Originally Posted by T2x
Your Dad and I and Linder have a lot in common.......

See below

Pix uploads finally work...

T2x

The picture of the boat with twin Mercs, is that a Carlson? What size? How fast did that run back then? And the Corvette tow vehicle..in your picture, you saw the 1963 Split window Vette my father used as his tow vehicle back then, after the Vette is was a 1970 Z 28 Camaro. Yeah, you and him have alot in common. You two would have one helluva conversation about boats, hot-rods, ect.

He was a hot-rodder on wheels, water, and with snow-mobiles, he just loved to race anything, anybody, anytime...

That's George Linder in his original "Challenger" in 1966....... a Carlson Challenger named "Challenger 1". It was 16 feet long and ran like crap...... about 72 mph....I had it to 80 once but couldn't keep it flying at that speed for more than about 1/4 mi. It was a bad design in that it had two sponsons forward that tapered to a flat bottom at the rear...made no sense. Later Carlson modified the hulls into full tunnels. Basically George learned how NOT to design a hull from Art Carlson.....

My Vette was an emergency tow vehicle ( My Van was in the shop) that I used for one race and a quick trip to Mercury Oshkosh to pick up that race hull.

T2x

Bernie,

Thank you for praying my father (Alan Jones), my family appreciates all the support and compassion, from all here on OSO. Boating was the most important hobby he had; as my father is battling for his life, my sister-in-law, Laura, just has given birth to my new nephew, Gavin Alan Jones, 7 lb. 4 oz., mother and baby are well. Grandchild number four for my father and mother.

Keep your parents close Bernie; that's sounds great that that another OSO member, Joe D (I do not know Joe D personally), was thoughtful enough to give them a ride - they certainly would win quite a few race(s) that day, in that boat.

You did not hi-jack the thread, but your post should help others to understand to enjoy what we have today, and be thankful for the loved ones in our life! Yes, plan for tomorrow, but be thankful and enjoy today!

Stephen

Hey Smarty,

If you would like to join us at the NJPPC raftup this Saturday on Barnegat Bay - let me know and I will hook you up with a ride!

Might be good medicine for you!

Dave,

Thank you so much for the offer, but my father has passed, and I am needed here.

I would have really enjoyed the ride, too. Your kindness is appreciated; your a big dude with a big heart.

Thanks,

Stephen

Thoughts and Prayer for you and your Family.


Frank

Sorry to hear that. Once again, you and your family are in our thoughts.

So sorry Stephen.. You guys are in our thoughts.

Steve

Stephen...so sorry about your dad. Godbless him.

Stephen so sorry for your families loss. Thank you so much for sharing the stories about your Dad, it makes me feel like I knew him a bit, and he is certainly someone that Ian and I would have enjoyed meeting. The guys you dad sought out to talk to here are the same guys Ian enjoys talking with. He reminds me a bit of my Dad who turned 80 this spring. His heart was always in motors but unfortunately my mom ruled with an iron fist and only let him get a boat much later in life. He was not lucky enough to have a son and I waited till 35 to marry, with Ian he finally had a son to share his love of motors with. I will never forget the excitement he had as he helped Ian navigate through the staights of Mackinaw on Lake MI the year we celebrated their 50th anniversary. He was so into it that I had him sit next to Ian in my seat so he could follow the GPS and his chart. True to form my mother and sister would not ride with us, they took the ferry to the island. Unfortunately his knees are so bad that it is dangerous for him to be around docks, he will have knee replacement surgery in Sept ( he kept failing stress tests and just got the OK) hopefully he will get around better, but 80 is getting up there. Sorry to go on about my Dad but I wanted you to know that hearing about your's makes me think about mine, which makes your father's memory grow. Give your mom a big hug and tell her your Dad was a lucky man, she did not make him give up his passion.

Stephen, so sorry for your loss. May he R.I.P. Hang in there bro if ya need anything feel free.

Bernie
732-539-5882

I saw this thread picking up post and feared the worst- RIP and thanks for sharing your Father's life with us..

:( Very Sorry For Your Loss

Stephen,
So sorry to hear about your father.
He was a great man.
Your long time tenants and friends.
jeff and jeanne

Stephen, You and your family are in our thoughts and our prayers. Your father and I have become good friends over the last few years and I will miss him deeply. If you need anything just give me a call. John 484-883-1390 God Bless.

