Wanted.........
 

If you see something that looks like this....in any condition.....do not pass go........contact me at once.


Thanks,

T2x

I used to have a 44XS Mercury on my D class hydro. Is that what that is?...If so I might know of one.

OK, WHat is it ? I clicked and see nothing .........

Or is that it ? You need NOTHING ? Cause you already have it all !!:D

Sorry Biggus.......not the motor.....open the attachment.

Thanks,
T2x

:)

Fred!!!!!!!!! I'm too old now. I was slow on that, or you're getting faster!

T2X,a few years ago I got involved in a serious search for a wing in any condition. At the time I had a nice pair of 125 stackers that would have worked very well on one. Kept running into dead ends,was supposed to be a glass one in Maryland,didn't pan out. There must be a few still out there but I gave up trying.Maybe the power of this board will turn up something but I'm afraid many of the members don't know what a Switzer Wing was. For those that don't know,it was the most awesome boat of its era,100 mph with twin 80hp Mercs in 1961.Maybe you would share the history of this milestone boat with us.

Rich, have you checked here?
 

Fiberglassics Switzer Section

WWW.Fiberglassics.com seems to be a central clearing house for info on older (and more.....interesting.....) fiberglass boats.

...and there ya go!! From request to results in less than two hours. Gotta love this board....

T - Gonna keep the tiger stripes? With the Texas registration numbers already on it, you just need to add a "2" between the "T" and the "x"! And those 2-bladed props! Ohhh, baby!

There was one of those posted in the hot boat paint issue.

I would doubt that absolutely beautiful Switzer is for sale.I would be in line if it was.

I heard a rumor the Switzer Wing Molds were destroyed in a Fire is that a Fact?

Too Old
Real Nice Going !!:)

Don't know about the fire rumor but there was another rumor that the Switzer brothers(Bob and Dave)destroyed the molds themselves because of concern that blowovers were causing too many injuries. Not substansiated but it does make for a good story. The is no doubt that the performance of the Switzer Wing surpassed anything available in the 60's. Imagine what would have happened had Bob been a little younger and continued development with today's engines.

Thanks Float !:)

I thought that kid was playing with a big radio controlled toy.

Man is that thing small.

TooOld
It’s ready to rock ,Look at that unreal LOL Static displacement was not a concern! Wow what a flying Machine
:D :D :D :D

Thank you all ........................VERY MUCH!!!!!!


I'm sending the deposit as we speak.......and boy do I have a PROJECT.


T2x

Glad it worked out. Anything else at Fiberglassics.com that grabbed your eye?

Hey Rich, Whatever happened with Dea Won? Did you ever get in touch with the guy that owns it now?

Too Old:

Darren will not only post pictures of the progress..........He doesn't know it yet........but the boat is HIS!

Merry Christmas Buddy..................... For the next five years.

T2x...AKA...Darren's Dad.


P.S. Sean...I contacted the guy who owned HMS Dea Won...and he had very little interest in selling.....which coincided with my very little interest in buying.

t2x...gotcha...:rolleyes:

Wow, what a cool story. :)

Magic Float:

One question......................where are the "Stackers"........ But in all probability...........She'll wind up with a pair of....................


T2x's;)


Thanks again to Too Old............... I suddenly love Burger King.

T2x

Woooooooooahhh that is awsome...I'll bet he is stoked ...very very COOL !!

I can't wait to see the finished project!!
Congrats, it should be fun. I can't wait for my son and I to start on a joint project, he is 8 now, and he already wants to build a Jr. dragster:D ;)
That's my BOY!!

Like many of the cars I wish I had kept,the stackers are long gone. I was to dumb to relize I should have kept them.Surely you aren't going to put some late model exotic power onthat jewel,there are plenty of old short shaft 125's around. Is the boat a 20' or the shorter one? What kind of condition? Can't wait to see photos.MagicFloat

Magic:

It's the 20 footer....................the boat with the stripes...... we'll put an original period race paint job on it....... and take out the Mustang bucket seats.....new aft cowlings and an aileron. It also sounds like she needs some structural work....We'll take our time and do it right.

