Old School boat racing

[Craig]

 

[Craig]

This is my dad back in the old days, We use to travel all over the world boat racing, he was a 3 time world champ driving for Mercury racing. I love it boat on the edge open cocpit, no air supply, Just drive it like you stole it.

 

[Craig]

Can you say open pipes!

 

[Craig]

This is the boat i crewed on for about 2 years, so much fun, Lot like off Road racing in the water out of the water, on the gas off the gas. My boss was killed in this boat durring the world champions in Key West. at the time we had 3 boats and all were first cclass and top notch.

 

[Cisco Kid]

That is awesome ;-)

 

[dkiewicz]

I grew up in Detroit Craig. Belle Isle was the place. My grandfather used to be king of the model hydros they ran in the late forties early fifties. He may even have been in this picture. These were the testing grounds for all those nice big boats that came later. He worked with the likes of Mercury ChrisCraft etc... as a hobby! He has some cool chit in the Henry Ford Museum that my grandmother gave to them after his passing. A few of these boats are there along with some of the mono-control line models he and my dad flew. He was a machinist by trade and managed a Machine Shop that Al Kaline (Detroit Tigers) owned; cool stuff.

I remember sitting on the Detroit River each year as a kid watching the big boys! I remember those lumbering Allison V-12's pounding the hell out of the water. Ms. Budweiser was my favorite and damn successful too! I can't imagine the fun you had being a crew member, that must have been freakin awesome!

My grandpa Bernard "Barney" Kiewicz... He was one of the smartest people I've ever known, and I'm not being biased. Dude had it going, he was a founder of the IMPBA...

http://www.impba.net/index.php/impba-history/history-of-impba

 

[Craig]

All right one more. thats a picture of me back in the younger days. The tall go

od looking one.

 

[dkiewicz]

Did you ever run open water on the Ocean or just fresh water?

 

[Craig]

The two boats you see that are tilted on the trailer are both ocean. We did run some fresh water in Jersey and New Orlands. other than that all Ocean.

We also all had RC boats that looked like our real race boats, there was always a race with those as well.