Vintage Crapshooter Twin

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ChrisCapaldi

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Here are a few pictures of a vintage twin Picco .80 Crapshooter that is going to head to the pond for the 1st time in probably the last 40 years or so tomorrow. It was built in the early 80s and was recently upgraded with new electronics, drive lines, and fuel systems. Based on the front sponsons, I believe it would have been originally built by Tim Ries. With a bit of luck, we are hoping it can make a few laps.
Chris
 

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Here are a few pictures of a vintage twin Picco .80 Crapshooter that is going to head to the pond for the 1st time in probably the last 40 years or so tomorrow. It was built in the early 80s and was recently upgraded with new electronics, drive lines, and fuel systems. Based on the front sponsons, I believe it would have been originally built by Tim Ries. With a bit of luck, we are hoping it can make a few laps.
Chris
Would that have been prior to Greg Hughey?.....we had an early-mid 80's Crapshooter that Hughey built....I think he was the one who incorporated the air slots on frt. sponson running surfaces. Was a better 'rough' water boat than the Coyote.
Very cool boat, have fun with it.
 
Yes, Tim Ries made some of the very 1st Crapshooters.
Chris
The sponsons are for sure early Crapshooter, it was the way Tim, Charlie and Dennis of Precision Boat ( Crapshooter) did the non-trip that wrapped all the way around the nose of the sponson. Here’s a couple of my twins from that era that I copied the same sponson design. And Chris Capaldi launched many times when he was a kid!
 

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Chris,

How did the Picco 80’s work?
Did you and Bert test twins yesterday to get ready
for the Spencer Park open class?

Thanks,

Mark
 
Marty Davis would know for sure as he bought the business from the Detroit guys and wether he, Joey or Greg made any design changes right away.
John, when I bought mine, it was from an ad in the back of Finch's Radio Control Boat Modeler magazine. The big selling point was the two ride plates separated by about 1/4"- 3/8" gap, forming a shallow 'tunnel' on front sponsons.
Seems that was somewhere around '83-'85ish....was working at Tech Center and remember taking it into the Prop Shop and showing Tom...that was at the small shop north of the present location on Van Dyke.

I think Mark Arwady(sp?) wound up with it when he bought out all my boats and equipment for a shop he was wanting to open on Gratiot or Groesbeck, can't remember the finer details.
I guess Mark lives up in the Charlevoix area now....was trying to look him up to see if he still had my old stuff, and see if I could by it back.
The boat I really wanted back was the International Seebold Bud Light tunnel hull with OS 65/Merc outboard.
 
Tim,

Mark’s Hobby Shop was on Gratiot Avenue.
I bought some of Mark’s personal boats their
back in the late 80’s when I was getting ready
to race. I remember him coaching me in Flint
at the Northern Nationals with his Aeromarine
21-Challenger Mono. 1988 & 1989 I believe.
Thread Lake was a great place to race back then,
I remember it Very Well. I remember Terry trying to
beat Mike on the oval in 40-Hydro. Wow that was
about 35-years ago. OPS motors and Piccos were
Very popular then. Shamrock and Tidewater days.

Good Times For Sure,

Mark Sholund
 
We had the engines running together but didn't get the boat in the water. The boat was set up to use the stock carbs but we ran into some issues getting them to stay in sync with them. Also, we found that 1 of the bolt on headers was leaking. Nothing major but enough to keep us from getting the boat wet. I'm planning on converting the carbs to use remote needles and swapping out the headers. I think with these changes we will have it in the water next time out.
Chris
 
Tim,

Mark’s Hobby Shop was on Gratiot Avenue.
I bought some of Mark’s personal boats their
back in the late 80’s when I was getting ready
to race. I remember him coaching me in Flint
at the Northern Nationals with his Aeromarine
21-Challenger Mono. 1988 & 1989 I believe.
Thread Lake was a great place to race back then,
I remember it Very Well. I remember Terry trying to
beat Mike on the oval in 40-Hydro. Wow that was
about 35-years ago. OPS motors and Piccos were
Very popular then. Shamrock and Tidewater days.

Good Times For Sure,

Mark Sholund
Yeah, I knew you and him were pretty tight at one point.

I never knew him until one evening around dinner time he and his wife/girlfriend came knocking at our door inquiring as to whether I had any rc boats and equipment for sale....he did mention he was opening a boat specific hobby shop- that was in '90-'91.
Took me by surprise, and he told me Tom Brubaker gave him my whereabouts.

Mark seemed like a really nice guy, so we planned a trip up to Lake St. Helen, where the majority of the stuff was at, for a weekend...and that was that. After spending a weekend with them, I came to like Mark a lot. He definitely showed a passion and exuberance for the hobby. I literally gave him a honey pot of stuff for next to nothing. At that point, I was done...until 2014.

Besides working insane hours on the concept phase of the Gen 1 ZR1 Corvette at the Tech Center's Engineering Staff, we were ear deep into professional slot car racing and manufacturing, and had a band that was playing around the Eastside regularly.

The only regret we have is not having the drive and stamina today we had back then!....lol!....but I guess that's what happens from burning the candle at both ends. 🤔😉....albeit 'tis nonetheless frustrating.

Hope to see you and Jeff at the final Club event and picnic....would be great if you could hammer on Beardslee and get him to come, too.
And then there's the Banquet....the NY Strips are awesome....maybe Stu will even show up again.

Take Care-
Tim
 
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