Very Cool! Well done!
Steve

Ever sit down w/a good book and not get up until the last page? Was on my way out the door for my morning run when this thread caught my eye. That was 3 hrs ago!
Funny too as I feel emotionally spent. The sorrow for the family's loss, the joy in finding the boat, the amount of effort in such a huge project (just finished a 24' twin O/B of my own), the sadness in reading Mom's post, the excitement of the maiden voyage/phone video (I laughed out loud) and the final picture of 90 yr old Grandpa going for a ride.
Also comical that I kept checking the dates of the posts in comparison to todays to determine if they actually had a shot at it actually being done by now.

Interesting too that I am orig. from Columbus (Westerville) and was just there celebrating my Dad's 90th.

My arms still hurt after the pix's of boarding the hull Congrats to you guys, outstanding accomplishment and for the perfect reason. Have seen and admired that boat and it's accomplishments. Have watched the record run video many, many times in the past.

I also laughed out loud when reading your 85 MPH #'s on it's maiden voyage withhhh...., 150 gls of fuel. Told me all I needed to know
Into the mid 90's already, WOW! Awesome stuff in deed.

I am still a couple wks away on my project being ready/reliable but we will be over boating your way and my boat is a restored '85 24' Sonic w/twin O/B's that has the classic lines (yours is the bench mark of the classic offshore lines that I so love) similar to yours and would be a great time following each other around.

If you're ever over this way, we've got room for you.

Thanks for making my day guys! Best thread ever!

Gary Williams

Wow, thank you Gary for taking the time to share your thoughts and compliments! It is great hearing from people like you who know the struggle of restoring one of these old boats. We were so fortunate to have had some great people step up and help us to get to where we are today. You'd be suprised at how much advice and knowledge is available to people by just reaching out to the experts.

We hope to continue to meet people from OffshoreOnly and will hopefully get the opportunity to run the boat alongside many of you in the future.

We had the boat in the parade and dry pits at the Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix in Sarasota in it was awesome to get to talk to all the people that stopped by and shared their stories of seeing the boat 20 years ago, or just offered there appreciation for the work we have put in. We're going to try and keep going to different places as much as time and money will allow so we can continue to hear the stories and show people a piece of offshore racing history.

If you're reading this and happen to see us or the boat sometime, don't hesitate to come up and introduce yourself so we can put a face to a screen name!

Robert, we finally have the boat at home in Naples! We're going to try and get out this weekend for some running so I'll give you a call towards the end of the week and see if we can get out together.

If anyone else in the Naples area wants to meet out on the water or run somewhere this weekend, don't hesitate to PM me or post.

-Jordan

Definitely a picture and memory that Mike and I will treasure for the rest of out lives

Sounds good...look forward to it!

The boat looked absolutely sensational at the Sarasota races this past weekend.

I had put up a video but apparently it is too long, so I will try again to post a shorter version of it!

Check back tomorrow

Justin

I posted on the Velocity forum, but had to post here as well:

Saw the boat in Sarasota and spoke to Mike Poppa. What a super nice guy, and the boat looked great. Got a bit of the history from Kim, I'm glad that they chose to return the boat so close to original. I wish the project had been done while I was at Velocity, I would have loved to be involved. What a beautiful piece of floating history.