George Linder-back in the day
 

The scene below is from the Havasu World outboard championships in 1967......... The wooden Vee bottom (third from the bottom) is an 18' Eltro....and one of the fastest boats in the race. The driver.......... George Linder.

The Challenger/Shadow 21's were direct decendents of this ungainly non- constant vee.

Thanks to Ron HIll for this vintage picture on Scream and Fly.

T2x..............Just keepin the faith

Neat photo,notice the Switzer Wings there too. One of those might be your current Wing. And Dave Packer,wonder where he is now?And Bill Hill,Jr. my Alabama neighbor, think he died sometime back.Maybe it's time for a new thread here of this type of racing history.

After 30+ years,still nothing better.I'm lucky to own a couple of 21 Hammond/Challengers from the old days.

Haven't picked up the Switzer yet but it's paid for and waiting for me. Interesting note is that the 1967 Havasu race T2x mentioned was won by Bob Switzer in his Wing powered by a pair of 1967 Merc 1100 Quincy Stackers, just like I bought from a personal friend of Bob. Could that motor be one of the ones on the Wing?I doubt I could confirm that but it is an interesting thought. Probrably should send the Switzer to you for restoration,since you would make it nice and never run it:):) But if you did run it you would be arrested for noise,a Quincy Stacker Merc will shatter windows at 1000 yards away, but they sure sound sweet to me at full song.

Yeah,but that's a little one. Mine is bigger,LOL. Inline six with 3 chrome stacks and full black wrap around cowl. If I could figure out how to hook up this new scanner I bought I could post a photo but I just can't make it work.I'm trying to get into the 21st century but just don't know how

Yeah,that's what Ronnie Milsap said, and I agree.I'm just tryin to adapt to a world that's passing me by,but it's still fun.

Magic:

Dave Packer..."The Flyin' Hawaiian"......from New York State..(It's a long story). unfortunately passed away about 15 years ago. He had cancer as I recall......

Great guy.....

T2x

Thanks..... Too Old.....

George Linder is one of the true greats. by the way, his daughter and son in law live up here about 30 min from Hawk Power.

Thanks again to Ron Hill.....another Linder gem from the old days. By the way, this boat led the Around Long Island Marathon in 1967...for the first 40% of the race......ahead of Billy Sirois in the factory Mercruiser 32 Bertram "Ol Yellar".....and Aronow...and Wishnick.....and Rautbord.....and Brownie....and Odell Lewis....and, and, and. Those Eltros were serious competitors.

I ran the boat in the Milwaukee-Chicago-Milwaukee race the following year.......with (gasp) factory Evinrudes.... (I lost my mind for a while);) .....

By the way....all you "manly men".....I ran the race......alone in the boat!

T2x

T2x. You should wait until we die before you make up these stories. In 1967, I, in Donzi Blue Devil, led the race with John Bakos in Sternwinder on my tail to Shinniecock Inlet, when a CG chopper came down with a sign saying "Stop! Fog at Montauk". We stopped and sat there till Sirois and Odell caught up. Then the four of us raced backward, thorough the rest of the fleet, to the marina. Next day was clear and rough. We led all the way around until we ran low on oil, and had to stop and bail some out of the bilge. Genth passed us while were were slippin' and slidin'. We almost caught him, less 3 or 4 seconds. Interestingly enough, we beat Aronow the previous year by 1/10th of a second after 250 miles. PS, the first O/B we saw on the first day was Howard Weiler in that stupid tiger decked boat.

Sorry Brownie:

But I'm a witness.......... I sat at Moriches inlet and saw Linder....#1...... Sirois # 2........ Unless you were well offshore and out of sight..... I'm stickin' to my story. We can certainly debate this over a beer.

By the way............ I thought we were all dead......or maybe it's just that I'm "obsolete".

T2x....;)

P.S...... For the rest of you who could care less about this...... At the time, Brownie ran Donzi Marine...... and by my calculation he is currently 112 years old. Which then begs another question... What year did Gene Bianco win the race in a single (outboard) engined Eltro?

Ahhh, the old timers swappin' war stories. This is what it is all about boyz and girlz.:) :) :D :D

1964, OR SO. I THINK YOU MIGHT BE TALKING 1968 WITH GEORGE.

For the record I was 2 years old at the time....and Brownie was in his late 70's....... ;)

T2x

The older we get, the faster we went!

;)