Who Started Crapshooter Boats?

[JSCARPINO]

Hello Marty

Have you ever heard or known where Eric might be?

I lost track of hime when I left Florida in 1990.

I did here that his Dad passed away a while back....awesome man

and a heck of a boat builder.

If anyone should read this and know where Eric might be.....let me know...

Thanks

Joe

 

[Marty Davis]

Hello Marty
Have you ever heard or known where Eric might be?

I lost track of hime when I left Florida in 1990.

I did here that his Dad passed away a while back....awesome man

and a heck of a boat builder.

If anyone should read this and know where Eric might be.....let me know...

Thanks

Joe

I talked to him some time ago and he was still the fishing captain for the Bertram Family in Ft Lauderdale. He was considering racing, but have not seen or heard of him at the pond.

Marty Davis

 

[Goran Aldell]

Mark:

Almost correct. The three people who started Precision Boat Manufacturing (Crapshooter) were Charlie Sweet, Dennis Worden and Tim Reese.

Then the business transferred to Joey Albanese and Myself from Tim Reese who had taken control of the company and produced boats for 5 years +/-.

I ran the business for 6 years during the 70's producing 600 boats per year for a three of those years.

I sold the company to Greg Huey who was an employee of mine for a few years.

Greg ran the company for about 4 years and sold the company to (Kerry Woodward) who had almost no experience with model boats at all. Can't remember his name. The Barr Brothers were silent partners of his. After a business failure, Stu Barr took control of the company and has run it since, producing a few (10-15) of the highest quality kits that have EVER been produced by anyone. Stu still produces a few kits every year with a LONG waiting list.

The list of owners of a company that has been a big part of RC Model Boat Racing...... and the winner of more US#1's that I can count.

Marty Davis

Hi
I bought 2, 60 Crapshooter boats from you Marty in the 70th. I saw one advertisement in Modell airplane news.
Actually may friend Karl-Erik Sjoberg who had one of the boats have still the Swedish stright away trail record between foto cells in 1978.
He drowsed one lane left tor right 143 km/h and second right to left 132 km/h = average speed of 137,5 km/h.
This with one OPS 65 without nitro fuel only methanol and oil 80/20 and prop Octura 2:8 .
There are probably others who have had higher speed but not in one invitation race in Sweden what I know about.
I have two replica of this boat one original and one made larger for 90 engine and both with modern set up with flex shaft and so on.
Those boats are like as fast as any other boats.
I have still one original made drawing for the 60 boat.

Thanks Marty
Best regards
Mats

 

[Elias Vazquez]

I talked to him some time ago and he was still the fishing captain for the Bertram Family in Ft Lauderdale. He was considering racing, but have not seen or heard of him at the pond.

Marty Davis

Hi Marty, I was told by Ramon Rodriguez a couple years back that Eric Swenson passed. That was right around the time he was starting to make his way back.

Be well friend

 

[Danny King]

Hi Marty, I was told by Ramon Rodriguez a couple years back that Eric Swenson passed. That was right around the time he was starting to make his way back.

Be well friend

Elias! Hope all is good man!
Marty’s post was from 2008.

But I sure wish I would have got to run with Eric before he passed. Bud, Eric and Mary K were a big part of my boating influence in the beginning. Lots of great times. Gone too soon.
Cool thread on the history of Crapshooter.

 

[Elias Vazquez]

Elias! Hope all is good man!
Marty’s post was from 2008.

But I sure wish I would have got to run with Eric before he passed. Bud, Eric and Mary K were a big part of my boating influence in the beginning. Lots of great times. Gone too soon.
Cool thread on the history of Crapshooter.

Hey Danny, all is well. Didn't catch that, thanks!

Be well.

 

[Christian Lucas]

Hi Marty,
Did you know that a Crapshoter Outrigger held the world speed record for electric model racing boats in 1984 50 mph until 1993 when Jim Augustine officially drove higher speeds. In the picture my Crapshoter which I bought in 1983 as a kit. Since with 30 SubC Nicad cells and a rewound armatur Keller 100 motor. No speed controller only with a series parallel switch the batteries switched from 15 to 30 cells. I set the record in Italy in Milan on the Idroscalo rowing regatta course. The water was very rough there, had thin elastic GRP rods for the float attachment that worked like springs. Later I built a very narrow balsa crap shoter only 2 inches wide center hull and much narrower sponson. Cover the picture with Hans Lehner in a blue jeans jacket and me with adhesive tape before the start. I later converted the Rekord Crapshoter to an IC motor, a Pico 80, and drove oval races and straight aways with it, also often in Italy and in Sweden/Oxelesund. In the pictures the red Interceptor, he is still alive today, is in my hobbyroom.

Happy Amps Christian

 

[Marty Davis]

Hi Marty, I was told by Ramon Rodriguez a couple years back that Eric Swenson passed. That was right around the time he was starting to make his way back.

Be well friend

Yes, I had heard that he passed. I talked to him several times and he was in the process of starting to run again. He had ordered a boat from Andy but hadn't gotten it yet. How about you anything important happen?

 

[Elias Vazquez]

Yes, I had heard that he passed. I talked to him several times and he was in the process of starting to run again. He had ordered a boat from Andy but hadn't gotten it yet. How about you anything important happen?

All is well, moved from the hustle/bustle of Miami to a more slower paced Melbourne. Need to make it out sometime to one of the local races.