I bought a 509 ci motor from Alan back in January and had the chance to "hang"out with him in his garage surrounded by what he loved....boats, engines, and engines and boats. We talked for hours and shared a ton of stories. The man was a literal encyclopedia of boating and engine building knowledge. What better way to spend a cold and rainy day in January.

Alan you will be missed...God Speed my friend.

Stephen,

So sorry for your loss. :(

My prayers are with you and your family... :(

My God Bless him.....


P.S.
I pass by that Magnum often on Princeton Ave in Brick.

STEPHEN I am so sorry for the passing of your father. I was hoping to tell you to keep pulling for him:( because my dad had a heart attack to day on the beach and I was not with him, your dad was a great father and person from what I have read. You need to be strong for your mom now and if you want a oso brother to talk to thats been there call me at 617 8333327 anytime we lost my wifes dad last spring 07 and I hope my dad makes it. god bless you and your family and I know the angels are driving while your father is throttling a offshore cig to heaven. I am so so sorry for you guys. artie

Stepen and family,I am so sorry for your loss,may he rest in peace.He was indeed a great man and was always willing to help out,he even pointed me in the right direction more than once.R.I.P.Stephan please call me when you can 302 293 0487
and once again,your Dad was and will be always be rememberd by me and alot of others,good people never DIE they just go FASTER.
Bill Weber

even though it was way to soon for Mr. jones, there is def something special about where he is now; and providing Him with a knowledgeable motor mind, and a very fast chariot!!!

Lets get some motors running for his sake!!!

Stephen, I was hoping to check in today and read that your dad was still fighting the good fight. I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Your dad sounds like a wonderful man and you have great memories of him. I lost my dad two days after Christmas, very unexpectedly. He was a talker too, perhaps they will have some conversations upstairs. Godspeed to your dad, you and your family are in my prayers.

OSO Friends,

First, thank you all for the support, me and my entire family recognize and appreciate the support, it does mean a world to us. Firsts class people, all of you!

I wrote those experiences about my father because his first love after my mother and his children, was offshore boats, and I am just so proud that I had a father like him. I will share two more experiences with you then I am cold-turkey from OSO for a while, probably in a lurking mode as my father would have been, if he were still here with us.

Two of the more memorable experiences he had, was going to Cigarette in 1972, or 1973 - I was just a kid. The family drove down to Miami from New Jersey to pick-up my father's new 20' Cigarette, it was the first 20-footer Don Aronow had ever made. Don treated him like royalty which was great and which I never forgot. It was great for me as a child (seven or eight years old), because we always got Powerboat Magazine, and here was the guy and boats I kept seeing in the magazine, I was awestruck. Mr. Aronow let me sit at his desk,and he made me feel at home, though my mother was probably mortified by my behavior, LOL. He gave me shirts, stickers, license plate brackets, every nick-nack-non-sense kind of thing that a seven or eight year old would love and cherish forever. After we left the office, we then toured the plant before he took us for a ride in a new 28' Cigarette he had sitting there. When we were out in the 28' hot-rod we got in a race with another boat and won (I think Byng Goode was driving, not sure). It was something I will never forget, nor did my father.

The other story was when he bought a brand new 24' Pantera, it was 1978 or 1979. He paid for it at the dealer up here in New Jersey; that dealer sold Pantera and Carrera boats then. The boat had not yet been built, my father ordered the boat. He and two friends scheduled a flight to Florida to pick up the boat because Pepe Nunez (owner of Pantera) said it would ready when they get there; when he got there the boat was not even close to being ready, the bottom was still in the mold. My father and his two friends were planning on driving the boat back to New Jersey by water, through the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW). So, they waited while the boat was assembled and at least he got to see the build process, and which made him feel good about the purchase he just made. Now if you ever met my father he did not like anything built half-ass. Pepe must have had his A game going-on because my father liked Pepe Nunez, and my father always said Pantera builds a good boat.

Well, the boat got built. They filled the tank up with gas (the first of many fill-ups for this trip), and off my father and his friends went on their journey from Miami to New Jersey in his brand new boat, with zero hours of run time and zero hours of test time. Mechanically everything worked great, but because of the late start (waiting a few days), waiting for the boat to be completed (I am not sure how many days he lost because the boat wasn't built on time) me and my Mother had to drive to the lower Chesapeake to pick-up him and the boat up since a storm was coming up the coast.

