Bahama's 500
 

Just wanted to post some pics from 2nd Bahama's 500. This pic is a bunch of us standing on the bow of Bill Sirois Bertram in order to raise stern enough for him to check the props. I will post some more pics later (probably tomorrow) - Steve Sirois

Johnny Bakos installs engine in his Bertram

Great shots Steve.....love the leather shoes on everyone standing on the deck.

Reminds me of George Morales' wife and her spikes walking on the aluminum deck of his boat.

Thanks Charlie. Actually, my shoes were leather with rubber soles. I am going to repost a few Offshore stories that I previously posted at S&F Racing History.

I had the fun of running in the first three Bahamas 500's. In the first one I rode with Wayne Vickers, and in the second with Jim Tebo. The third one evolved rather interestingly. While preparing at Lake X, I had drawn a 32' Cary with 4 BP's (BluePrint engines rated at approx 140hp) which ran about 67mph. This was a tried and true boat that Chet Strickland had previously run. I had run the boat out of Sarasota to do some rough water testing on the BP's. Ralph Seavey had drawn an exact copy of the boat but it was brand new. His boat clocked out at 65mph. About a week before we were to leave the lake we were called into the office for some interesting news. It seemed that Jerry Langer wanted to run Mercs in the 500. Jerry was an OMC dealer in the Miami area and had run that brand pretty succesfully. In fact, in probably one of the roughest offshore races ever run, only the Turbine Maritime boat and Langer had finished. There was an incredible photo in the paper of the Turbine standing nearly vertical at the Fowey Rocks light. Anyway, Langer had contacted somebody (I guess Mr. Kiekhaefer) and said he wanted to run one of our boats in the 500. As this was quite a PR coup it was approved. So Ralph and I were told that we would have to team up in one of our boats and Langer would get the other. Fortunately they let us decide which boat we wanted. Ralph's boat (#808) was new and slightly heavier and probably would do better in rough water. Mine (#909) was not new but was faster. We chose mine and I was the Driver of Record. The Bahamas 500 started at Lucaya and ran 500 Nautical Miles (thats 560 statute miles) through the islands ending back at Lucaya. I will tell some more about the race in a future post. Dale Thayer (Also Factory Team) was running 4 BP's on a 28' Memco which ran approx 68mph. We ran side by side and in the Outboard lead for all but the last ten miles. From the very beginning we slowly pulled away from Langer, and we were not about to give him a break. By the time we got to Nassau, which was the half way refueling point, Langer was probably 5 miles behind us. Mr. Kiekhaefer was on the dock and was visibly unhappy that we had run away from Langer. He said something like, "Why don't you guys give him a little break?". I replied, "OK" and put the hammers down. Unfortunately, I had gotten a short gas load at Nassau and ran out 10 miles from the finish. Dale Thayer stopped with me and asked what was wrong. I told him to go on which he did. We radioed our situation in and Mr. Kiekhaefer, who had flown on to Lucaya, sent a helicopter out to us with just enough gas to finish. However it was not quick enough to stay ahead of Langer and he managed to eke out second place outboard behind Dale. Those were the days of REAL Offshore. :D -Steve

1967(?) 1st Bahamas 500....Red Crise spectacular! I think there was something like 63 boats entered and it was definately rough water! I rode with Wayne Vickers in a Seacraft (#43) with twin Mercs. Eventually, if you didn't screw-up too bad, you would get a boat of your own and some other poor sap would have to hold on for dear life. One of the most gratifying aspects of the whole process was the rigging of the boat. Often one would start with a bare hull, and I do mean a bare hull. Anyway, the race starts and about 20-30 miles later we were doing OK when a throttle cable came loose from one engine and we were dead in the (very rough) water for awhile getting it reattached. When we got going again everybody was out of sight so we actually had to navigate instead of following the crowd. When we finally got to the half way fuel stop at Nassau it was late in the evening. We didn't want to go across the flats on the way to Eleuthra in the dark, so we said the Hell with it and got a hotel room for the night. That sounds like a gentlemanly way to race. Next morning we got up at a decent hour, had some breakfast and continued our journey, finally finishing in an elapsed time of something in excess of 24 hours.....but we did finish! It was either the next year or the year after next that Red instituted a new rule that said you had to finish in a specified time or you were disqualified. Apparently he just didn't understand that this was a gentlemans game. :drink: -Steve

