The lost of Willie Meyers
 

I read about a few minutes on Boatmad.com the lost of Willie Meyers.
Willie Meyers was playing the role of full offshore-man as it was Sam Griffith, the legendary father of this great sport.
Starting his offshore career in the mid of sixties with a little 23' Formula called "Moon Raker" powered with a pair of Mercruiser x 150 hp with stern drives and then in 1967 with a 28' "UFO" former "Thunderbird" of Merrik Lewis he became
one of the most sought t-man especially in the seventies, when he ran successfully on boats with outboards such as the famous "White Label", which won the prestigious U.S. National Championships for the category in 1971 and with the larger Class 1 as the Cigarette 36' "Dante's Inferno" in which won the famous 1973 Bahamas 500 or the big 40' "Bounty Hunter" of Martin or the "Limit Up" of Doxford and Powell.
Willie inspired in me sympathy and admiration.
A great loss. Goodbye Willie.

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Willie Meyers on board of "White Label" 32' Cary with 4 Mercury which he won the 1971 U.S. outboards National Championship title.


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Willie Meyers with the "Dante's Inferno"(property of Dante Tognoli) during the 1973 Bahamas 500 edition.


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Willie Meyers immediately after the triumphant finish in the Bahamas 500 of 1973


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Thanks for the photos Marco.

Willy was my throttleman on my Open class boat. The water was never rough enough and the boats were never fast enough for Willie.

He was world class in more ways than one. May God grant him peace, Goodbye, good friend.

Sorry to hear this - Willie was always easy to talk too - friendly - never a chip on his shoulder - I met him when building a factory in the Bahamas in 1970 - sad to hear of his passing !

Phil

Willie was always a class act.

We brought my race boat back from Nassau, after the Miami-Nassau Race. Maybe '74. What a ride!!!!!!!!!!!!

If memory serves me, Willie was the underwater stunt coordinator for the James Bond movie "THUNDERBALLS".

I last saw Willie at Davey Gilmore's wake. Still sitting at the bar and holding court.

RIP Willie.

May he rest in peace...... and find big waves to jump in heaven.

Willy was always the "Go to" guy for Don for special projects. One time the Shah of Iran wanted a "Special Boat" built for himself. Willy was given the project by Don and proceeded to build the boat that every Shah woiuld be happy with.

To be sure that he was happy, Willy traveled to Iran for the delivery and water test. The Shah was so happy that he gave Willy a little box as a thank you.

When Willy opened it, it contained an 18 karat Rolex Submariner with a blue face and date. On the back of the watch was inscribed, HRH Rezah Palavi. That was HRH, for His Royal Higness and the Shah's real name.

Willy was also a world class hard hat diver. He was the one called to find the missing Atomic bomb, that was lost when one of our bombers went down off Europe carrying it.

I'm sure the Europeans remember Willy's shy and retiring ways when he vacationed on Ibizia.

CHARLIE Dad Would Willie Meyers name be in the Searace book

sorry for the stupid question

Darren......there is no such thing as a stupid question. You are just asking for information that you don't happen to have right now.

Yes, Willie has his name mentioned many times in SEARACE.
Pages....60,70, 71, all the way up to pages 411 and 415.

He was the power behind the throne. He even raced back in the early days when the actual boat owner just stood there and was the named driver, while the actual driver who would win the race, were guys like willie and Brownie etc.

Just got this from the Sun Sentinental in Fort Lauderdale:

Edgar Owen Myers, 75, passed away on January 16, 2011.

I rode with Willie, Tim Powell and Peter Bethel a couple times..He hung around Holman Moody a lot. Everybodys friend..I last saw him at Knockys funeral. He told me about the H-bomb deal. His dive buddy was Carl Brashear, the man the movie Men of Honor was about. RIP willie..you were an honorable man..

Willie was a good guy and a real gentleman. That generation of racers is leaving us all too rapidly. Thanks for the memories.

Tom
Total Marine

I may be wrong, wouldn't be the first time. I believe Mr. Myers did some stunt scuba diving in the James Bond movie "Thunderball". The way I understand it, he was the underwater "stand-in" for "Emilio Largo", the villain that Bond was fighting underwater. Watch the movie closely and you never see the actors face while he's fighting with Connery, they always cut to a still shot of his face because he couldn't handle the job like Willie could. Much of the underwater stuff was filmed in the Bahamas and Miami.

Unfortunately, in the cast of Thunderball is not no Myers or Meyers (because then the difference in the name?) Even among the list of stunts.
Actually I have not found anything even in all the other films in the Bond saga...

I think Willie was killed 12 times in Thunderball. He, Rico Browning, and Courtney Brown did all the diving for Creature from the black lagoon, Thunderball, Day of the Dolphin, etc. Funny story about Willie. He came to the Keys to go diving with his daughter, Amanda. They went to the dive shop to get air, and the clerk said "No PADI card, no air". Willie took a book off the shelf and said "See the chapter on safety"? Who wrote it"? "Willie Meyers". Clerk, "I don't care, no card, no air"! Willie says "Wait a minute". He took off his Rolex Submariner and said "See this thing on the back? It is a nitrogen purge valve. This is the only watch in workd with one. They made it specially for me". Clerk. "I don't give a ****'. No PADI, no air". He never got any.
Willie was the quietest hero I ever knew. Some of his feats are legendary, but he was a "spook" with no name. If they made a movie about his life, John Wayne would have to play the part.

Thanks Brownie for the stories and the confirm of the presence of Meyers in the Thunderball.
Now I watch the film with a different feeling.
I'm downloading The Day of Dolphin and I look forward to seeing Willie in action in the film in the character of Stone.

Ricou Browning may still live in Davie..He was a customer at the animal hospital my wife worked at..She recognized his name right away when he first came in about 20 years ago..He was blown away someone remembered his faceless name..She says he is a very nice man..

Thanks for confirming my information Brownie, at least now I know I haven't completely lost my mind.

Another movie, perhaps last, also seems to be the most important for Willie Meyers.
"Hurricane" of 1979. Here is Willie in the main cast in the role of Cpl. Morrah.