38' Cig "BEAST"...
 

Last Friday I had the opportunity/pleasure to meet Bill...owner of the "BEAST". He drove over from Chicago to WESCO's shop with a truck full of new engine parts so Dave could finish the top end of his engines.

Also, Bill's boat is really coming along nicely with lots of nice, new upgrades...extension boxes, Marine Machine external heavy duty steering with wing plates and helm station, new throttles and cables, new Perreli floor in the cockpit, new paint in the engine compartment, new wiring and re-rigging in the engine compartment and of course a pair of newly built supercharged engines from WESCO's shop! Not sure what
else Bill is upgrading his boat with but I'm he's sure doing the right way!

On a nice summer Thursay afternoon in August 1984, I happened to be down by the water and watched as two loud BLACK offshore boats (BEAST and SMOKIN') howled their way into the mouth of the jetty/harbor and idled into the West Basin Marina in St. Joseph to refuel their boats as they continued their trip up to Saugatuck/Grand Haven for the races. I remember driving over to the Marina to hopefully get a peek at those boats as they sat at the refueling docks.

They had their engine hatches open---both boats had tunnel rams. I remember being very curious and asking a few questions about the engines. SMOKIN' had a pair of 540"/600hp engines while I think the BEAST had a pair of 540/640hp engines with tunnel rams and full length Patterson or Stellings tubular racing headers and Merc SSM racing drives. I remember the lake was dead calm and several people who were at the beach that day stood to their feet as the two boats throttled up their engines as they took off and roared their way north out of sight.

Back then and for the most part there were very few options in head designs or aftermarket head companies. Superchargers were pretty much unheard of at that time and back then anything approaching 500 cubic inches was considered a "MONSTER" engine. If you had a 454 block with a 4.25" stroke (482", 489" or 496") in a boat you were considered a BAD AZZ.....even more so if you had any kind of non-stock dry exhaust system, tunnel rams and Merc SSM drives! So, back then I could not believe what my eyes were looking at, and obviously thought these two boats were the chit!

Congrats on your boat Bill. You have a nice cool piece of Lake Michigan history and I think you're going to surprise a few people with that thing! Have fun with it! :)

Mark

Good post mark, the boat is so cool looking. Definite classic.

Dave asked me not to post any pics I took of the boat, as Bill requested that whatever he's doing currently he would rather keep under wrap, untill it's finished.

KAAMA,
Thanks for sharing that great memory. I hope to see some pics of the beast!
Jr.

Great post Mark. Pretty cool you got to see it than and now.

I'm so glad Bill's gonna have her on the water this year. It was always painful driving by a certain auto-repair shop in Orland and seeing the Beast just sitting there...for YEARS.

Its so funny how 3 years of incomplete "work" could get torn apart and rebuilt correctly in a month. Thanks WESCO.



I think that this is the first 39 Cig. ever built.

I did not know the BEAST was actually a 39 footer!

Anyway, Dave is one talented, hard working dude....he knows what it takes to "Git'r Done!" :)

That's why I have Dave doing my boat!!!!

Mark, I appreciate the kind words and it was great meeting you as well. I enjoyed hearing your past memories of BEAST that you shared with me while we were at WESCO. Thank You!

A special thanks go out to Mark Smith and Frank 10X for giving me direction and introducing me to Dave Wesseldyk.
Dave has been a godsend in taking on the project of rerigging BEAST. I can't thank Dave enough, along with his crew at WESCO. Thanks to all that have helped me in bringing BEAST
closer to reality !!!

Bill