Ex -Benihanaand Toleman boat

http://www.boatshop24.com/web/en/suc...showid=1923630

There are not many of these boats around. The Mercedes truck it sits on is typical of how they transport in europe boats and horses.

Wannabe

First two pics are mine! Now all I need is the boat itself......

I believe this was the boat "FlapJack" #45 campaigned by Howard Quam and Keith Hazell in 1979 and then sold to Toleman Group after the 1979 season.

That's correct. Nothing to do with Benihana. Wrong restaurant chain I guess...

I had just moved to Ft. Lauderdale from Chicago in November of 1979 to work for Howard. I remember a guy named Jack Cunningham representing Tolman Group in the purchase. They bought the boat, trailer, truck, spare engines and drives...everything.

I first met the late Angelo Meli at that time. Much later he went to work for Doller Marine where I saw him all the time.

Scary thought: Howard, Keith, Angelo, Ron Doller...all gone.
Somehow I'm still here.

Indeed Ted Toleman bought the second Bertram Flap Jack of Quam.
Then in a apparently inexplicable way he also bought a second Bertram from Aoki that it is that on sale in Germany today.

Jacks gone too, I have raced in the boat once and tested in it many times. It would hit 90 fully trimmed out, probably faster than any other type of offshore mono of that era. With the side exhausts it sounded great. Toleman, Jack and Nick raced at Oregrund (spelling), Sweden and it was so rough the boat flexed and the deck cracked very badly just in front of the dash. We repaired it with aluminum plates and Glass before the CTC.

Mike - When did Jack die - he was quite a guy - fun to talk to - always interested in what people were doing - am sorry to here he has left us -

Phil

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I raced against it in the CTC race, I want to say 1980, same year James Beard and clive raced the yellow wood cougar, I was with Billy Elswick in the 38` satisfaction Scarab, that was one of the hardest fastest races of the time. We took down Toleman and Smitty in the Bertram, plus several other boats including Bett Cook and John Connor in there Scarb, chased down Beard in the cat and passed him, I have a great picture of the Yellow Satisfaction and the yellow Cougar cat side by side dukeing it out. We won the race set a course record of 79.8 mph for 248 miles to top it off we ran out of fuel just before the finish line so I am sure the record would have been a bit higher, Our boat was running close to 90mph with the Rahilly Grady motors, also a note Kieth Sparks was our crew chief at the time. Short story: I was called on a thurs. afternoon in Miami to hear I was needed to run the boat on Sat. as Danny; Billys T-Man had broken his foot and could not race. I said impossible, Billy said look outside and you will see a limo. go get in it with Harold Grady it will take you to the airport. We took the Concord that night, Helicopter picked us up at Heathrow, we got in Frday afternoon to late to test, so I had never been in the boat until Sat. morning and the race. to win was incredible, to beat Toleman, Beard, Betty Cook and the rest, icing on the cake, that night after the awards we jumped again on the helicopter to heathrow then concord home, I was home Sunday night. At the awards banquet Billy gave me ten thou. for expenses, which I had none, when he returned home he gave me a trophy they presented for winning T-man and twenty five thou for working for him. Some weekend. A racers dream. Thank you Billy, guess that`s why we were called hired guns

Incredible, I really enjoy these stories. Thanks for sharing Champ!

Kurt