WELCOME TO RIVER DAVES PLACE

Treasure Trove of vintage boat pictures

old rigger

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3 shop pics...
Last one isn't boat shop but a metal shop, but that Taylor's Hallett. Can't remember his name (it was on the picture but didn't write it down) but he was well known for hammering streamliner bodies.

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Wheeler

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That's causing me to chuckle, my dad, on numerous occasions used the threat of shipping my young ass off to that military academy up at Lake Elsinore :eek: :p

That would have been a great school to attend!

The military school my mother brought me to was in Hermosa Beach. I got all excited and looked forward to going! I guess that kinda ruined my Mothers plans. :D

I did attend Hawthorne Christian School on Prairie ave. from '61 to '64. :eek:
 

Wheeler

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The pages constantly change as they add more pics. They don't put them on their site in any order, I think it's under the event? I dunno but there are almost 25 more pages of boats than the first time I went on the site. I just happen to find those 2 today.

That your dad behind the wheel?

No it's not and I don't remember the original owner of the boat. I would have to dig out some old race programs or magazines. Dewey Etchison comes to mind for some reason.
 

Wheeler

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Howard Brown and his wife Mary. This was when he lived across the street from us and about a year later rented a house from my parents. His 'How 'Bout That" set the drag boat world on it's ear in I think '64 running a 138mph, upping the record from 118. (again, I think that's what the record was, I don't wanna look it up. At any rate, he shattered the record.) He broke the record with a blown Kieth Black Hemi, not this injected engine.

Howard Custom Boat owned/driven by Howard Brown.
Blown fuel Chrysler
NDBA Blown Fuel Flat record holder at 137.82 mph. How ‘bout that?

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monkeyswrench

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old rigger

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That would have been a great school to attend!

The military school my mother brought me to was in Hermosa Beach. I got all excited and looked forward to going! I guess that kinda ruined my Mothers plans. :D

I did attend Hawthorne Christian School on Prairie ave. from '61 to '64. :eek:

I went to the one that was on Signal Hill. They tore it down and built a public school. Someone got my number and asked if I’d like to attend a ceremony at the new school where they dedicated a plaque for the old academy. I asked them if they were out of their fucking mind.
I was happy it was gone.

I think the one in Elsinore is still there and abandoned? I remember seeing something about it on tv. I was almost sent to one down in San Diego for high school.
 

coolchange

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Is that a Lebelle in the Campbell's hobby shop pic?
 

old rigger

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one more batch then I'm loading the truck and heading to the river in the morning.

I still have the same decal thats on the back side of the center deck that Howard gave me. I never keep anything long enough to have used it. He also gave me a t shirt i wish i still had.


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old rigger

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These are all from the '60s Salton Sea races. There are 100s of pics from this file so I just grabbed some that caught my eye. Sometimes the backgrounds is just as cool to look at as the main subject.

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This is a Stylecraft hull. They were local here in Long Beach up on Signal Hill.

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I'm 99.9% sure this is Vic Edlebrock Jr.

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This Glastron with it's brand new Aqua Lift bottom was also the beginning of Tahiti boats. Dick Schuster and Gil Gaska were watching a race from the Belmont pier in Long Beach and one of these was racing and Schuster was impressed with the way it rode in the chop. He knew a local LB Glastron dealer and some how talked him in to letting him borrow it. He and Gil popped a quick mold off the bottom and later built a SK style deck for it.

Unless trivia that only I'm interested in. lol

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It must have been so much fun to be able to run what you brung, kinda like racing the dry lakes today. Plus I love early outboards.
 

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old rigger

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More Salton Sea

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Actress Janet Leigh, think Psycho shower scene.

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Picked this one for a few reasons, one is obvious. Another is the course layout. The last is the popeye punching bag. When I was a kid and dad would take me to the circles races in Long Beach, he'd hang out in the pits and usually I'd get the job along with another kid of blowing these things up and they'd use them as markers.