This was the last boat he owned that my mother rode in and enjoyed boating in, here's why. It had a new MerCruiser 330hp/TRS package and was a low 60 mph boat, and the boat had the Vee windshield which was a taller-effective windshield since it was a Special Edition version model. He did not race much (mother never enjoyed racing other boats, but tolerated racing other boats for my father's sake and for my sake) with that engine package because the boat was a slug. Once the warranty was done, out came the 454/330 in went a LS-6 (454 cu.in. BBC) that made the boat come alive, so did his spirit when it came to looking for races, LOL.

I never met another hot-rodder who has had a similar experience like the Pantera story, driving the new boat home from the factory on the day of completion, but maybe this will inspire another performance boater to give it a try. I will surely miss my father. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers,

The Jones Family

Smarty,
Very sorry to read about your Dad! May he rest in peace.
You can not imagine how many times I have told the story about your Dad going "home" by water! The best part is that most of the people I have told the story to, think that I am exagerating.

I remember going for a sea trial w/ your Dad in the bay, I had not known of his plan, I was ready to put the boat back on the trailer, and he said "No need to" I am going home by water!
Can you imagine the surprise that I got? I said to myself,
Boy this guy is nuts!!! Just a short time previously, I had set a new record from Miami to New York in a 24' Pantera, I said to myself, It would be something if he breaks my record.

Best regards,
pp.

I am so sorry, Cancer has affected too many peoples lives

Mr. Nunez (Pepe),

Thank you so much for the post, it brings back good memories which are very helpful during this time. I think it is great that you and your son are keeping the Pantera boat company alive and strong to this day. It is a testament on how well you build boats.

My father really liked you and your family. And, when it comes to building a boat he thought the world of you. The 24' Special Edition version that you built, it was a beautiful boat. We all loved that boat, especially my mother. Not only did it look good, it was functional and fast (once the 450hp/500hp BBC was installed by my father).

You did not sell your boat to a "nut-job," but if I were you I would have thought the same thing, LOL. Maybe someday one of your northeast customers will take delivery of their new Pantera by water, and drive it home to New Jersey from the factory. If not, you will always have the memory of the customer who did, Alan Jones. Thank you for building a boat that helped create such a great boating experience for the entire Jones family, and the memories that we can cherish because of that boat.

Thanks again,

Stephen

Smarty,
Thank you for your words, very kind from you!
I wish I had found out about your Dad, I could have given him a call, BUT....
Thanks again and if there is something I could do, I am a call away.
Regards,
pp.

Stephen, I am so sorry for your loss.
Your dad sounds like a great guy, and someone who showed his son how its supposed to be done!

Sorry for your loss Smarty. I never met your dad (or you) but my father and I do some work in the plant your father used to work at in Pennsville. I talk boats with some of the mechanics there and your father's name comes up from time to time. I will be sure to pass on the sad news to the guys in the shop...I know they will miss him. If you need a extra wrench on the Phantom just let me know.

Sorry to hear of your loss. :(

Sorry for your loss.
Dean

My thoughts and prayers are with you, your father and your family, so sorry for your loss. I grew up on the Jersey Shore and definately remember the yellow Magnum

Smarty, I'm very sorry for your fathers loss. From what I've read over the years of your comments on this board, your father was very proud to have a son like you. My dad always said..the pear usually doesnt fall far from the tree. Thanks for sharing with us your dad's love for the sport. Hang in there. I just went through this with my dad back in Feb. Cancer is a wicked disease...may he rest in peace... If you ever need someone to talk with..give me a call 228-216-0900..Jeff

Your dad seems like he was a character, pulling fast boats with fast cars. :D Those are some great pictures and stories, made me feel like I knew you guys!

I'm sure he's running a fast boat somewhere. :)

RIP

Thanks to all for the kind words, and thoughts. My mother finally read this thread last night. She has never, ever looked at OffshoreOnly until last night. It really touched her heart on how kind and thoughtful the members have been.

She thought is was pretty cool that Pepe Nunez, as well as everyone else, gave a testimonial or condolence. The viewing is tonight, and funeral tomorrow, so I may will not be online for a few days, so thank you all for the thoughts and prayers.

And, if you have any Alan Jones stories or experiences do not hesitate to share them, my father was definitely a character on some occasions. I will share one more boating story which is typical of my father.

He was out in ocean off of Atlantic City, NJ in the late 1980's or early 1990's - looking for race in his 27' Magnum (the Hairy Canary), a typical Sunday afternoon. Frank Kerbeck, the car dealer - Corvette, GMC, Bentley, ect. - here in NJ, had and still has a 41' Apache raceboat. Mr. Kerbeck would race anybody - which I thought was pretty cool. So on this day my father and Mr. Kerbeck finally run into one another. So now its on, roughly a five mile drag race; and at the end Mr. Kerbeck and his Apache (Island Runner) had him by about 1/2 boat length, at most. Mr. Kerbeck yells over to my father, "I didn't think that thing ran that fast." To which my father replied, "I didn't think you ran that fast either, let's do it again." There wasn't a second race.