I don't consider T2x's "late model exotic power".........

In fact they were the ultimate in line 6's..................Thru transom trim.....hydro short center sections......manually adjustable x dimension..... and fit all of the current SSM's and props.

8000 RPM with the two ring pistons.............. close to 200 HP each.

The wings never raced with more than 150 hp/side.

This should be a great experience and something to be treasured for years.

T2x

T2x,I misunderstood your post when you asked about the stackers,should have known you had a couple of T2x's hanging around somewhere. This should be an unbelievable setup. Do you think it will handle the power? Always wondered what would happen with this kind of power,heck the race Wings didn't even have powertrim.I assume you will fabricate an original manually adjustable alearon(sp). Never heard of any big horsepower wings running around but there must have be a few. Kitson raced stackers,some claimed 165 horsepower but I always doubted that.Wonder what ever happened to Kenny? Congrats on this project, I for one will be following it closely.Before long the younger members of the board will know What a Switzer Hydrocat (Flying Wing) is,a wonderful part of history and years before its time. MagicFloat

I for one will be following the Project , Keep some pictures Posted !:)

Just a little explanation here....................

In my post on Great moments in Cat history, I touched on the Switzer Wing.......If memory serves it was actually titled the Switzer Craft Hydro Cat.

The boat was designed in 1958 by Bob and Dave Switzer and manufactured in their plant in Crystal Lake, Illinois. The earliest versions were crafted of wood and featured plexiglass canopies over the cockpit. The original was tested...in secret..at Lake X and was immediately licensed exclusively by Carl Kiekhaefer.

The first version tested with Mark 78A motors (75 hp..Stock Lower units) and was faster than anything else ever run with those motors.

Later versions including the most famous , Miamian Dave Craig's "Miss Skyway", ran with the Merc 800( 1960-61..80 hp) and 1000 (1962-65....100hp....first all black motors) and exceeded .......an unheard of ....100 mph........ with the newly designed Speedmaster lower units. Mercury dealer, Dave Craig consistently won the Gold Coast Marathon (Miami- West Palm and back on the intracoastal)...beating everything from inboard hydros, to outboard cats, vees and flat bottom inboard SK's and marathon hulls.

Remember in the late 50's and early 60's........60 mph was considered high end racing speed and 100 put you in a category with no more than 30 people on the planet.....more importantly "twin hundreds" (2 merc 1000's) pushed most race hulls (cats included) 60-70 mph

The "Wing" was a VERY special piece.....and WAAAAAAY ahead of its time. The boat featured a four point (Two stepped sponsons) design with a true air foil wing section and aileron over the tunnel. Cranking the aileron down at 80 or so "Popped" the tail and the boat actually flew............like nothing before..........nor since. This feat never received the attention it deserved due to three conditions:

1. The Switzer brothers natural midwest humility and lack of self promotion.

2. The "black ops" status that the "Old Man" clamped on all of the original hulls.

3. The hype created and advertising spent on far less unique designer builders like Aronow, Art Carlson, Jones, Power Cat, Hammond/Glastron, Bertram, Glaspar, etc..........

Finally, before the design could really be appreciated it was eclipsed on the race course by the European Tunnel hulls, which while not as fast in the straightaways, had the distinct advantage of being the best turning racing vehicles in the world (a fact which remains true to this day)......... sadly the Wings couldn't turn worth a damn and went sliding off to Virginia every time you turned the wheel in earnest..... This was no problem on the long straight marathon courses like the Hudson River Marathon and the Gold Coast, but created real headaches in circle racing and the newer boomerang shaped marathon courses like Havasu and the Orange Bowl Regatta. The final nail was driven into the wing coffin when the factory teams dropped multi engine hulls in favor of the single engine tunnels still in vogue today...............


The funny thing was even if you had the equipment to beat them , once you saw or raced against a Wing you inevitably wanted to own and drive one some day.............

I saw my first Wing in a Popular Mechanics or Popular Science article in 1959.................. and never forgot it.

I raced against them from 1964 through 1968 and stood and stared at them every chance I got..........