2nd Bahamas 500 (1968?). I rode with Jim Tebo in a 25’ (Maybe 28’?) Seacraft (#202) with 3 Mercs. I don’t remember speeds or how we finished. I do remember that while going across one area that I had to pee really bad. The cockpit was set up so that we rode in tandem and Jim was driving so I turned around and attempted to relieve myself on the floor which emptied into the bilge. Now this is no small task at 60mph in bumpy water. Every time I approached success, we would hit another good bump and I would lose it. Finally I succeeded and felt much better:p . Shortly thereafter we tripped and stuffed the bow. And then again. And again. Seems the water conditions were such that it just kept happening. Since Jim was in front, he took the full force of the blow. After the 3rd time, Jim was beat up so bad that he gave me the helm and sat on the floor for most of the rest of the day. I stuffed it a couple of more times before the conditions changed. At the speeds we were running in those days, stuffing could be very painful but not always catastrophic. I can vividly remember seeing this green wall of water rushing over the bow just before it hit me. It was kind of like somebody hitting me in the chest and head with a very large baseball bat. Fortunately, I was too young and stupid to realize that it really hurt. Center picture is me during Nassau fuel stop. Right picture is Jim Tebo. -Steve Sirois

Back to 1st Bahama 500. Mr Kiekhaefer had sent Mabry Edwards out to fly the course and take aerial 16mm movies so that we could watch them and familiarize ourselves with the landmarks. The projector was set up in a backroom across from the "Old" boatshop and behind the "Old" parts room. Whenever we had time, we could go over there and watch it. I must have watched that movie 20 times, which was not easy because we were working our collective asses off rigging and testing. Additionally, Mr K chartered a yacht (sloop?) and sent several of the top guns on a cruise around the course to put their own eyeballs on it. Gotta go, but I will try to post more tomorrow or the next day. TTFN - Steve

In the first '500', I drove George Couzens' 28' Donzi, "Blue Devil". We stayed with the leader, Richard Bertram and Jim Mander in "My Moppie" for the first 40 miles. Our handling got worse and worse. Finally, when we would stand it up, both engines would start missing like crazy. My riding mechanic, Mark "Big Dirty" Raymond, looked through the engine room hatch, and turned white! The bilge was a foot deep in purple 115/145 avgas! The harmonic balancers on the Holman Moody engines were throwing gasoline on the distributors. The mixture was so rich that it could not ignite. What to do? Big Dirty was a fireman in real life. He knew what to do. He taped up the air inlets to keep the mixture rich, and we turned back to Lucaya, giving a wide berth to the 3 boats that were burning on the way back. It was the longest 40 miles of my life! When we reached Lucaya, I had the crew jump overboard, and I aimed it for the Travellift. I crawled onto the front deck, and when I was sure that the boat would coast into the lift, I fired both CO2 extinguishers, killing the engines. I stepped off when the boat touched the dock, and kissed the ground. The lift operator wouldn't haul the boat because of the fumes cascading over the sides. It sat for a week before anyone would touch it.

Hey Brownie - I enjoyed your story in Hot Boat. I can visulize Mike Gordon hanging upside down in his straps. I never met Sam Sara, but I saw some of his work. I think he did the Beautiful turbo-charged Chevy in Johhny Bakos Rayson Craft. I could be wrong but Jim Hauser (Go Fish) could confirm. As to the 1st Bahamas 500, I think the demolition derby by fire, broken hulls, broken engines and bodies taught alot of lessons to everybody in how to build and rig boats that could endure. Additionally, I think it opened alot of eyes to the importance of being able to know where all the boats and crews are. As I remember, a couple of crews seemed to have dropped off of the edge of the Earth for awhile. I know that Bob Donahue and Red(?) sunk early on and went missing for quite some time. It seems to me that the wooden Sonny Levi boat (Formula/Genth?) disappeared for awhile after being abandoned. I think a passing freighter crew came upon it and tried to salvage it by lifting it out with a cable, but instead broke it in half. I know that most of the radios in the fleet were broken very early on and were useless. Also, I think that some of the Check-boats left station before some of the straggelers (Wayne Vickers and I) managed to reach the finish on the 2nd day......Bottom Line....I think Offshore Racing has lead to incredible improvements and the 500 certainly did. I remember seeing a couple of smoke pillars during that first 500 and I just remembered seeing something else during the second or third 500 that was downright spooky. I think it was while running between Cat Cay and Chub(?) Cay we came upon a 50-60' yacht that was fully engulfed in flames and nobody in sight. We stopped and radioed the Coast Guard. I don't remember what they said, but it lead us to go about our way. You know how intense a fire at sea can be and, after 40 years, I can still visulize that scene. -Steve

You guys keep up the stories....HORBA will supply the photos to go along with them.

More photos on www.historicraceboats.com

Here is the Sonny Levi boat you mentioned....would anyone ever believe this was a FORMULA race boat?

