"Speedliner" from the past

[Tomtall]

Scaning some family pictures from days gone by and came across this dandy.
This is Louie Marsh in my uncles Speedliner on Gull Lake,Mi..
Louie came back with from Liverpool England with my uncle after WW2 and and raced my uncles boats here in the states. Man that boat looks BIG. Dig the 25 gallon gas tank in the back of the boat.

[Islandmon]

Wouldn't you just love to take that to TopO and run the full course. Thanks for sharing Tom.

Sam,

[Dave M]

Landscape

Boy, that landscape sure has changed since then. It is always great to see pics from the past. I think there was a race on Gull lake once too, I seem to recall someone talking about it. Seems like we raced on just about every lake at one time or another around MI.

[ram95]

How come the boats aren't that size today? How long is that thing anyway? Have we moved forward or regressed. Lookit the grin!!

[Tomtall]

speedliners

Ram - The Speedliners were made for AU,BU,CU and DU classes. The one pictured was raced in DU class which at the time could be raced by a 14 year old or older. I belive the DU was 12 feet long but cannot say for sure as I was just a twinkle in my dads eye when they were being raced.

Maybe Mr. Speedliner Alan Van Wheele could chime in here as he raced them and bought the rights to the original plans and builds them today under the name "Aeroliner". Alan, you out there?

[Art K]

Owned & raced several DU Speedliners both of mine were 13 ft. That boat looks even bigger. Speedliner did build some custom boats for if requested. That may be one.
Art K

[gordon]

I remember Louie Marsh and the boat. The name of his boat was Liverpool Lou. Yes there was a marathon race held on Gull Lake. It was 100 miles long and started at the sourh end of the lake at what I believe was Wilkinson's marina. I raced in BU class in I think 1950 with a Nefco hull that gradully fell apart in the rough water and sunk on the east side of the lake the second lap.

Gordon Anderson

[A/B Speedliner]

Here is an early price list with specifications.

[blueskyracer]

The prices look cheap but I guess when wages were a quarter or less of what they are now...... not so much!

[bill van steenwyk]

Here is an early price list with specifications.

I notice the Typhoon Jr. is not on the price list.

Must have come out with it a little later?

I think I purchased mine in 56 or 57 for about 550.00 finished, with hardware, and crated and shipped to Little Rock to a Mercury dealer.

[Tomtall]

Gull Lake marathon

Gordon - You are one of very few people that recall that race do to its age. My uncle, John Webster (Louies sponsor) helped put on that race. Mickey McDonald ended up winning the BU class running one of my uncles boats. The race started at Wilkinsons marina in the bay. Yes Louies boats did bear the "Liverpool Lou" name on them do to his home roots from Liverpool. His first boat however had a different name of "Little Lou". The first picture is of Louie still in Liverpool England in his first boat. The second picture is of Louies boats being worked on at our cottage on Gull Lake. My cousins from England are sitting in Louies hydro in the lawn and the "Speedliner" from the first picture of this thread is being worked on in the background. (note the lettering and numbers have been added to the Speedliner). Louie passed on a few years ago from cancer. R.I.P.

For those of you that know my son Adam Low you know he races the number 80M in stock class. His number was assigned randomly from APBA when he started racing at 10 years of age. Know take a look at the number the Speedliner has (fliped upsidedown on the saw horses in the second picture.) What are the chances of that happening? Creepy.

[racer121M]

Tom...I think Adam should go out and buy some lottery tickets. That is really strange.

Bob