seeroy

Just wanted to post some pics from 2nd Bahama's 500. This pic is a bunch of us standing on the bow of Bill Sirois Bertram in order to raise stern enough for him to check the props. I will post some more pics later (probably tomorrow) - Steve Sirois

seeroy

Johnny Bakos installs engine in his Bertram

Top Banana

Great shots Steve.....love the leather shoes on everyone standing on the deck.

Reminds me of George Morales' wife and her spikes walking on the aluminum deck of his boat.

seeroy

Thanks Charlie. Actually, my shoes were leather with rubber soles. I am going to repost a few Offshore stories that I previously posted at S&F Racing History.

I had the fun of running in the first three Bahamas 500's. In the first one I rode with Wayne Vickers, and in the second with Jim Tebo. The third one evolved rather interestingly. While preparing at Lake X, I had drawn a 32' Cary with 4 BP's (BluePrint engines rated at approx 140hp) which ran about 67mph. This was a tried and true boat that Chet Strickland had previously run. I had run the boat out of Sarasota to do some rough water testing on the BP's. Ralph Seavey had drawn an exact copy of the boat but it was brand new. His boat clocked out at 65mph. About a week before we were to leave the lake we were called into the office for some interesting news. It seemed that Jerry Langer wanted to run Mercs in the 500. Jerry was an OMC dealer in the Miami area and had run that brand pretty succesfully. In fact, in probably one of the roughest offshore races ever run, only the Turbine Maritime boat and Langer had finished. There was an incredible photo in the paper of the Turbine standing nearly vertical at the Fowey Rocks light. Anyway, Langer had contacted somebody (I guess Mr. Kiekhaefer) and said he wanted to run one of our boats in the 500. As this was quite a PR coup it was approved. So Ralph and I were told that we would have to team up in one of our boats and Langer would get the other. Fortunately they let us decide which boat we wanted. Ralph's boat (#808) was new and slightly heavier and probably would do better in rough water. Mine (#909) was not new but was faster. We chose mine and I was the Driver of Record. The Bahamas 500 started at Lucaya and ran 500 Nautical Miles (thats 560 statute miles) through the islands ending back at Lucaya. I will tell some more about the race in a future post. Dale Thayer (Also Factory Team) was running 4 BP's on a 28' Memco which ran approx 68mph. We ran side by side and in the Outboard lead for all but the last ten miles. From the very beginning we slowly pulled away from Langer, and we were not about to give him a break. By the time we got to Nassau, which was the half way refueling point, Langer was probably 5 miles behind us. Mr. Kiekhaefer was on the dock and was visibly unhappy that we had run away from Langer. He said something like, "Why don't you guys give him a little break?". I replied, "OK" and put the hammers down. Unfortunately, I had gotten a short gas load at Nassau and ran out 10 miles from the finish. Dale Thayer stopped with me and asked what was wrong. I told him to go on which he did. We radioed our situation in and Mr. Kiekhaefer, who had flown on to Lucaya, sent a helicopter out to us with just enough gas to finish. However it was not quick enough to stay ahead of Langer and he managed to eke out second place outboard behind Dale. Those were the days of REAL Offshore. -Steve

seeroy

1967(?) 1st Bahamas 500....Red Crise spectacular! I think there was something like 63 boats entered and it was definately rough water! I rode with Wayne Vickers in a Seacraft (#43) with twin Mercs. Eventually, if you didn't screw-up too bad, you would get a boat of your own and some other poor sap would have to hold on for dear life. One of the most gratifying aspects of the whole process was the rigging of the boat. Often one would start with a bare hull, and I do mean a bare hull. Anyway, the race starts and about 20-30 miles later we were doing OK when a throttle cable came loose from one engine and we were dead in the (very rough) water for awhile getting it reattached. When we got going again everybody was out of sight so we actually had to navigate instead of following the crowd. When we finally got to the half way fuel stop at Nassau it was late in the evening. We didn't want to go across the flats on the way to Eleuthra in the dark, so we said the Hell with it and got a hotel room for the night. That sounds like a gentlemanly way to race. Next morning we got up at a decent hour, had some breakfast and continued our journey, finally finishing in an elapsed time of something in excess of 24 hours.....but we did finish! It was either the next year or the year after next that Red instituted a new rule that said you had to finish in a specified time or you were disqualified. Apparently he just didn't understand that this was a gentlemans game. -Steve

