When men were men
 

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.

I already considered the aluminum sterndrive an instrument of the devil, and this only strengthened that belief. When Billy and Bob took the now named 'Boss o' Nova' (Get it?) to the Houston channel derby in 1970, they won, but they scared the s**t out of the checkboat at the Texas City dike by going around it 3 times, REALLY FAST! Imagine running that in the Bahamas 500. Those guys were really tough!

You are right.
Those times were really pioneristic and the man were the MAN!
I like too much those years. And read the story that you know to us.

Hello Brownie,

Well put.. Was a different time in Offshore racing.
Thank you for your inputs

Jim

This would apply to auto racing too.......:)

And women were women.......don't think Betty was buying this all male perspective on whatever it was..........

What you guys didn't figure out, that the NASCAR guys did, was to change the spring rate inside the Delphi boxes. No power steering for them either. Imagine racing around Darlington for 500 miles in the heat of summer.

you are right browniie, i have had to steer a boat around with no p/s and it aint for the weak. i bow to all you guys who laid the groundwork for all of us newbies, ( even after 20 years ).
thanks to all of you real racers

I will always wonder how Betty Cook was physically strong enought to race offshore powerboats and endure 200 + miles of rough water conditions

cause she was a bada ss

Brownie,

Very nice write up, thank you for sharing your experience’s.

[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

On the biography of Odell Lewis in the beautiful book of Claudio Nobis:"L'Avventura dell'Offshore"(The Adventure of the Offshore),this final words that I think can put togheter all Man of those years.
...."Probably we don't see anymore a lot of people of the stamp of Odell Lewis in the competitions.
Raised on hulls to flat bottoms, hard on the waves, difficult to drive and without throttleman, these men have been a human race apart."

This thread is great.

As for Odell, he was my personal favorite driver of the group. Fabulous sense of humor, fabulous set of juevos. When I injured my ankles in the 1966 Sam Griffith race (which sunk 'Brave Moppie', 'Tin Fish', Gar Wood, Jr. I can't remember the name, but it was 48' long, with Allisons) I "invented" the cockpit bolster as it is seen today. I designed it and Roy Harmon of Biltrite built it for the "Donzi Blue Devil" that I drove for George Couzens, of Detroit. When I pulled up to the Dupont Plaza docks for inspection for the Miami-Key West race in November '66, every driver said "If I had to have all that padding to stay behind the wheel, I'd stop racing". The next race, EVERY boat had bolsters except one.... Guess who. He drove barefoot most of the time.

I don't think that it has ever been said in print, but here it is: Like Formula One, Kiekhaefer had team orders. Never beat the customer. I was racing for Holman Moody and Donzi in those days, and to an extent, I think that I was responsible for the Merc team showing up at some of the races. But if you think back, When Aronow won, right behind was Bakos, Odell, Richie, Stenback or one of those Merc team guys. I don't know who recruited for Kiekhaefer's race team, but they came up with the greatest bunch of guys ever assembled. Racing against those guys, and beating them occasionally ranks very high among my fondest memories.

For the noobies
 

A laughing Odell Lewis

A focused John Bakos

A jovial Sirois

Anybody notice a common thread running through these photos........?

Great talent comes from an outboard racing background.

T2x

Hey Powers...... wanna buy back the picture of the guy in the middle..........:p :p

Nice sideburns.......:D :D

T2x

Now that was a team, at that time in my carreer I weighed in at a whopping 150lbs and stood six feet tall, I was so wirey I could jump off the deck of a 36` high on a trailer land on my feet and laugh. I remember carrying Kiekhaefer Headers over my shoulder from the ground to the trailer, over the transom and mount on the motor, four times, then install all the custom braces. gets back to when men were men. The picture of Sirois was taken when we were both on the OPC team, that`s my motor in the background, and you are right, most of the top drivers came from outboards or GN boats.
Always good to hear from you, hope all is well.7XCHAMP

Another happy Merc driver

And before the men were men.....there was THE MAN !

Right back at ya.......

T2x

The champions of the offshore often came from the circuit.
In Italy for instance Giulio De Angelis, one of the best and faster driver of Europe of the seventies, he had been champion in the circuit.

...and sheep were nervous...

Only the ones wearing the lipstick !!!!

Great thread! Keep it going, I love this stuff! One of my fondest memories is walking out of my house, and seeing D ick Sherrer's raceboat in my driveway!

My dad was probably on that boat off the Texas City Dike in 1970. He worked that race...

Brownie, Richie & crew thank you all
 

Thank you Richie very helpful info if anyone has the ballest dash control plate or can make one please let me know.

Hugh Hulman

[email protected]

Seven World Titles Throttleman+Two World Titles Driver+Three US-1 Titles Driver and Throttleman+Two US outboards Titles Driver and Throttleman in a picture....

This one was raised under the deck!

Posted by Littlenige once upon a time...