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old rigger

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more of the same

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Power Cat was still in the shop in Bellflower where Howard would move when Power Cat relocated to Texas. The building is still there. There were a ton of PC's in these races but I picked this hydro because when their shop moved to Texas, the owner gave these molds to his step brother or half brother (I don't remember which he was) Bobby Brown. He started his shop with them and that shop became Avenger boats.

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famous actress with Rudy on the trophy stand again but I can't remember her name.

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I bet this sounded awesome

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Super early Berkeley jet drive with the semi famous "toilet seat" nozzle. Well, famous to me and I'd love to have one as a wall hanger. In fact I'd love to have that boat today. Be a blast on the strip.

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Stackers!!

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A lot going on in this shot

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Carlson-jet

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These are all from the '60s Salton Sea races. There are 100s of pics from this file so I just grabbed some that caught my eye. Sometimes the backgrounds is just as cool to look at as the main subject.

This Glastron with it's brand new Aqua Lift bottom was also the beginning of Tahiti boats. Dick Schuster and Gil Gaska were watching a race from the Belmont pier in Long Beach and one of these was racing and Schuster was impressed with the way it rode in the chop. He knew a local LB Glastron dealer and some how talked him in to letting him borrow it. He and Gil popped a quick mold off the bottom and later built a SK style deck for it.

Unless trivia that only I'm interested in. lol
It must have been so much fun to be able to run what you brung, kinda like racing the dry lakes today. Plus I love early outboards.

Cool Beans, A little Glastron trivia.
I looked around but didn't find anything.

I think I spend more time looking at the background stuff than most of the pictures.
Run what ya brung. :cool:

Thanks old rigger.
 

twocents

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The T-170 cat at Salton Sea was Jack Oxley's Stylecraft powered by a pair of McCulloch outboards. The Stylecraft was built in Long Beach by Earl and June Palmer. The flatbottom jet boat was a Stevens with a Hayden Profitt 427 Chevy engine -- I believe Dick Clark who was the western states sales rep for Berkeley Jet drove the Stevens at the drags. Shortly thereafter, Clark teamed up with Schuster at Tahiti and dropped the Hayden engine into one of the original Tahiti 16-footers ("Hairy Canary") and held the NDBA jet drag record at 79+ mph for awhile -- I broke that record at 80.53 mph also in a 16' Tahiti with a 427 L-88 Chevy using the same hand-made droop snoot that Clark had on the "Canary".
 

old rigger

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The T-170 cat at Salton Sea was Jack Oxley's Stylecraft powered by a pair of McCulloch outboards. The Stylecraft was built in Long Beach by Earl and June Palmer. The flatbottom jet boat was a Stevens with a Hayden Profitt 427 Chevy engine -- I believe Dick Clark who was the western states sales rep for Berkeley Jet drove the Stevens at the drags. Shortly thereafter, Clark teamed up with Schuster at Tahiti and dropped the Hayden engine into one of the original Tahiti 16-footers ("Hairy Canary") and held the NDBA jet drag record at 79+ mph for awhile -- I broke that record at 80.53 mph also in a 16' Tahiti with a 427 L-88 Chevy using the same hand-made droop snoot that Clark had on the "Canary".

I was hoping you'd jump in Bob.

That Stevens flat jet is running a Plymouth, maybe later it ran the chevy. There was no 427 yet as the rigging pics were from 1961. I talked at length to Dick Clark about he and Schuster, and Roger Weiman too who was in on the rigging of that first Tahiti. They both told me about it's maiden voyage at the stadium with lawn chairs screwed to the floor and fog so think you could barley see past the bow.

Clark also told me about that first droop!

I've seen many pictures of Stylecrafts that look exactly like the 16 Regatta's. Is this where that boat originated from? The Regatta in Downey.

A friend of mine has built RC boat hulls for 30+ years and has known Oxley for years as he was heavy into that too. Is he still with us?
 