Here is the Blue Devil that Brownie mentions in his story and that is Brownie and Big Dirty on the left....the girl...oh yeah, she was the Playmate of the Year in 1967.

More photos on www.historicraceboats.com

Now that's the Brownie I remember. If you look very closely, you will notice that his eyes are NOT looking at the camera and neither are Mark's.

Nice Post............Thanks for sharing




Jon

If the Sonny Levi/Formula picture was in color it would be white with red trim. I remember hearing $100,000. In 1967, that was alot of money to lose in it's first outing.

2nd Bahama 500 Fuel stop in Nassau..Left Picture, Help me here. Is that Peter Rittmaster? Also Fred Kiekhaefer in glasses.
Right picture is Odell Lewis "sticking" fuel while Charlie (Dammit, I can't remember last name) delivering fuel.

Absolutely priceless stuff here,,,,,,,,,,,, Did do a little work with Sam Sara back in FDL,,,, For a while their all of offshore engines had their electrical components in a rather large cast box located on the back of the engine,,,,,,,,,,, referred to as Sams Suitcase,,,,,,,,,,,, He was very innovative with the hard mounts system just basically attached to hard angle aluminum mounts between the stringers,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,always had hard time aligning this stuff up,,,,,,,,, but it seemed to work all right,,,,,,,,, Am not sure But I think Sam was involved in a offshor boat named Holocaust before he came to Merc?????? Well respected engineer who was very important in the development of Thunderbolt ignition systems,,,,,,,,,

Once again 2nd 500 Nassau fuel stop. Left picture...Brother Bill Sirois pulling toward fuel dock as Odell and Mel Riggs leave. Right picture..Wayne Vickers fuels his boat while Jim Emerson prepares to fuel other tank. Most of our Outboard 3 and 4 engine boats had 3 tanks. Usually 100 gallons each. Notice at the left rear corner...two fuel pickups into lines that run under the canvas. While I don't remember Wayne's boat exactly..usually each tank had 2 independent fuel pickups in the rear cap (lowest point) that fed a fuel filter which would have been mounted on the inside of the motor well bulkhead. Each of three filters fed an individual engine. We had alot of redundency built into the fuel systems, but that didn't deter "Murphy's Law". The 32' Cary that I ran in 3rd 500 had bottom fed crossfeed lines that gravity-fed from the two outer (and higher) tanks into the center tank which then fed the fuel filters. This setup is what led me to get a short fuel load that day. We fueled the outer tanks first and, when we "stuck" them, they showed full. Then we fueled the center tank without thinking about the fact that, concurrently, the outer tanks were crossfeeding into the center tank and draining themselves. When the center tank showed full, we hauled ass. :o I might have gotten that sequence wrong, but you get the drift. -Steve

Welllll! There's Jim Hauser himself. Welcome aboard. I think I've got my Mojo working a little again and some stories are starting to flow. But, more importantly, so are other people's.

The picture above of 'Blue Devil' was taken by a plane while we were trying to figure out why we were jumping so high (ass end full of avgas). Note the ho-hum look on Big Dirty's face.

End of 2nd 500. Left picture...Odell Lewis approaches dock with Bill Sirois 4 seconds behind. Center picture...The man that made it all possible...In shorts no less...or did he just roll his pants up. Right picture...Mr K tells Odell, Good job, but would you PLEASE put your shoes back on!".

E. C. Kiekhaefer, "EC" to some, "Carl" to some, "Mr K" to some, "Mr Kiekhaefer" to some (Me), "The Old Man" to most (When he wasn't in earshot) -Steve

Good to see your brain is engaged again Stevie,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The magic in everyones stories keep us old guys alive and kickin out here,,,,,,,,,, The fellow helping Odell fuel is Charlie Rush, ran spotcheck at the lake,,,,great guy,,,,, had lunch with Phil Schenk a few weeks ago,,,,,,,,,,,,,, would love to see him on this forum as he usually rode with John Bakos and I know he has a few yarns,,,,,,,,,,,,

Love Mr. K,s Shortss,,,,,,,,,, and white sneakers,,,,,,,,,,, but the black socks are a bit uptown,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Jim - I knew his last name began with an R, and you are correct, he was a great guy. Where are all those guys now. Johnny Bakos showed up in S&F awhile ago for only one post. Hope Phil is doing well. I haven't been to Sarasota for a long time. I'm sure you noticed Phil's picture in the first post of this thread. Speaking of having lunch and getting brain in gear. The thing that got me moving again was having lunch with Charlie McCarthy and Bill Warner last week. Talk about memory...read Charlie's article in Extreme Boating. You can access it at HORBA. Me-Left, Charlie-Right....2 Old Fart Boat Racers -Steve

And then...2 Old Fart Car racers....Charlie McCarthy and Bill Warner. I don't want to get away from boat stories, but these two guys have some GREAT stories about the days they raced cars together. Bill is a highly reknowned racer, writer, car restorer, photographer (Road & Track), AND the Founder (and still Boss) of the Amelia Island "Concurs de Elegance".

