Vintage Outrigger's

[Sam Peden]

Hi Marty, Do you remember this Boat?

 

[Marty Davis]

Sure do, one of MANY....

 

[darin christensen]

Does anyone have any good pictures of a outrigger with the laydown engine set up ???

 

[Marty Davis]

Terry Keeley used to have a couple of shots of my 20 and 67 lay down Crapshooters. I looked for his Gallery and couldn't find any. Maybe he will respond. I would like to have an image of the 67.

 

[Andy Brown]

Donna Brown's first boat was a Marty Davis 21 Crapshooter that Jim Nolan gave to her as a wedding gift in 1983. She leared to drive and race with that boat and went on to win the 1986 Orlando Winternats with a 21 Mongoose like the one pictured.

 

[Andy Brown]

I also remember seeing O'Donnell's baby blue Boss 65 at Orlando. I think it was 1982. I was running Gators and Crapshooters at the time. Steve's Boss hydro was, in part, an inspiration to my Mongoose design started in 1983.

 

[darin christensen]

Wow what a great boat and story. I`d love to see some pictures of the lay down engine set ups.

 

[Jack ODonnell]

Andy that was 1982. There was only one each every made of the Boss 45 & 65, They were designed by the Zoom man Charles Perdue. That was the same race that Marty Davis sent his new 20 laydown hydro for Steve to run.Steve ended up winning the US-1 in 20 hydro with it.

 

[dr gary turner]

Stan:

Their turn fins were really trick. They were straight but had a flat bottom that was parallel with the bottom of the boat. They were angled in many degrees. Worked super. A little bit of problem in turning left even the slightest bit. They ran a football course so that they never had to turn left.

That got Ed Lackey, Gregg Huey and myself working on turn fins constantly after that. We made hundreds of fins until we cracked the code. Once we did, the game was on.... Lackey was the driving force behind that as I was in Indy with the cold winters and he could test all year.

 

[dr gary turner]

Marten the first " bent" turn fin I saw was on Ben and Bud Beard's boat at our race at the reservoir in B'ham. Soon there after Ed Lackey showed up at the reservoir with a sack of fins of every shape and configuration to test.

 

[David Bryant]

Andy that was 1982. There was only one each every made of the Boss 45 & 65, They were designed by the Zoom man Charles Perdue. That was the same race that Marty Davis sent his new 20 laydown hydro for Steve to run.Steve ended up winning the US-1 in 20 hydro with it.

very cool Mr. ODonnnell, thanks. Are you guys still running these boats?

 

[Andy Brown]

Andy that was 1982. There was only one each every made of the Boss 45 & 65, They were designed by the Zoom man Charles Perdue. That was the same race that Marty Davis sent his new 20 laydown hydro for Steve to run.Steve ended up winning the US-1 in 20 hydro with it.

Jack, I remember the red laydown 21 also. It was running a 3 blade prop.

Those were great times in nitro rigger racing. Highly competitive!

Tell Steve I said congratulations on his new .45 two-Lap record! Still doin' it!

 

[Jack ODonnell]

Andy; And the record was with a Eagle SG.

 

[Terry Keeley]

Terry Keeley used to have a couple of shots of my 20 and 67 lay down Crapshooters. I looked for his Gallery and couldn't find any. Maybe he will respond. I would like to have an image of the 67.

yup, they were in with some other pix from Jack Lawbau (sp?). The old gallery has been down for days now, hope it's not lost?

 

[Andy Brown]

Andy; And the record was with a Eagle SG.

That's Awesome Jack! O'Donnell/Picco power?

 

[David Bryant]

It's intriguing to me how front sponson "spoilers" (angled metal sheet) were used during that era of outrigger design. Generate downforce, prevent blow-off's?

 

[ChrisCapaldi]

Here are a couple of pictures of one of the old laydown 20s that I have here on the shelf. It was running a K&B .21 with the front intake. By laying down the engine it got the venturi off the floor of the boat.

Chris

 

[darin christensen]

Now that`s cool !!! I`m hoping people will post more pics of these laydown`s especially engine pics

Here are a couple of pictures of one of the old laydown 20s that I have here on the shelf. It was running a K&B .21 with the front intake. By laying down the engine it got the venturi off the floor of the boat.

Chris

 

[Charles Perdue]

Marty, those Boss turn fins really worked but the hull had to be very rigid to prevent twisting. Making the hull rigid was easily done by making the hull sides triangle shaped.

We handled the getting flighty when turning left problem, by setting the turn fin to make the boat pull slightly to the left with the rudder set straight. Then when a slight amount of right rudder trim was added. the boat ran very flat and stable on the water and if a small left turn was needed, the boat would not get flighty. The current riggers, and all hydros for that matter, still respond very good to this setup.

Charles

 

[Marty Davis]

Charles:

When I saw the boats, they were probably very new and without all the testing and refining done. I remember VERY WELL the way that the boats ran at our race. As I said earlier, it made us get busy working on our own boats to get to the same level that you guys were at. Ed Lackey, Gregg Huey and I started working VERY hard in that direction. That was in major part the basis for our current turn fin technology that I talked about in the "snap turn" Technotes.

Do you have any current boats running? If so, tell us about them.... if you will.