Sharp Shooter

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These pictures are great! Imagine if they were in color! Sk and marathon boat racing was really gaining some steam in this era as well as family performance boating. These were and always will be the true "Hot Rods" of the water.
 

HotRod82

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This thread is completely sick....I really was born 30 years too late.
Those open chambered Merc outboards must have sounded so bitchen.
 

twocents

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I stand corrected on the powerplant in the Tahiti jet boat "Hairy Canary" - it was an Aero Marine Chevy 427, not from Hayden Profitt. My dad and I bought our 16' Tahiti jet in late 1964 (Schuster didn't install the pump, he was sending that work out to Jerry Wreidt who was just down the street from Tahiti in Bellflower/Lakewood). It was our second Tahiti 16 -- the first was a twin Johnson V-4 75 hp that Al's Outboard Service in Venice modified (ala Ted Miller now of All Season Marine in Boulder City) purchased in late 1962. The custom hand-made droop snoot on "Hairy Canary" was welded sewer pipe, longer and deeper than the snoots of today. After Dick Clark gave us the snoot, I didn't like the sharp internal
angles because of the welds. I spent about week sculpting Bondo and sanding the inside of the snoot to smooth out the water flow. Somewhere there's an old Berkeley ad floating around using our Tahiti jet that won a bunch of ski races against the V-drives. As for Dick Clark, I haven't heard from him in several years -- last I knew he was living in Dana Point. As for Jack Oxley, he retired to Havasu some years ago, got very involved in RC boats -- don't know if he's still with us or not. Not sure about a direct connection between Regatta Boats in Downey and Stylecraft in Long Beach, but it wouldn't surprise me.
 

Dalton

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Picked this one for a few reasons, one is obvious. Another is the course layout. The last is the popeye punching bag. When I was a kid and dad would take me to the circles races in Long Beach, he'd hang out in the pits and usually I'd get the job along with another kid of blowing these things up and they'd use them as markers.

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quoting my dad talking about the 50's/60's- "it was great, and everything could be cured with one shot"
 

old rigger

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I stand corrected on the powerplant in the Tahiti jet boat "Hairy Canary" - it was an Aero Marine Chevy 427, not from Hayden Profitt. My dad and I bought our 16' Tahiti jet in late 1964 (Schuster didn't install the pump, he was sending that work out to Jerry Wreidt who was just down the street from Tahiti in Bellflower/Lakewood). It was our second Tahiti 16 -- the first was a twin Johnson V-4 75 hp that Al's Outboard Service in Venice modified (ala Ted Miller now of All Season Marine in Boulder City) purchased in late 1962. The custom hand-made droop snoot on "Hairy Canary" was welded sewer pipe, longer and deeper than the snoots of today. After Dick Clark gave us the snoot, I didn't like the sharp internal
angles because of the welds. I spent about week sculpting Bondo and sanding the inside of the snoot to smooth out the water flow. Somewhere there's an old Berkeley ad floating around using our Tahiti jet that won a bunch of ski races against the V-drives. As for Dick Clark, I haven't heard from him in several years -- last I knew he was living in Dana Point. As for Jack Oxley, he retired to Havasu some years ago, got very involved in RC boats -- don't know if he's still with us or not. Not sure about a direct connection between Regatta Boats in Downey and Stylecraft in Long Beach, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I remember you posted a picture of that twin outboard Tahiti years ago on another site, maybe from the Catalina race?

Did you pull Chuck Stearns with that boat?

You still have that first droop laying around? Be pretty cool to see.
 

fmo24

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Is this Dunsmore Senior. Same name and number that Billy ran when he ski raced?
 

spectras only

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Absolutely the best thread of lately.And, it's great that the pictures are in B&W, retaining sharpness, depth and detail. Colours would all be faded by now. I could pick one favourite boat out of the pack and be proud showing it off at my local lakes. Noticed also, all the gals had the same hair stylist back then too.:D
 
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