Tim Butts

[bh/]

This Butts Aerowing was seen at the AOMC meet in Suwanne FL this past weekend. It was being offered for sale with a Konig VD FOR $2000.
An nice example of racing history.

[David_L6]

Must be the boat on top...

...'cause that sure isn't a Butts' motor cowling on the bottom boat!


That's a mid to late '70's boat. Maybe a very early '80's boat. Probably a pre-West System boat. Check the area around the afterplanes carefully. It's difficult to get the water out of that area so that's where they will start rotting first.

[Bob Dunlap]

look again David

I know you own a B & H David. The bottom boat is the is the Butts (kneel down) and it's in good shape, I didn't look extremely close but I didn't see any rot. It sure seemed small to be a 500 boat, the top boat is a B & H CSH so you can compare the two.

[pro350hydro]

It sure seemed small to be a 500 boat, the top boat is a B & H CSH so you can compare the two.

It was offered for sale with a Konig VD. If they ran this Konig VD on it, then it's a 700 boat as D stands for 700. Now it seems real short.

Mike

[David_L6]

I know you own a B & H David. The bottom boat is the is the Butts (kneel down) and it's in good shape, I didn't look extremely close but I didn't see any rot. It sure seemed small to be a 500 boat, the top boat is a B & H CSH so you can compare the two.

Bob,

Before I switched to B&H hydros I ran Aerowings. The first new boat I ever had was a Butts' Aerowing. (Don't tell anyone , but with a C mod (Merc) the B&H gets around the course a bunch quicker than an Aerowing.)

I wouldn't run a 500 on that Aerowing, much less a 700! Looks like a 350 boat to me. Kind of hard to tell just looking at a picture... Also, you have to take into account that the boat is 25+ years old... How big a boat did the 350's need 25 - 30 years ago?

[pro350hydro]

With technology in motors, props, etc getting better and better all the time, we are also having to increase the size of our boats to handle the extra power/speed of these new powerplants. I would imagine that 25-30 years ago this may have been a good 700 size of boat. Who knows, maybe it was a 500.

However, I have seen some old boats in garages over the past years that used to have bigger bore motors on them. These boats were great in the day, but I have seen some that I would not run my 350 on today. My current 350 boat is larger than most 350 boat's on the course today, and my new boat is even bigger yet. Is bigger always better, guess we will find out.

[epugh66]

The rear cowl is either an original Pugh cowl or a cheap knock off, sometimes its hard to tell the difference

[sax]

Butts - no epoxy here.

In response to the pre-West System statement in David's post, that could
have been any of Tim's boats. Between my brother and myself, we had
three or maybe even four of his BantamWing 20 boats and Tim refused to
use epoxy when he built ours. Said he was allergic to it so he would not
build a boat with it. Just an FYI post. Has anyone heard from Tim ? He
seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Haven't heard a thing
from him since the introduction of the 45SS tunnel class when he built at
least one boat that debuted in Dayton of 19??.

[bh/]

...a couple more pics

I did not get to talk to the owner [he was probably over looking at my boat]
so do not know if the VD was run on it or not. It was in VG shape for an ex PRO boat, and had Konig mounts on it.

[David_L6]

In response to the pre-West System statement in David's post, that could
have been any of Tim's boats. Between my brother and myself, we had
three or maybe even four of his BantamWing 20 boats and Tim refused to
use epoxy when he built ours. Said he was allergic to it so he would not
build a boat with it. Just an FYI post. Has anyone heard from Tim ? He
seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Haven't heard a thing
from him since the introduction of the 45SS tunnel class when he built at
least one boat that debuted in Dayton of 19??.

Tim did eventually start using West System. He did not use epoxy on the boat on top in this picture, but he did on the bottom boat. I got to his shop ~11:00 a.m. and the final coat of epoxy hadn't cured enough yet. I had to wait a couple of hours for the epoxy to cure some more before I could load the boat.

I don't know where Tim is... Haven't talked to anyone that does. That 45SS tunnel that he built was in 1986. Here's a picture that I captured off of a video that was taken at the 1986 AOF Nationals. Time ran it with the Super E (FE) hydros.

[crankbearing]

New 2005 Rawsoncraft (redesigned aerowing)

I was at a meet on Sunday and we finally located the templates for Ian Thorpes super "C" Rawsoncraft. I then proceeded to call David Rawson and he offered me the templates if required for building a new one as well. I got the order for a new one yesterday, I will be building a New (DCH) D CDN hydro that will do dual purpose it will run 44XS and a DCH on the same boat. I hope to get started on it next month.

David explained to me the changes required to make the boat work in stock as he built Vince Gresco's 44 Mod boat as well as many pro boats, I am really excited about seeing a new Rawsoncraft at the races.

Regards,

[sax]

Hey David....thanks for the reply. Just knew that Tim was pretty adamant about not
using epoxy when he built the boats for us and never thought he would change his
ways. Best of luck in the upcoming season.
Thanks again,
Ron Sax