 

[Marty Davis]

Hi Marty,
Did you know that a Crapshoter Outrigger held the world speed record for electric model racing boats in 1984 50 mph until 1993 when Jim Augustine officially drove higher speeds. In the picture my Crapshoter which I bought in 1983 as a kit. Since with 30 SubC Nicad cells and a rewound armatur Keller 100 motor. No speed controller only with a series parallel switch the batteries switched from 15 to 30 cells. I set the record in Italy in Milan on the Idroscalo rowing regatta course. The water was very rough there, had thin elastic GRP rods for the float attachment that worked like springs. Later I built a very narrow balsa crap shoter only 2 inches wide center hull and much narrower sponson. Cover the picture with Hans Lehner in a blue jeans jacket and me with adhesive tape before the start. I later converted the Rekord Crapshoter to an IC motor, a Pico 80, and drove oval races and straight aways with it, also often in Italy and in Sweden/Oxelesund. In the pictures the red Interceptor, he is still alive today, is in my hobbyroom.

Happy Amps Christian

Yes I knew about that. Did you ever run across Terje Haugen from Norway. He was in the USA for a while working for a company called Twin K in Indianapolis. He and I ran rc electric cars in the Winter to keep our hand in. He set the SAW record in the USA with a Crapshooter in the late 70's.

 

[Tom Foley]

Mark:

Almost correct. The three people who started Precision Boat Manufacturing (Crapshooter) were Charlie Sweet, Dennis Worden and Tim Reese.

Then the business transferred to Joey Albanese and Myself from Tim Reese who had taken control of the company and produced boats for 5 years +/-.

I ran the business for 6 years during the 70's producing 600 boats per year for a three of those years.

I sold the company to Greg Huey who was an employee of mine for a few years.

Greg ran the company for about 4 years and sold the company to (Kerry Woodward) who had almost no experience with model boats at all. Can't remember his name. The Barr Brothers were silent partners of his. After a business failure, Stu Barr took control of the company and has run it since, producing a few (10-15) of the highest quality kits that have EVER been produced by anyone. Stu still produces a few kits every year with a LONG waiting list.

The list of owners of a company that has been a big part of RC Model Boat Racing...... and the winner of more US#1's that I can count.

Marty Davis

Thats 1.643 boats per day with no days off ??? Thats a lot of boats ! Descibe your average work day lol .

 

[Marty Davis]

LONG work day. Gregg Huey and Kerry Woodward were working for me and 2 others on piece work to produce the 600/year.

 

[SayMikey]

All great posts about all great boaters.

 

[Zimmerman]

I started seriously messing with this stuff in 1969. If my memory is correct "they" had an add in R/C Modeler around '74 that said if you assemble their 40 boat according to their specs, they would guarantee 45 mph!! Does anyone remember that or was I dreaming?

 

[John Forbes]

Tidewater Engineering was who i bought my crapshooter from from Mr Mac out of Bassdrop La.

 

[ChrisHerzog]

I remember Kerry Woodward not a boater but he was a very good woodworker,a cabinet maker i think......The good old days BRING BACK THE INDY UNLIMITED !!!!!!!!!!! Mike

I was just talking about the Indy race this weekend in Dallas. I was telling them about the one big tent that was set up for everyone to pit under. I will never forget having a perfect score going into the last round and having to race against Jay Devay (spelling) who also had a perfect score with his twin 67 boat. I hit bouy 6 coming out the last turn trying to get the inside lane on him. Got a DNF and it knocked me down to 7th over all! Good times for sure!
Come to think about it, when I walked up to the table I picked a 40 Crapshooter kit up and sold it to Doc, lol!! That whole experience made a big impression on a young 14yr old 41 years ago!!

 

[SayMikey]

I was just talking about the Indy race this weekend in Dallas. I was telling them about the one big tent that was set up for everyone to pit under. I will never forget having a perfect score going into the last round and having to race against Jay Devay (spelling) who also had a perfect score with his twin 67 boat. I hit bouy 6 coming out the last turn trying to get the inside lane on him. Got a DNF and it knocked me down to 7th over all! Good times for sure!
Come to think about it, when I walked up to the table I picked a 40 Crapshooter kit up and sold it to Doc, lol!! That whole experience made a big impression on a young 14yr old 41 years ago!!

Only went to one horrible my first time. But the atmosphere was second to none. Ive been to a few Internats and not seen the same intensity at them. Indy Unlimited was a Crown Jewell

 

[ChrisHerzog]

Only went to one horrible my first time. But the atmosphere was second to none. Ive been to a few Internats and not seen the same intensity at them. Indy Unlimited was a Crown Jewell

Yep, it was an awesome race!

 

[Wasted wages]

87 and 88 Nats were a very good time!!
Only ones my wife and I ever made it to...but we had a ball!!

 

[Jeff Lutz]

Hi Marty,
Did you know that a Crapshoter Outrigger held the world speed record for electric model racing boats in 1984 50 mph until 1993 when Jim Augustine officially drove higher speeds. In the picture my Crapshoter which I bought in 1983 as a kit. Since with 30 SubC Nicad cells and a rewound armatur Keller 100 motor. No speed controller only with a series parallel switch the batteries switched from 15 to 30 cells. I set the record in Italy in Milan on the Idroscalo rowing regatta course. The water was very rough there, had thin elastic GRP rods for the float attachment that worked like springs. Later I built a very narrow balsa crap shoter only 2 inches wide center hull and much narrower sponson. Cover the picture with Hans Lehner in a blue jeans jacket and me with adhesive tape before the start. I later converted the Rekord Crapshoter to an IC motor, a Pico 80, and drove oval races and straight aways with it, also often in Italy and in Sweden/Oxelesund. In the pictures the red Interceptor, he is still alive today, is in my hobbyroom.

Happy Amps Christian

Do you have some photos of Jim Augustine holding his electric boats? I remember seeing him in boat modeler magazine way back in the day . Jeff Lutz