Mercury Vintage Racing DVD

[Snookerd]

Yep, JMoesly was a real challenge behind the wheel of a racing machine....SeaCraft's naturally!!!

Hmmmm, sounds like personal knowledge ?

[JMoesly]

Thanks for all the nice comments. Yes I am driving the #21 race boat and I think Treasure is with me. I would like very much to be in touch with her after these many many years.

[Rich]

Talk about a reunion!! Make it happen BigShrimpin, you seem to know what's going on.

My question is what happened to all the Moesly hulls? Why have we only seen one of those 21's around? All the other boats are late 60's bow riders. What happened to all the other ones? How many were made?

[Bigshrimpin]

Jeanne - I sent a PM to Lilabner and included a link to this page. He's usually fairly quick to respond . . . I only know Lilabner through a few posts on that forum. His public profile says that he's owned a porsche repair shop for 30 years and he lives in Ft. lauderdale.

His shop is: . .

Butch Stokes Automotive, Inc., 2530 SW 30th Ave., Pembroke Park, Florida 33009, 954-458-0044

Email: butchbsa@bellsouth.net

This is the link to the seacraft thread on screamandfly.com

http://forums.screamandfly.com/forum...light=Seacraft
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It also dawned on me that you might have thought I was refering to Carl when I said PHXY'y . . . Just in case there was some confusion . . . PHXY is another fellow on this site who doesn't know how much he likes Mercury outboards . . . YET!!
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Good Luck . . . I'll PM you anything I hear.

PS - You are welcome to borrow my seacraft(s) anytime!!

[JMoesly]

As you probably knew, 65Bowrider is a mischievous daughter.

[Bryan A.]

Moesly's - You girls must have some awesome family pictures and stories about the boats. Care to share any?

CSC - What did happen to that 21 hull we saw here a while back anyway???

[PressureDrop]

fear not, that ol' 21 is in the warehouse right next to my 20 seafari, should start hammering on that old brute any day now

[Snookerd]

Ben-That 21 was one of the boats that raced right?
JMoesly and 65bowrider, I appreciate you sharing your rich history. Very cool.

[Finster]

Snookered, it took me a while but here's the old pic's of Ben's boat in all it's glory. There's an old thread called "free seacraft and trailer".

Ben, have you gotten any more history on it?

[Bigshrimpin]

Hey Ben - There was some talk in that same seacraft thread as to whether that Johnson and Kirby w/ the Homelite's was the first outboard four stroke race boat ever. I've got no idea if he's right, but you might want do a little research before putting it under the knife and converting it to a fishin boat center console.

FInster -

http://forums.screamandfly.com/forum...light=Seacraft
From Cliff Root:

Thank you very much for your inquiry about the SeaCraft.

This is one of the first SeaCrafts built. Later designs eliminated the high freeboard and flare at the bow and reduced the angle of the deep-V. Seacrafts, including this one, were originally built in Princeton, FL which is part of the Miami suburbs and is located about fifteen miles SW of downtown Miami on US-1. Their production warehouse is still there. The boat was purchased new by Johnson and Kirby who had one of the more popular marine store, boat maintenance and engine sales and maintenance operations in Miami by the same name located on US-1 in South Miami. They passed away, the store was closed, the property was sold and the lot bulldozed.

The early pictures show the boat (open console) as Johnson and Kirby set it up for racing to Bimini and Nassau. In the late 1950's the Bertram Glass Mopie by Ray Hunt was the first deep-V design and revolutized boat racing and boat design. It shattered the existing record by several hours in a race were many boats turned back and a few disinagrated and sank due to the very rought water. Everyone quickly started building deep-V hulls. This SeaCraft was built in 1962. I remember the Homelites and I am sure that the Homelites were 55 HP. Johnson and Kirby raced the boat for publicity to advertise their store and for fun. I know nothing about their racing success, if any.

At this time my father was working at Johnson and Kirby. He bought the boat from Johnson and Kirby. Soon after, he replaced the Homelites with two 100 HP Evinrudes and converted the boat back to the factory design by removing the center console, reinstalling the windshield, forward steering and bimini top as shown in the later pictures. When I gave the boat away, it still had the original Seminole trailer as shown in the pictures and the original boat production paint colors as shown in the small owner's manual - white hull, black stripe under the gunnel and sky-blue deck.

About 1970, my father bought a 50 ft houseboat and gave me the SeaCraft. I ran it until the motors reached the point that the Johnson and Kirby mechanics refused to work on the motors unless I had them completely rebuilt. I had two daughters in college at the time and could no longer afford two new motors so the boat sat in the backyard and the wood rotted out. Hurricane Andrew tore off and shattered the windshield.

I kept the boat because I though it was a great boat, great design, great ride, high freeboard for offhsore, etc. and I had hoped to someday eventually restore the boat. However the boat was becoming an eyesore in the backyard and my wife wanted me to get rid of it. She started calling the towing companies to have them haul the boat and trailer to the county trash dump. However the county dump will not take boats unless you first take a chainsaw and cut the boat into pieces. Which is probably why you see so many old boats abondoned along the roadside. I refused to destroy the boat and started looking on the Internet for alternatives. Fortunely I found the SeaCraft collectors' website. A fellow from Palm Beach picked up the boat and trailer, title, pictures, and small owner's manual.

If you have any additional information I would greatly appreciate knowing the current status and seeing some current pictures. You are welcome to post any of this information on the SeaCraft website.