[QUOTE=BROWNIE;2089432]Don't be insulted by the title. I think that you 140 mph guys have WAY bigger juevos than we did. What I wanted to discuss was the physical effort to steer the stern drive boats with no power steering. When Bill Wishnick bought Odell's #70 red Bertram 31', it had the first set of #3 speedmasters. No power steering. It had twin RideGuide cable steering, and it took a frickin' gorilla to steer it. I had Nova Marine in those days, and Bobby Moore as Bill's race guy. We took out the Merc steering and put in a truck steering box with a worm gear, but still no power. The average NFL player could not have steered it with one hand, and throttled with the other (Hmm... maybe that's where the throttleman came from...). We all came from inboard boats that a: steered themselves in a straight line, and b: didn't jump as much.


Let`s not forget the triple outboard boats before we had counter rotation gear cases. I remember at lake X we used to quadruple bungie outside engine to the transom as tight as we could physically make it to counter the torque when running. The engines would be turned all the way to the left, then bungie tightened in place. It was all we could do just to turn the motors straight on the transom until we got on plane and came up to speed, then it all neutralized. Made for some hairy steering when she jumped, which they all did. As for Betty Cook, one of the best drivers ever. remember she was very tiny maybe only weighed 120 lbs, with one of the greatest throttlemen. In those days with power steering etc. it was more about the finesse on the wheel not the bull effect, she had a knack like the other greats for controlling the boat, and made the boat do what she wanted it to do. I have been with great wheelmen, and I have been with TERRIBLE wheel men and believe me it is about the finesse, it`s not what your brain tells you to do so much as what your Butt tells you to do

outstanding information
 

:drink:
Richie & Brownie,

What did use for navigations on the long races? I heard but don’t know that the deck compasses were not always correct?

In the really early days, we used a D-12 Bomber compass from WWII. It was a crosshair type, that needed to be viewed from the top. We used to bolt them to the floor, between our feet. Real bad when you stepped on it accidentally.

One of our HORBA mebers has done a beautiful restorationon Don Aronow's first race boat called the Cigarette. The boat was sold by Don to George Peroni who raced it with some success also.

They have one of the compasses that Brownie was speaking about. When they called and asked if I knew who they could find to do a resto on the compass, I sent them right on to Brownie one of the HORBA board members.

He not only knew who could fix that old compass, but he also gave them the company that still makes the original rubrail that was used on that boat.

We better get Brownie frozen like Ted Williams.... if anything happens to him....where else can we find out this info?

Here is a photo of that beautiful Cigarette restoration with an original 409 cu in engine, no less.

More info and the full story on this resto on the HORBA site www.historicraceboats.com

i watched that restore being done. that is one beautiful piece. glad to see it in person. congrats to innovation marine on finding and building that engine.
mike stancombe

Brownie how was it to drive that 28 foot Donzi that had two engines on the one shaft?

Brownie built it with one engine in front and the other engine in back of the V-drive..... and then it all came out on one shaft and one prop.

When I started we only were allowed to use a magnetic ball compass. All the compasses Merc. used were the old six inch danforth deck mounted, It was a real ***** cutting the whole in the deck with a six inch hole saw on a half inch drill motor, those decks back then were pretty sturdy, and took a lot to cut through, I saw many guys get whipped off the deck when the drill caught up. All the compasses were modified with special jewels, and heavier oil, Carl K. had a special guy who did them for us, out of Miami, I remember he would fly in for the day and every boat would have to go in the water to get the compass adjusted and set, as we were required to have an up to date compass card, plus we planned our courses using the deviation cards. I remember how hot it used to be at the Lake while swinging compasses, and having to crawl under the deck to set the adjusting screws. Brownnie can atest to the agro. 7XCHAMP

i remember charting our courses.with our 10 mile straights it was a bear. you guys were nuts doing the distance you did, though i would love to do it now. im sure alot of guys wouldnt finish

Brownie & Richie,

The information you two provide is priceless and is always a treat to hear about. Can you two tell me about the ballets tank in the bow with the manual in-let & out-let? Should I keep it in working order? the hole, the in-let area up front on the side of the vee has been glassed over? But the in-let (brass valve) is still intact. (Your thoughts) and also please share some stories on how you operated them.

Thank you Hugh

Hugh: The Ballast tank was used pror to having trim tabs, best I can remember, I was in the outboard classes at that point, I think many of the I,O`s had the fabricated tabs and used the old outboard power trim rams to operate. The Ballast tank was just that it was to put weight forward to keep the bow down in the rough water. The outboard offshore boats when I started had no motor trim and we preset the angle with tilt pin holes. If you went out to far the boat could be hard to handle in the rough but faster in the calm, it`s always about balance in offshore racing. When ballast was added it was same as putting tabs down, ballast out like tabs up. Later when we added trim tabs we incorporated the ballast pickup into the trailing edge of the tab, when you put the tab down and opened the valve it would fill the tank, close the valve to keep the water in, we had a small 3/8" vent on top of the deck to tell when tank was full, separate valve would empty tank. By putting the pickup in the tab it allowed us to remove the pickup at the V so less drag and more speed. When we ran the boats at Lake X in testing and propping out we run both loaded with fuel, loaded with fuel and ballast, and again with 50 gal. fuel, all runs were recorded by the tower people. Every race boat from Lake X had a report sheet associated with it, as Kiekhaefer always wanted to know exactly what his boats were doing, and how to improve. To answer your question to leave in tact or remove, if you are truly restoring to original, make it just that, I hope and believe that at some point in time some wealthy philanthropist will come along and start our museum, and the more the boat is original the better for the world to understand. 7XCHAMP