Mystifier -- AJAC HAWK -- 38 (37.6) pics and info?? Hollywood, FL

[fastdonzi]

In 1985 the Ajac Hawk was painted Black and had the name "Terminator" on the side. The Bilge was painted bright pink. the stripe config was the same but done with different colors. IIRC the guys from C&G marine had it and "lent" it out and it got impounded. I had Pic's from where we painted it at Trick Paint in Miami, but them and a Bunch of others where stolen along with my truck.

[Phil M]

Originally Posted by 7xchamp

Hi Phil: I was on that flight as well with Bobby Beich, my wife Debbie at the time and Bob`s wife. I actually had someone sit on my lap, and yes there were people standing in the isles, riding in the cockpit etc. Aerolineas Argentinas, if I`m not mistaken I think there may have even been a couple of live chickens. That ride was scarier than any boat race, AHHH those were the days. We led that race at the start, rougher than hell, then are new boat broke and we almost sunk, we were going under just as we came to the crane, next race that boat ran was pt. Pleasant with Kieth Hazell, and the nose blew off it before the start, Guess it was fractured more than we could see. Always good to hear from you, hope all is well.

Hi Richie - shows how often I get here to read threads- am a month later - haha ! Mar Del Plata was real offshore racing- boats would climb up waves and fall down on the other side - I would hazzard a guess that the swells were at times 50 feet or more - many memories there - Billy Martin making PUNCH - how they raced after that experience was beyond me ! Wish I had my camera for that Flight back to BA - on Aerolinas Argentina - no one would believe me that the plane took off with people standing in the asile - glad you saw the same thing !

Keep bringing back memories Please Richie ! Hope Thanksgiving was happy for you -

Phil

[Phil M]

Originally Posted by Top Banana

Bingo......one of the all time best ever videos of offshore racing, from the 70's and 80's, was Phil Lewis of Needle Nose Films doing an interview with Arlene on what she thought about offshore racing.

Meanwhile at the back of the camera shot is Jerry who is obviously out of earshot and is havng his own conversation with some other people......all of a sudden he notices the crowd around Phil and Arlene and they are quite amused....so he comes wandering down to hear Arlene end her interview with something like this....."Damn fools is what they all are. They are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to run around like little boys racing other little boys, to see who has the biggest ego at the end of the day.....the biggest waste of money and time that was ever created."

Big Seas has the former Needle Nose tapes now....I hope they put that one out soon.

Charlie -

I think the quote was: "This sport is the biggest ego trip known to man - what about the kids education, he said - he got a job as a kid- let them get jobs too - she went on to say- if he keeps doing this (sport) he will be doing it alone ! " or something like that

It was priceless - no coaching - just her opinion - in fact- my Pilot at the time Jimmy Robinson was so amazed, he did an "Alfred Hitchcock walk thru" while the interview was being filmed.

Its Memories like this that made my 20 plus year filming a wonderful experience - and so much fun - Those 20 years or more, as far as I am concerned were the "BEST YEARS OF OFFSHORE" - real offshore racing at first - the evolution of the Cats - and T2x - without his help, and knowledge and wit - I would not have been as successful as I was. His only quip to me at the next race was: did you edit again with the audio turned off - I replied Yes - I heard it all before ! haha !

Phil

[Corsa Quest]

Just curious if anyone figured out which 37.6X Cigarette Mystifier originally was? I read some other threads written by some guys that really seemed to know what they were talking about when they wrote that the Ajac Hawk was converted to diesel and ended up the the Bahamas. Does that boat still even exist??

[littlenige]

Some great footage.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHapRKNnMv0

[I'CE]

was that vid. of Craig Barrie racing " Super Brut " ?

[jadopt1999]

Originally Posted by wstultz

Where did the "AJAC" come from anyway?

Aaron Jacoby and Sons - his Great Grandfather had a machine shop in Brooklyn; when Jerry started his own transmission business (automatic transmission parts, distributing to small places like lee myles, great bear, etc, in the 70's, when people began getting automatic transmissions in droves and began fixing them instead of buying new cars) he named it after his father and grandfather's shop.

It is NOT named for his wife Arlene - his 60' chris craft (Arlene J) was; his 5 powerboats were named : 29' Mirage - JJ's Joint, 35' Cigarette hybrid racer (2 600hp turbo Flagship Marines with piece of sh*t sterndrives that blew up monthly until replaced by mercruisers speedmasters)- JJ's Joint, 35' Cigarette Racer - Ajac Hawk (old Michelob Light 35 that Ippolito used in the 77/78 seasons until he bought a new 38' Scarab in 78/79), 37.6 Ajac Hawk, then Cigarette Hawk, then Brut Faberge.

He also had a Catemeran, a POS built by Broward Marine that came out about 2500lbs heavier than it was meant to and was never able to get above 95 mph, when other cats were running in the low 100's. It did, however, perform extremely well in rough seas, which all the other cats could not do. After racing it a few times, he sold it as a junker. I got a couple of rides in that thing, and it was so damn heavy it felt like you were in a limo. If the water wasnt rough, there was too much bow drag and the boat wouldnt get over about 85 mph. It needed waves of above about 2 feet to kick the bow out of the water.