seeroy

2nd Bahamas 500 (1968?). I rode with Jim Tebo in a 25’ (Maybe 28’?) Seacraft (#202) with 3 Mercs. I don’t remember speeds or how we finished. I do remember that while going across one area that I had to pee really bad. The cockpit was set up so that we rode in tandem and Jim was driving so I turned around and attempted to relieve myself on the floor which emptied into the bilge. Now this is no small task at 60mph in bumpy water. Every time I approached success, we would hit another good bump and I would lose it. Finally I succeeded and felt much better . Shortly thereafter we tripped and stuffed the bow. And then again. And again. Seems the water conditions were such that it just kept happening. Since Jim was in front, he took the full force of the blow. After the 3rd time, Jim was beat up so bad that he gave me the helm and sat on the floor for most of the rest of the day. I stuffed it a couple of more times before the conditions changed. At the speeds we were running in those days, stuffing could be very painful but not always catastrophic. I can vividly remember seeing this green wall of water rushing over the bow just before it hit me. It was kind of like somebody hitting me in the chest and head with a very large baseball bat. Fortunately, I was too young and stupid to realize that it really hurt. Center picture is me during Nassau fuel stop. Right picture is Jim Tebo. -Steve Sirois

seeroy

Back to 1st Bahama 500. Mr Kiekhaefer had sent Mabry Edwards out to fly the course and take aerial 16mm movies so that we could watch them and familiarize ourselves with the landmarks. The projector was set up in a backroom across from the "Old" boatshop and behind the "Old" parts room. Whenever we had time, we could go over there and watch it. I must have watched that movie 20 times, which was not easy because we were working our collective asses off rigging and testing. Additionally, Mr K chartered a yacht (sloop?) and sent several of the top guns on a cruise around the course to put their own eyeballs on it. Gotta go, but I will try to post more tomorrow or the next day. TTFN - Steve

BROWNIE

In the first '500', I drove George Couzens' 28' Donzi, "Blue Devil". We stayed with the leader, Richard Bertram and Jim Mander in "My Moppie" for the first 40 miles. Our handling got worse and worse. Finally, when we would stand it up, both engines would start missing like crazy. My riding mechanic, Mark "Big Dirty" Raymond, looked through the engine room hatch, and turned white! The bilge was a foot deep in purple 115/145 avgas! The harmonic balancers on the Holman Moody engines were throwing gasoline on the distributors. The mixture was so rich that it could not ignite. What to do? Big Dirty was a fireman in real life. He knew what to do. He taped up the air inlets to keep the mixture rich, and we turned back to Lucaya, giving a wide berth to the 3 boats that were burning on the way back. It was the longest 40 miles of my life! When we reached Lucaya, I had the crew jump overboard, and I aimed it for the Travellift. I crawled onto the front deck, and when I was sure that the boat would coast into the lift, I fired both CO2 extinguishers, killing the engines. I stepped off when the boat touched the dock, and kissed the ground. The lift operator wouldn't haul the boat because of the fumes cascading over the sides. It sat for a week before anyone would touch it.

seeroy

Hey Brownie - I enjoyed your story in Hot Boat. I can visulize Mike Gordon hanging upside down in his straps. I never met Sam Sara, but I saw some of his work. I think he did the Beautiful turbo-charged Chevy in Johhny Bakos Rayson Craft. I could be wrong but Jim Hauser (Go Fish) could confirm. As to the 1st Bahamas 500, I think the demolition derby by fire, broken hulls, broken engines and bodies taught alot of lessons to everybody in how to build and rig boats that could endure. Additionally, I think it opened alot of eyes to the importance of being able to know where all the boats and crews are. As I remember, a couple of crews seemed to have dropped off of the edge of the Earth for awhile. I know that Bob Donahue and Red(?) sunk early on and went missing for quite some time. It seems to me that the wooden Sonny Levi boat (Formula/Genth?) disappeared for awhile after being abandoned. I think a passing freighter crew came upon it and tried to salvage it by lifting it out with a cable, but instead broke it in half. I know that most of the radios in the fleet were broken very early on and were useless. Also, I think that some of the Check-boats left station before some of the straggelers (Wayne Vickers and I) managed to reach the finish on the 2nd day......Bottom Line....I think Offshore Racing has lead to incredible improvements and the 500 certainly did. I remember seeing a couple of smoke pillars during that first 500 and I just remembered seeing something else during the second or third 500 that was downright spooky. I think it was while running between Cat Cay and Chub(?) Cay we came upon a 50-60' yacht that was fully engulfed in flames and nobody in sight. We stopped and radioed the Coast Guard. I don't remember what they said, but it lead us to go about our way. You know how intense a fire at sea can be and, after 40 years, I can still visulize that scene. -Steve

Top Banana

You guys keep up the stories....HORBA will supply the photos to go along with them.

More photos on www.historicraceboats.com

Here is the Sonny Levi boat you mentioned....would anyone ever believe this was a FORMULA race boat?