Just another pic.

Nice picture Nigel.

Just to illustrate my point that the windshield wasn't the best feature when Dry Martini was viewed from the front or 3/4 front.

Here is an old black and white picture taken at the 1973 Deauville Trophy.

Phil.

Phil I totally agree. I have never seen the boat from this angle. Thanks for posting.

A quick return to the 1972 Cowes-Torquay-Cowes and the catalogue of problems encountered by Aeromarine IX and its crew.
Arriving in Cowes on the back of their third win of the season collected at poole a fortnight earlier, the crew of Aeromarine IX must have felt pretty confident. Furthermore, they would also have at their disposal the latest engine from Carl Kiekhaefer to strengthen their advantage.
However the optimism must have been dented when it became clear that the official fuelling point didn't stock the 130 octane Avgas juice required by the beast.
A supply of Avgas fuel was sourced at the small Sandown airfield on the other side of the island, requiring a journey on narrow twisty roads. Not ideal when you are driving a king size truck and pulling 36' of Don Arronow's finest.
When the boat was presented to the scrutineers on Friday, the team received another setback when the cylinder heads were declared illegal by the UIM. Following frantic repairs the boat was ready to race with barely an hour and a half to spare before the start on saturday.
Then shortly into the race, Aeromarine had to stop for 14 minutes to change a water pump belt. Eight places were lost by the time the boat rejoined the race. What ensued was probably one of the most impressive performance by a crew. A complete display of driving, throttle work and clever navigation.
At the Portland Bill check point, Aeromarine IX was 6th, at Torquay 3rd and at Cowes 1st.
The champgne of victory must have tasted so sweet...
Phil.

Phil,
A truly amazing wealth of informations on the hull differences on such good pictures on what is supposed to be "same boat" but we all know several had more than one hull . Look at the setup on the air-scopes on this one, smaller scopes inverted into the big ones, some with side exhaust, different setup of the compasses etc.

Hopefully Richie and the guys who raced those days wil fill in the details and differences on various hulls.

I will post some pics later of the Aeromarine 3 restoration, getting some good photos from both Bob and Gene showing the differences in setup, different windshields location also on this one among other small details.

I wish there was a way to gather all the info written on this forum on the 36'competition cig in one thread.That would be enough for a history book.


A merry christmas to all of you 36' cigarette lovers,

Regards Joern

Phil,to the end you have put also one photo of the Black!
Many Thanks!
However to yours interesting story on the enterprise of the crew of Aeromarine IX I add the fact that Balestrieri whom leaded the race until Portland Bill chose the route directed in crossing the Lime bay taking all the sea hard while those of Aeromarine IX chose that one cleverly inshore passing ahead. Balestrieri loved to run in the hard sea, but in that case he lost the race.

P.S. Phil, Did you have assisted to the CTC of 1972?

And a merry Christmas to you too, Joern. Best of luck with the restauration Of Aeromarine III. I can't wait to see the pictures.

Phil.

Marco: We won because we went inside like Don Shead did when he beat us, we also used an english navigator to help with the advantage Mike Mantle one year and Dag Pyke the next, Maybe if Balestreri was smart he would have done the same, and made a race out of it. FYI most of the time when it got really rough, Jack S. used to tell me he would ask him to slow up, take it for what it`s worth, I repeat !!!!! winning is still winning not whinning!!!!!!!!!. still 7XCHAMP

Hi Marco,

That was the second photo of your namesake. The first one was on post 25. The last one was your Christmas present!
You are right about the different navigational option. I glossed over the fact because it has been (better) reported by John Crouse already, as well as the historic first win of the Aeromarine engines.
At the risk of repeating myself, I just wanted to emphasized that this was THE instance of every member of the crew, all being at the top of their game during a race and winning against the odds.

And no, I didn't attend the 1972 CTC. Would you believe that my parents didn't want their 12 year son to travel abroad, on his own to see an Offshore race? I think the phrase: "It's not fair" was used at the time as an anwer to their decision....

When I moved to the UK and visited the isle of Wight, one of the first thing I did was travel form Cowes to Sandown and check that airfield and imagine that Cigarette being top up with fuel.

Phil.

Hi Phil: Just wanted to thank you again for your interest and support to me and the teams I raced with, you have definitly revived my interest in the sport I loved and prospered from for so many years. I could write a complete volume about that CTC race in particular, people forget that I won the race three out of five times I raced it, and I believe still hold a record for CTC when I raced and won with B. Ellswick 38` scarab SATISFACTION we averaged 79.8mph, we beat Toleman in the Bertram with Smitty and James Beard in the Cougar cat. I was flown in as replacement throttleman when Danny broke his foot. By the way we beat Betty Cook as well and captured the Harmsworth trophy. I was flown over and back on the Concord which in my travels I flew five round trips to Europe, those were the good old days, Concordes and 36` cigarette`s, Happy Holidays to you and your family from your good friend 7XCHAMP