Biggus

Cool pics! -Really appreciate the history!

Kurt

paston1

I am very new to the sport and find it awesome that the guys who paved the way will sit back and relive it with us. I never attended a race until this year and it was on a lake but I am hooked and look forward to learning more about the history of this sport. Welcome aboard and please keep the stories coming

Black Tornado

Super Toad!
Now I remember your boat on the few US motorbat magazines that also arrived in Italy in the seventies..
But were you in Venice with Betty Cook and Connors in 1979's Worlds?

gofish 7070

Every day you learn new stuff about back in the day,,,,,,,
As usual, a little off the thread, but would love to see you guys @ OFF party in Jupiter Fl Oct.23-25th,,,,, I realize it is a lot of distance for many of you,, but as Brownie keeps saying,,,,, When else can we do this. Besides I'll get everyone a free chicken wing and the real old guys, a bran muffin,,,,,,,,, Great Poost........

Mr. Toad

Marco,

I was there. Of course Betty and John were the stars, and I was just a young kid!

In Searace, Crouse mentions Connor taking pictures of the other boats. That was actually me, not John, as he was pretty busy throttling the Cougar cat at the time! I was in the navigator's spot behind Betty, and since the water was flat I pulled out my little point-and-shoot camera and snapped a few photos of the other boats. Since the V-hulls were trimmed way out trying to keep up it was not such a fun ride for them, hanging on while the boats chine-walked at speed. I guess the camera was kind of infuriating to the other guys, and in retrospect I shouldn't have done it.

I have a lot of great memories of that trip. Here's one:
Betty shipped the Cougar cat to Calais, and five of us (Betty, John, Jimmy, Don, and I) picked it up at the docks and towed it all the way to Venizia. In France, they decided we couldn't go on the Motorroute with the wide load, so we had to take back roads all the way through France. We actually had a lot of fun, I remember stopping in the small towns for a lunch of bread, cheese and fruit from the local store. After threading our way through Monaco (amazingly big boat in amazingly small streets!), we arrived at the Italian border late in the afternoon.

Something wasn't quite right with our paperwork, and the border guards wouldn't let us in. We had a very long wait, during which Betty finally convinced them to let her make some phone calls. I think this was on a weekend. Eventually she reached someone of authority, and about 11:00pm Cecilia Fanfani(sp?) personally called the border station and spoke to the commandant.

(Marco, please explain for everyone what this would have been like for the guards - I understand she is a national heroine, something like Caroline Kennedy here in the US during John Kennedy's presidency. Wasn't her father one of the racers?)

WELL, you should have seen the sudden change. Men were running around, straightening uniforms, flood lights came on, etc. But they still didn't let us in. After about a half hour, flashing blue lights could be seen coming towards us from within Italy, rising and falling over the dark hillsides. Soon a escort of four motorcycles pulled up, and we made quite a grand entry into your country. Since it was midnight, however, there was no one else to see our triumph!

Lido Isle was great. The Excelsior Hotel was a very elegant venue for the race. We received the most wonderful hospitality everywhere while in Italy, and of course our race result was good, too. A wonderful experience for all of us.

Black Tornado

Bill also I was in Venice that year but only as spectator with two friends. Usually The waters in Venice are calm but that day not even a lake could not be more dish. The European teams were wrong completely the preparation of the competition.
And so you have had as adversaries alone Quam-Lanier with the old cat of Aoki and Ippolito-Stuteville with the mono Scarab 38' that didn't finish
It was really a walk for you that perhaps also Connors would have been able to make photo to the flat and boring Lagoon of Venice.
Interesting your trip across half Europe. To that time the frontier still existed between France and Italy and I remembers that at times we can crossed without they didn't even look us and at times they wanted to also see the pistons. Cecilia Fanfani doughter of a well known Italian political that time she had involved in offshore because her husband disputed some races in UIM class 2.
Below some pics of mine and from italian magazines of that time.

Your office after the race



backing to the docks. In the background partially view of the Excelsior. It was the headquarter of the race.

Black Tornado

The morning before the race in the base at the Marina del Cavallino,Lido isle.


At full throttles


The winning finish.

Black Tornado

From a cover of a magazine.Immediately after the finish besides to the Limit Up Cig 37'6 of Tim Powell third classified and the second classified Dry Martini 2 of Niccolai .
You perhaps are that in white t-shirt close to Connors?


An image from a US magazine of my archive; where you are with Connors and Cook at Detroit in 1978 that if I don't remember badly was the first race with the new cat.

Mr. Toad

Wonderful photos, thank you for posting them! You have a great memory for all of the details - much better than mine!

Yes, I am next to John, and that is Jimmy Myers standing next to me, facing away from the camera.


Also Jimmy in this picture.

GB

Great read! Thanx