Brownie - Love your description of reason for Blue Devil "Flight" Attitude. You are right about "Dirty's" expression..notice position of his left hand in relation to hers. Getting close.

Here is some real old school and rare stuff.

It is the actual entry form for Brownie and Donzi Baby for the 1965 Gateway Marathon.

Notice the entry fee of $5.00 per boat and an extra $15.00 per person.

What else I noticed is that he claimed to be 29...which is what he still claims:D

409 Daytonas ... cool!

Most people don't know that Daytona offered turbocharged marine conversions with water cooled exhaust turbine housings, intercoolers and boost pressure regulation waaaaay before anyone like Gale Banks.

Those 409 Chevys could have been 400 or 425 hp @4,000 which was really big horsepower in those days

Seeroy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Couple of questions,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Was at several offshore races with Bill while at X who rode with him????????????? also what was the boat he raced with,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Great photo of you with Charly,,,,,,,,lookin good,,,,,,,,,,,, Phil is doing real good,,,,,,,I think has dyalysis 3 times a week is a little rough that day but the next day is alive & kickin Has finally been approved for transplant list,,,,,,,,,,,,,,is excited over that

Jim - Glad to hear news on Phil. Bill ran several different boats in Offshore. I will list what I remember:
Formula 23, 3 or 4 Outboards, Miami-Nassau 1966?, Co-driver?,
T-Craft 21'?, 2 Outboards, Gateway Marathon? 196?, Chet Strickland
Old Yellar, 28' Donzi?, 2x427 sterndrives, 1st Bahama 500(and other races, Gateway?), Ed Leslie
Sternwinder, 31' Bertram, 2x427 sterndrives, 2nd Bahama 500, Mike Ramsey?, Also Around Long Island 1968, Fred Kiekhaefer
Formula 28', 3 Outboards in Europe, Co-driver?
There were others that I can’t remember
And of Course he Throttled very successfully for several guys..I will look through “Searace” this evening and maybe I can ferret out better answer.
Charlie - I found this picture at HORBA 1966 Miami-Nassau and I am wondering if this is Bill? I never saw the Formula 23 that I referenced above. -Steve

Another picture of same boat from HORBA. Based on outer engine spacing and cowlings, I think there are 4 engines, and it looks like a Formula 23, which further leads me to believe that this is Bill -Steve

Do a reasonable amount of offshore fishing everytime we go out with many trips to the Bahamas,,,,,,,,,,, and fishing off 38 Rampage with 1150 HP diesels with Air Conditioned Helm,,,,,,,,,, am shocked and amazed at reflecting back and seeing some of the photos,of 23 Seacrafts,cut-down Formulas,stuff like Bill Coopers, Spooky,,,,,, if I remember right in Odells 33 Maritime,all Mel Riggs had to hang on to was a welded together extra old steering whell,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, very little padded bolster,, Realize that was 40 years ago,,,,,, but the water was just as rough than as it is today,,,,,,,,,,,,,, A bunch of tough old birds for sure !!!!!!!!!!!! Respectfully GO Fish

Here's a few of Mr K and Knocky I'v recently come across.... pretty positive these are never before seen....

Now which one of you guys is holding out on old Donzi photo's?

I think that second photo is in Indian Creek, just south of the Broad Causeway headed south towards the golf course ??

Steve I think you may right with that 233 Formula.

Donzi38ZR - I don't know why the pics of Knocky and Mr K hit me the way they did, but the first one absolutely floored me. Mr K leaning against the car that way told me he was perfectly relaxed and at ease talking with Knocky. And, of course, Knocky's stance was as you would always see. I only spent time around Knocky for a couple of months, but he always put me at ease. Does anyone know if Knocky is still with us? Respectfully - Steve Sirois

Like the ones on Surfury?
Daytona 427 Scarabs?

http://www.surfury.co.uk/photos/thum...hargersbig.jpg

Steve ....Knocky is gone. He was always great with me too. He helped me a great deal when I was learning the black art of props and how to trim a boat correctly.

He was a guy that even Aronow respected very much and was careful around. They made a great pair.

Knocky was one tough guy no matter what the circumstances. Not many know he was an Olympic wrestler for the United States.

Wow.........What year is this from ?

Thanks for all the continued history....Great Stuff !!

Jon