Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

1959 THUNDERBIRD papoose, Funny I been reading you post and the flipper boat is yea is tri-hull but came later. I have one of the frist Tri-hulls made by Woodie Wilson, designed by Richard Cole. The Thunderbird logo was drew my Dottie Wilson on a napkin funny it lasted so long, and she just drew it on a napkin....how do I know all this about the beginnings of thunderbird, I write Dick Cole's son Mike Cole(daily) to find stuff out, like I said I have one of the frist Cathedral Hulled boats, and I wanted to learn more.
did you know Woodie Wilson loaned a boat to the guy who designed the frist I/O and it was tested in a 20 foot Thunderbird, the strange part about the story is Woodie never took the advantage of this, why I still don't know but Arnold was not the founder of I/O's or Thunderbird. oh the frist I/O was called a Augashift.

send emails of interest if you like heck, I even except hate mail sometimes.

if you want to see pictures of the thunderbird in it's before restored state there are at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runaboutMudders/

as far as go fast boasts go I just gave-a-way a Hydrostream Vegas, wierd boat the fiberglass under the hull was all red from bow to stern!

yes what you will see here is one of the frist tri-hulls built by Thunderbird, which much later in 1972 became Thunderbird Formula

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

I'll have what he's having!

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

It does`nt sound like there`s any left. :D

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

March 1964 Long Beach Island NJ. Me and my Dads 1964 Thunderbird first time in water

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

75 Horsepower Evinrude...man that engine was big(back then)

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

Don't make me bring the Flipper thread back to life! :eek:

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

Mopower,
What marina ? Do you remember?
JIm

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

Check out the bottom on this thing.
Its got steps on its tunnels and sh!t.............man that looks like an accident waiting to happen. :drink: :D :drink:

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

If I remember correctly it was on Tebco Terrace( south part of the island). It was about the only thing left standing in that area after the March 63 storm. Here's a shot from April 63. The street ran bay to ocean. This was leaving headed toward the ocean. Then make a left and head north to the causeway. Bring back memories???

Re: Thunderbird Tri-hulls
 

In the picture of the tri-hull from below, that upside down shelf sticking forward was named a "hydrofubab" by Dick Cole, the architect (who kindly taught me how to draw boats). Hydrofubab stands for "Hydrodynamic f**kup beyond all belief". When they launched the first boat without it, the water climbed the hulls in the apexes and came right into the boat. Dick had some great names for various boat related stuff. "Gogi" was the name of the flats between the hulls in the Wellcraft Airslot. Gogi = Genth's only good idea! Dick Genth was Pres. of Wellcraft. In the box at the corner of the drawing was a place for Military Spec, if one was applicable. Cole always put "MILCPD41C" which means "Make it like the cottonpickin' drawing for once. I did the Paris Boat Show with him several times. He was one of my favorite characters.