the competitive type. This is a really great thread. The first race I went to was at the Southern Gentlemen's pond in Slidell, Louisiana. Talk about an eye opener. Learned alot of tricks that day.

 

[DON MAHER]

I just had lunch Henry Velasco & Steve Muck, who is in town visiting his daughter for Mothers day. When Steve called he said he had 20lbs of history for me to look at!!!! Well all I can say is there has to be a place to put all of this history on display. It is his collection of Model Boating World News, starting with Vol-1 No.-1 march 1968; West Coast Model News from as far back as 1961 and Vol.-1 No.-1 of RC Model Boating Feb. 1972.

The names & pictures contained in this material are the foundaiton of model boating as we know it today. I will spend some time looking through it for my own stroll down memory lane, then it will be given to someone who is better qualified to deal with such material. I just plane lack the talent to do it justice. This may take some time, but when you see this material it will blow you away.

Thank you Steve this is truly history!!!!!

Don

 

[Bill Gibson]

I thoroughly enjoy reading every one of these posts and i hope there are ALOT more to come.........where we are at today with prerformance and fun in this hobby has so much to do with what we did 10,20,30, 40 years ago...to me, memories have as much to do with the enjoyment of this hobby as what we are doing right now......OLD SHOOL IS GOOD STUFF!

 

[Kez]

Good thread! And I thought I was not normal to be hoarding all the old stuff until I read the posts in this thread ;-)

I built my first boat in 1970. It was a British kit made by Aerokits. The boat was a Sea Rover. A cabin crusier popular at the time. The engine was an C/L Enya .15 converted to marine. A futaba 2E was extremely expensive to me as I was a school kid so I set the rudder and ran it in circles.

My next boat actually was RC. I bought a used unit made by OS Max (yes OS made radios in the 70's). It was a single channel with a push button for throttle. It took me 6 months of lunch money to buy that thing. From there I got a EK radio and Dumas Deepvee .20. Drag n Fli 20, 40 (still have and run 3 of these), Hot shot (I still have 4 of them), plus many others between then and now including Steve Muck's Lil Dolphin, North Wind, and a few others made by Japanese KNK (never imported into North America....

I still have (and run) many old school engines in my collection. HP gold cup, Webra, Veco and HB.

When Dumas came up with the Scarab KV, I was going to college and could not afford it. I just bought one off Ebay last month and it will be a shelf queen. I am current restoring a Dumas CF deepvee .40 that I built some 25 years ago. I will be powering it with another old time engine and original hardware.

 

[Bill Gibson]

Good thread! And I thought I was not normal to be hoarding all the old stuff until I read the posts in this thread ;-)

I built my first boat in 1970. It was a British kit made by Aerokits. The boat was a Sea Rover. A cabin crusier popular at the time. The engine was an C/L Enya .15 converted to marine. A futaba 2E was extremely expensive to me as I was a school kid so I set the rudder and ran it in circles.

My next boat actually was RC. I bought a used unit made by OS Max (yes OS made radios in the 70's). It was a single channel with a push button for throttle. It took me 6 months of lunch money to buy that thing. From there I got a EK radio and Dumas Deepvee .20. Drag n Fli 20, 40 (still have and run 3 of these), Hot shot (I still have 4 of them), plus many others between then and now including Steve Muck's Lil Dolphin, North Wind, and a few others made by Japanese KNK (never imported into North America....

I still have (and run) many old school engines in my collection. HP gold cup, Webra, Veco and HB.

When Dumas came up with the Scarab KV, I was going to college and could not afford it. I just bought one off Ebay last month and it will be a shelf queen. I am current restoring a Dumas CF deepvee .40 that I built some 25 years ago. I will be powering it with another old time engine and original hardware.

I, for one would LOVE to see pics of some of your old stuff, if possible!

 

[Kez]

I, for one would LOVE to see pics of some of your old stuff, if possible!

Sure, let me figure out how to post image in my gallery and I will dig up some old photos and snap some new ones. I think the images will be too large to post in the thread.

Other than RC boat, I am collecting RC buggies and planes; especially those that I could not afford when I was a kid. Signs of getting old ;-)

Just snapped a couple of photos. Can't post them in my gallery but I hope I can attach them here.

These are Dumas vees. The one painted Formula scheme was inboard. Cigarette scheme was outboard. Restoring both as they all have chipped gel coat.