The stepped technology, ram wing principles, and overall design have only now been recognized in Peter Hledin's latest Skater designs.........

I have giggled while newbies "discovered" and or "invented" steps.............. added "Tunnel Tabs"......... and changed attack angles, deck lift and compression in order to gain more airborne characteristics............................. 30 years after the original showed the way.

My search for a Wing has spanned two decades.There were 5 wooden versions and 44 fibreglass units built in 18 and 20 foot lengths...................... most of them have been destroyed....the odds of finding one have narrowed by the year.


Long live the Switzer Wing.......................The Stradivarius of race boats.

T2x

T2x
Once again nicely done!:)

The Fiberglassics website had a link to Jeff Bowman's Cathouse which had the complete Switzer history and interviews with Bob Switzer. Unfortunately the link no long works,but it was a wealth of knowledge with letters from Carl Kiekhaefer ,boat orders, etc. Too Old,you found this boat ,can you find the old link? T2x,I know the wings could not turn but Kenny Kitson did not believe that,so he turned them anyway.Watching him and his Wing at the Lake Havasu World Championship races in the late 60's/early 70's was a site to behold. T2x,if you try his methods at home I hope I'm not on the outside of you!Glad you started this thread,it brings back lots of good memories. MagicFloat

wow
 

I have to admit id never seen or heard of this boat ..Born too late i guess.. But man that thing is AWESOME if not a little scary looking.. Lets see this project :D :D

Around 83/84 the new owners built a nice 18' metalflake vee and a big 21'GL-21 vee,one of the few boats that could carry Merc's new ill fated 300hp 3.4 liter outboard. We bought a solid yellow one with the 3.4,after many warranty problems Merc took the motor back and replaced it with a 2.4 liter 225hp plus a cash refund. That boat is still around,saw it in a barn a couple years ago for sale,I passed on it . Before the wing the Switzer brothers built a 16' Shooting Star,a kind of a flat bottom with a slight concave running surface. With a 125 Merc it would run 80 mph,no power trim and 2 blade prop. In 1968 no single engine outboard could touch ours in a straight line but at some point you had to turn and we could not turn in a 10 acre field.Those were good days,the roots of high performance boating.

Yes,that's Kenny. Crazy guy,great racer with no fear. Started a boat dealership in Georgia after his racing days.Got into a little financil trouble and most of his boats and Kenny himself just disappeared overnight. Always wondered where he ended up.

Too Old
Were you able to get the Year Kenny won the World Outboard Championships?

Damm nice photo ,These guys were light years ahead !:)

Kenny Kitson won the OB World's in 1967.....year after that it was Billy Sirois and the Twin engine Molinari...."Up , Up and Away".Year before ('66)Mike Reagan (Ronald's oldest Son) won it in a Rayson Craft....I think Jim Merten took it in 1969 with another twin Moli.....after that, it was time for the single engine boats and the "Age of Seebold" was born........

The era of the Wings was basically done by 1969.

One other side note......... a California hydro builder, De Silva, attempted to make wooden wing style boats in the late 60's for OMC expressly for the Havasu style races. These boats were light and very sleek....and deadly. As I recall two out of three of them disintegrated and at least one fatality occurred as a result.

This is not a design you fool with lightly....... The Switzers got it right....early...... the imitators ....missed the mark.

Final thoughts....... I believe the Wing was the first "Pickle fork" design as well........... Man! that's a lot of innovation in one boat.

The Switzers also made a line of "Shooting Stars" radical flat bottoms and vees. They shared a sort of square bow design, but the earlier wooden flat bottoms were among the most beautiful boats ever made. They featured a concave forward arch
that stretched gently to the outer rounded pads. This shallow "cave" tapered to zero at the bailing well.

The result....typical Switzer....... 96 mph with a single 100 hp Merc......... but...... don't turn it....without bringing it in for a landing first.

I could go on forever.

T2x

Its very interesting to me to read and see pictures of these type boats that I never new even existed....keep em coming....I like it!.....Fred

Years ago I saw a switzer 17' vhull it had curved back. Is this they same Switzer it was a very narrow boat I thought it was cool but not what I needed at the time.