His 37.6 was unique - it was the first in class (made using a block in the 39' mold - NOT by extending the 35' as some people thing - thats why the extremely high draft at the stern), used custom engines made by Keith Eickert (who later opened Jerr'ys engine shop, Hawk Marine Power), Kiekhaefer Fuel injectors (and originally Kiekhaefer exhausts) and Kiekhaefer throttles. Boat ran at lake X first time about a month before the start of the season, and finished second to Charlie McCarthy's Top Banana in its first race with Bobby Saccenti at the throttles. Was a disapointment first year though, as it had lots of little gremlins and failed to finish a lot of races. At the end of the year, they did some realignment of the drives, and raised them slightly higher in the boat; also, a small 'hook' in the bottom was not removed, and the combination of the 2 yielded about 3 to 4mph in gained speed. Along with Eickerts powerful motors, which were pushing 720 hp on the dyno, he had the fastest deep vee (save for the bertrams, which were on par) of the season in 1981. But Long Shot had an amazing finishing record, and we had several extremely rough races that year, so Bill Elswick was able to win the US championship that year. The first win for him, IIRC, was his amazing victory in the Bacardi Trophy race. Ajac Hawk, clearly the fastest V boat, jumped out to an early lead out of a choppy Government Cut, but a universal joint cracked and he was out of the race after 2 miles.

So a pack of boats - Fayva Shoes (38' cougar Cat), Long Shot, Michelob Light, and one or two others did the Bimini run all within about 30 seconds of each other (I was filming from a helicopter). When they hit the flat water of bimini, Meynard in the Fayva opened up about a minute lead over the rest of the field.

But on the way back, the gulf stream opened up like I've never seen before. Huge, ten to twelve foot swells, with tremendous gaps between them, were rolling on a cross front. The boats, heading to Ft Lauderdale on leg 4 of the race (an 80 mile or so leg) began to spread out. Fayva shoes, the cat, was at a clear disadvantage, and dropped to less than about 40mph. The other boats were running maybe 55mph, tops. Except for Long Shot - the 39' cigarette ate up those seas - he maintained a steady 65, 70mph clip, and by the time they got to fort lauderdale, he had a 20minute lead! 2nd was, IIRC Michelob Light (not certain on that), but Fayva was down in 3rd or 4th. But the coastal run from Ft Lauderdale to Miami, back, and then back again, was dead calm, and Fayva made up a 10 minute deficit to 2nd place and took the flag about 7 minutes behind Long Shot. It was, I am pretty sure, Elswick's first victory in that boat; from there on, he was *the* man to beat for the rest of the year (ive got all these races on old betamax format tapes somewhere).

Back to Ajac Hawk - With Keith Hazel in the boat the following year, and a much more rigorous approach to pre-race mechanical checks, he won 3 races (including the world championship), and the year after that, with the boat now renamed Cigarette Hawk, finished all but 1 race and won the US championship.

[wstultz]

Man I love hearing old stories like that one. Thanks for sharing. You don't happen to know where the 37-6 AJAC ended up do you? I will have to make the Bimini run at least once in my life.

[jadopt1999]

Originally Posted by wstultz

Man I love hearing old stories like that one. Thanks for sharing. You don't happen to know where the 37-6 AJAC ended up do you? I will have to make the Bimini run at least once in my life.

I don't sorry. When Jerry retired from racing at the end of 1983/84 (he didn't like the new superboats and had done what he had set out to do - win the US and World Championships) he sold both his cigarettes (the Broward he had sold the year before). I know one of them resurfaced a few years later, but I lost interest in the sport in the late 80's, so no idea what happened to it.

Was a truly great boat. We took a ride in it once, he was taking me out on throttles, with a friend of his in the nav seat (this was after winning the world championship in 81 - he had the boat brought to Turnberry from Key West for a couple of weeks) - we could NOT get the boat onplane. Couldnt understand it. So I peaked down through the engine covers, and saw that the fuel injector covers had NOT been removed, and were sucked down into the motors! Spent the next five minutes getting them out, and then had a fun afternoon running down to Miami for lunch.

On the way, we saw Joey Ippolitos 38 scarab, now with 500hp mercs (but still staggered, but no fuel injection) and the 36' cigarette Copper Kettle. We all took a trip out to the ocean, and did an impromptu drag race to Ft Lauderdale. Couple of times we stopped, and people switched boats. Great day, until, on the way back, we swallowed a valve. Probably some damage was done with those sucked up injector covers. But the engines had over 30 hours on them when that happened- thats a LOT for a race engine, which were expected to last one weekend (maybe 6 hours) tops.

[fastdonzi]

jadopt1999, are you sure about the ajac boat becoming the Brute boat?????? Reason I ask is we Kept the Black Faberge' Brute Boat in our shop in Hallandale across from Crane Cams, Then a year later I worked for a place (Trick Paint) where we painted the White Ajac boat Black and Named it Terminator. I Personaly painted it so I know it was that boat. So I'm confused on the origin of the Brute boat cause it was a 37.6' just like the ajac. or my timing is off (I did grow up in Miami in the 60's 70's & 80's so my memory could be shot)