Ratman72

It's from the original Champion Makers out of Dry Martini 35 Cig. They were probably in the boat when this photo was taken which you gave me..................imagine that!

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Mike Bontoft has both the original motors with Kiekhaefer injector systems and Kiekhaefer headers.........sadly they're in kit form at the moment.........hopefully one day they'll go back together.........can't imagine the headers are usable though.

What's with the BMW 3 series, is that yours?

Redman

???BMW-3??? Not mine---my current rides are kept in this hangar---ask Mike if he remembers a late night departure from the Lake--no runway lights--a deer on the runway??

Ratman72

Serious toy, nice Merc as well!

Yeh, Mike's told me that story....sounds pretty hairy. Mike couldn't remember exactly which boat it was that you'd gone to LakeX to work on......was it Preston Henns Anhauser Busch Bertram 38?

Ratman72

Gene, I reckon this shot you posred is of Bill Elswick's Performer 36 called Thunder........what do you think?

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Redman

Pretty sure it was Howard Quam's----I did race with Preston in that 38'---did test it at the Lake----and have a good story how that boat met it's end---

Ratman72

........come on, you can't leave us hanging.......

Redman

But that is a 40'!!?? I agree the hatches are a match---could be??

Redman

Preston had renamed the 'Natural Light'---called it 'Swapshop'----sold it to a young Whittington---

Preston and I were watching from my plane when he STUFFED it----nearly broke the nose off----

Bad day for 38' Bertrams----Smiley Johns was killed that day--riding with Howard--very sad day---

Ratman72

Nah, that's a 36 not a 40.......there's no step on the topsides. From what I can make out, Don Aronow had created the 35 from cutting down the top sides of the 36 and using the same deck. He then sold the old 36 moulds to Bill Elswick, who called it a Performer 36. The first one out the mould was Thunder, it raced at Cowes in 77, don't know what came if it after that. Elswick then changed the top sides of the mould, so that it looked like a 40 Cig.....all very confusing but I'm pretty sure this is correct. Two more race boats were then built, Night Moves and a black one called JPS which sank in Argentina and Elswick/crew were drifting in a raft for weeks before being picked up by a Russian freighter. I think Performer got sold off but I can't really make out what happened to the 36 moulds??????? Anyone know?????? Elswick also had the Jean Claud Simon 32 Cary/Cobra moulds which he used for the Performer 32.

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Ratman72

Agreed, very sad! I've seen the pictures of the Flapjack 38 when it delaminated, I won't post it in the interests of good taste and respect, since I assume this relates to the same incident of the fatality, right?