1960's Speedliner

[Richard K.C. Mo.]

What are tunnels?

We don't need no stinkin' tunnels!!! Al at that time in my life sittin' was the last thing on my mind, i lived just downriver and it was a happenin' time.
1973 is the last real memorie i have, been back to visit, though that' all.
RichardKCMo

Richard- Did you spend any time at the yearly Trenton Channel races? The stock boys did get a work out with the wakes bouncing off the grand stand sea wall. Didn't seem to bother the OPC tunnels unless they got too close.
Did miss several races when AOMC held their Constantine, MI Super Meet on the same weekend. Do miss the races since moving to the desert.
Ye Olde Desert Geezer Al

[oldracer]

Anker 69N/Tunnels

Dave- Anker finally got through to me in a test E mail tonight. How did you do with Chris' DU at Hinton? His was a closed deck Speedliner, wasn't it? I wish EORC ran the courses they do now where they can run hydros. Only ran CSH once in 3' waves at Mastic when no one wanted to run. Two guys came down from upstate running for high points and Dave Young loaned me his Wet Back to fill the field to make it legal. I won the first heat by a half a lap and was leading the 2 heat by over half a lap when I stuffed it in the first pin of the third lap. Still had fun even with a half boat of water.

Richard- The origional races were stock runabouts and Hydros in Trenton. Later came the 45ss tunnels and finally 120 tunnels joined the crowd. It is now the UIM world championships for 45 and 120 boys. The poor stock guys just beat their KNEES out, but, they keep coming back for more.

Ye Olde Desert Geezer Al Lang

[Bob Rusnak]

Speedliner Marathon 1949

My Dad had one of these. He raced it in marathons in the 36 class around 1963.

Inclosed is a copy of a 1949 Speedliner designed for the Albany NY Marathon. I have a 1949 KG9 Merc that goes on it but use the Merc MK58 on it for a patrol boat at the Eastern Outbosrd Racing Club events. Lots of fun, not very fast with the gearshift lower unit but can cary 4 people and pull a water skier if we wanted to.Picture taken at the Flanders Mens Club annual regatta...Bob Rusnak

[oldracer]

Speedliner

Hi Bob- Can't say that EORC doesn't have a classy patrol boat. The old Speedliner looks great. Are you still doing patrol duty for the USTS series?
Ye Olde Desert Geezer Al

[Guest]

Speedliner

Hi Bob,
Boat looks great. Dave and I hope to get to an ORC race this summer if all goes well.

Alan

[Guest]

Aeroliner Website

As David and I start the revival of the old Speedliner boats we will be building our website is being constructed to cover the sale our our boats and parts we will be offering. We would also like to put a section together on Speedliners that are owned by folks who enjoy the boat. Our website is Aeroliner-Boats.com and it is under construction. If you could E mail David or Alan with photos and a history of your boat we will make a section for Speedliner owners.

Alan

[oldracer]

Aeroliner web site

Dave/Alan- Looks like you are off to a good start on setup on the web site. Wish you all the best of luck.
Ye Olde Desert Geezer Al

[Bob Rusnak]

Not doing any patrol boat duty for the USTS but will still continue to support the second oldest Race Club in the US (EORC). I do not know how it still is able to carry on? (maybe love for the sport)???? Just bought a 500 cc Runabout and if I can get myself in some kind of shape, I may try again this year. Don (my son) is running D Mod Runabout and 500 CC Runabout at the present time. Also have a obsolete 250 cc Hydro ( one of Gil Peterman's rigs)we will compete in the New England area and maybe Lock Haven Pa. Also thinking of a 1100 runabout to try at the Pro Nationals this year. Bob N-96

[Guest]

New Mercury Lower Units

Has anyone talked to the Mercury folks to see if they would build new quicky units. If we all went together maybe we could get them to produce 250 A/B units and maybe 100 D's. More if we have a larger group that wants them. Might be possible to just get them to produe a kit where we could assemble them ourselves. Anyone else have an idea? Anyone else intrested.

Alan

[oldracer]

Merc Units

Alan-Probably many (but not enough) would like Merc to build the quickies. Merc has probably gotten rid of the equipment (patterns,moulds)to make them. Lets face it, in big business, MONEY RULES.

