I am writing the book, while I am on this side of the daisies.......
04-07-2015, 11:48 PM
#42
Registered
Yeah, but the search plane never found us. We fired all our flares except one, that stuck out the barrel about 4 inches. Neither of us wanted to look like Buckwheat, so we never fired it. Finally hailed down a freighter, the "Mereghan III" who agreed to tow us to Chub Cay. They had us on a 300 foot nylon towline and they were cooking bacon and eggs on the fantail. We hadn't eaten since the day before, and we were contemplating hand over handing up the rope. Got stuck on Chub for a week with the weather.
Glad you all stuck it out and didn’t have to leave the boat at sea. I would probably die out there because I knew when/if they found me I wouldn’t want to leave my boat behind (especially after all the ones that wash up on the beach after the owner rolled out).
You know now that I’m thinking about it I’m not sure it was a good thing or not. Spending every dime the last two years building two Kiekhaefer 496’s to dump in it in the next couple weeks my bank account sure wishes it was lost at sea instead of it being lost in a sea of red.
Hey, someone sent me these pictures. You happen to recognize who this is?
Last edited by f_inscreenname; 04-08-2015 at 12:03 AM.
04-08-2015, 11:52 AM
#44
Registered
Now I see the chain. From you to Cortes Weslley Randell to a car dealership in VA to Ferd to me.
The H/M's are boat anchors when I saw parts of them years ago and Ferd still wants way to much $$ for them (apparently Ford enthusiasts has driven their value over the moon). Maybe he will leave them to me when he dies if by chance I out live him. lol. I've also been down the Ford and Chrysler marine road before and cant afford the tolls. I mean it took almost 3 years to get the boat back on the water, another 2 years building real motors for it and it will take a while longer to get custom headers / exhaust built for it and I'm a long way from 188th st.
The H/M's are boat anchors when I saw parts of them years ago and Ferd still wants way to much $$ for them (apparently Ford enthusiasts has driven their value over the moon). Maybe he will leave them to me when he dies if by chance I out live him. lol. I've also been down the Ford and Chrysler marine road before and cant afford the tolls. I mean it took almost 3 years to get the boat back on the water, another 2 years building real motors for it and it will take a while longer to get custom headers / exhaust built for it and I'm a long way from 188th st.
04-15-2015, 11:01 PM
#49
Registered
Thanks again folks.
It was a dream of mine to do it from the first time I saw it back in (I think) 2006.
Started off as a simple project and up to a point it was. Then I got a bit overwhelmed with it all a couple years ago. A couple major, major failure setbacks with no direction and money to continue will do that. It took everything I had to get the “major setbacks” fixed just to get back to square one and I was just about spent on the whole thing. Didn’t realize how much effort that would be involved to take a bare race boat hull, a few boxes of disassembled, dusty, 40 year old parts and turn it back into a running race boat. At that point it was done but it was a show boat and not a real race boat. But like always the goal was just to get it back on the water and the rest (hopefully) will come later.
From there I could have left well enough alone but what the hell…
Having a single picture and a bunch of holes in the stringers I tried to put everything back to where I thought it was supposed to be during the original build. But there was changes made to it over the years and I was using transmissions and Chevy’s so I had no clue and it was all a best guess. Now that it’s done and run so to speak I understand more about its design. Its fine like it is for a “show boat” but for what I really wanted to do to the boat since I first got it things need to be changed. Basically I made a lot of mistakes that really didn’t matter to a boat with 650hp but will when I double it so she is starting another restoration phase in a day or two. At least this time I’m not starting with a bare hull so it should be a little easier.
Sorry Brownie, back to your book.
It was a dream of mine to do it from the first time I saw it back in (I think) 2006.
Started off as a simple project and up to a point it was. Then I got a bit overwhelmed with it all a couple years ago. A couple major, major failure setbacks with no direction and money to continue will do that. It took everything I had to get the “major setbacks” fixed just to get back to square one and I was just about spent on the whole thing. Didn’t realize how much effort that would be involved to take a bare race boat hull, a few boxes of disassembled, dusty, 40 year old parts and turn it back into a running race boat. At that point it was done but it was a show boat and not a real race boat. But like always the goal was just to get it back on the water and the rest (hopefully) will come later.
From there I could have left well enough alone but what the hell…
Having a single picture and a bunch of holes in the stringers I tried to put everything back to where I thought it was supposed to be during the original build. But there was changes made to it over the years and I was using transmissions and Chevy’s so I had no clue and it was all a best guess. Now that it’s done and run so to speak I understand more about its design. Its fine like it is for a “show boat” but for what I really wanted to do to the boat since I first got it things need to be changed. Basically I made a lot of mistakes that really didn’t matter to a boat with 650hp but will when I double it so she is starting another restoration phase in a day or two. At least this time I’m not starting with a bare hull so it should be a little easier.
Sorry Brownie, back to your book.