The moral to the story - Frank Kerbeck never boasted that his ran 100 mph, but all the dockside bullsh*tters thought so (it may have run 100 mph with the race motors). And unless you give someone a run, you'll never know. So don't ever be intimated by that supposed super-duper hot-rod; give that other boat a shot and find out what they got and how they run, that's how my father viewed every weekend and every race.

Thank you Mr. Kerbeck for racing my father. It made his day, even though you beat him, it was a good race - many, many years ago.

And again, thanks to all for the kind words.

Hi Stephen,
I was trying to get out of it and change my shcedual all around. I have an exam this eve and would have liked to have been there!

Another story:
I was selling a boat for Bob @ offshore really good guy, and your dad calls me in regard to this hot rod baja. nothing major 79-80 mph at best but he was all over it and looking at everything, he was the most insightful person. and he said the boat could be made into a real "sleeper" which i thought was so so cool. that was around the time your gang bought the phantom good idea!!
Thanks for all your help with my GOAL, cant wait to be of service to you when it comes time to get that hull ready

Can donations be sent to a certain charity or boating group??

My mother has not set a charity, so keep your money saved for tuition. With respect to that Baja, he did like that boat, if I remember correctly it had a new 525 or 500 Mercury EFI motor, and Bob Wallace had serviced the boat so you know it was in great mechanical shape. He actually made an offer on that boat about an hour too late, the boat was sold the day he made an offer. I was stunned he considered buying it, but he thought he could get into more races with a single engine "sleeper" and have reliabilty too. It was a solid boat because he said that Baja laid it up/framed it differently than they had the other 24's due to motor package from the factory, he went through that boat with a fine tooth comb. I am glad he got the Phantom, the Phantom is an awesome boat.

There are alot of hot-rod single engine boats out there, and he liked to race so it made sense to him in that respect, as well as less fuel, one less motor and drive to be concerned with, and so on....

I want to see one of your clam/skiff boats, and I you know I like the Sutphen. I did not think I would be online till after the service tomorrow, but...Talk with you soon.

Yup i remember, that eve a man from riverside came back and bought the boat. You guys did very well though getting the phantom! I also remember drifting with my father with the engines off and you and your dad ran a white pink blue orange, and green 28 cigarette, he had a great throttle arm i dont think he spun those engines once. wasnt at the other finishing end, but i am pretty sure of the out come! GOT an 92 on math exam last eve!

the 18
www.battlewagon18.com

OSO friends,

I thank you all for the offers of assistance in putting my father's 34' Phantom back together. The family (me, my mother and brother) have decided to take the boat down to Will Smith, owner and builder of Phantom Boats, and have him do it right.

Will Smith will also use Innovation Marine to set-up the 540's with the MerCruiser EFI, so if we keep the boat it will be reliable and user friendly, and if we decide to sell the boat, it will be perfect, with zero headaches for the next owner - my father wouldn't ever sell a headache/problem boat to the next guy so why would we (we won't)... We want reliability (mild tune job) and a low rpm idle, but enough idle to avoid reversion - that's why Innovation will dyno, tune (fuel pressure and air flow), and reprogram the ECUs; and Will Smith will make it look great, re-rig, and help dial it in (propeller selection).

Look for the boat next summer, Ryan Beckly had already sent the new graphics for the boat, but we never did apply the graphics, some more glass work, and vent relocation after-work needs to be finished. So new power, new graphics, but the memory of my father will remain as will all the changes he made to make that boat run so well. It was/is the best performing boat he has ever owned; that son-of a b*tch "gets with the program!"

Till then, have a great summer of boating...

Best way to do it Stephen. To many hands in the mix makes for problems. Good Luck and keep us posted. Call if you need anything. 484-883-1390 John

Steve , I just got the bad news about your father from John ( R addiction) and I almost fell on the floor !! What an owesome , kind hearted guy he was . Loved hanging out with you and Al @ Lloyd creek and will never forget the ass whoppin he gave me in the canal last summer . Your father and a long list of other is why I like to live every day like it's my last !! Your father will ALWAYS be on my mind when I think of Lloyd creek !! I'm also local if you need anything .

Larry @ 609-315-2640