I think it would take some outside concern with backing to set up to make replacement parts. Maybe adapters can be used to mate up the Bass or Hot Rod units being made now. Lots of luck otherwise.

Ye Olde Desert Geezer Al Lang

P.S. As much as we would like to keep things origional, things change with time and anyone with origional parts gets their price.

[Dave M]

No More Patterns

Last I knew Merc melted down all the old molds and patterns. However, it is now known the actual supplier of gears. I think someone contacted the folks and they can still produce the original gears, just takes a lot of orders, and from what I recall, not enough interest was generated to place an order.

Lots of new lower units out there to use now anyways, and much better than the old Merc units.

You might check to see if it is legal to have the gearbox housings reproduced, but I bet it would take a lot of orders, and there are so many old ones around I doubt you could generate enough orders.


Good luck with your project. Never give up.

[bh/]

[QUOTE=Dave M;74663] I think someone contacted the folks and they can still produce the original gears, just takes a lot of orders, and from what I recall, not enough interest was generated to place an order. ...better than the old Merc units. [/QUOTE[

1:1 ABC gears are available thru Ron Selewach. A few guys in MI are about to do a run of 16:21s.
One tooth under D gears can be had from McDaniels. Dave Scott has 1:1s, and guys in CA are having some made also. Shafts, cone nuts and bearing carriers are always being made. Drive shafts are scarce, but are being cobbled up out of other shafts. Seals, impellors and bearings are no problem. Used cases are always for sale. But, ...none of the above is cheap though. The best solution, as Dave says, is adapting the current Yamato boot to the D housing , for less than a 1/3 the current price of a good Merc unit, and I have seen some nice adaptations of early Konig LINKS units to the Merc AB housing. Eldridge units are also out there. I guess the current OMC/HR could be adapted, or any of the Konnys, or the Bass, and the original Bass 100T is a legal bolt on in DSH. So no shortage of stuff, if one has a
21st century check book.

[Bob Rusnak]

Hi Roger, try Bob Dalter for the Speedliner Decals, his number is (631-288-2812) and (631-722-2696). He is the one that builds the Speedliner's hear on Long Island and had the decals made for his boats. ....Bob Rusnak...N-96

[Dave M]

Just Remember

[QUOTE=bh/;74716]

I think someone contacted the folks and they can still produce the original gears, just takes a lot of orders, and from what I recall, not enough interest was generated to place an order. ...better than the old Merc units. [/QUOTE[

1:1 ABC gears are available thru Ron Selewach. A few guys in MI are about to do a run of 16:21s.
One tooth under D gears can be had from McDaniels. Dave Scott has 1:1s, and guys in CA are having some made also. Shafts, cone nuts and bearing carriers are always being made. Drive shafts are scarce, but are being cobbled up out of other shafts. Seals, impellors and bearings are no problem. Used cases are always for sale. But, ...none of the above is cheap though. The best solution, as Dave says, is adapting the current Yamato boot to the D housing , for less than a 1/3 the current price of a good Merc unit, and I have seen some nice adaptations of early Konig LINKS units to the Merc AB housing. Eldridge units are also out there. I guess the current OMC/HR could be adapted, or any of the Konnys, or the Bass, and the original Bass 100T is a legal bolt on in DSH. So no shortage of stuff, if one has a
21st century check book.

That all the gears mentioned above are not from the original Merc Supplier. They are aftermarket that these folks sought out to make a few gears. They might be of less quality, or higher quality than the original. Mark Wheeler tried to bump enough interest in gears from the original supplier, as Fred H finally was able to divulge the name after so many years. The price made most balk at it if I recall right. There was a thread on HR some where about it.

[Guest]

Now that the A/B boat has been completed and came in right at our expected weight we have decided to build an 11ft 8 in C/D boat. We hope to have this boat come in about 130 lbs with all hardware. It will be slightly different in that the transom will get extra strengthing. We now have 4 "D" engines and "2" C engines and it looks like were better suited to the class in that our fat buns are a bit much for the smaller class. We will have pictures posted as we make progress. Ribs and transom have been started and we are adjusting the building fixture. We will also be posting a new section as we build our web site that deals with a friends engine restoration activity. E mail me for photos if intrested in the engine restoration of 4 and 6 cylinder mercs.

Alan