WRC Guys & Gals,     

    Once again the Hinckley meet at the Brooklyn Exchange club was a fantastic success despite the predictions for rainy weather, altho we did go thru a gully washer on the way down !  Arriving at about 8:30 it was no surprise to see several cars and trucks already there. And many of the tailgate were down exposing the treasures we all come for (in addition to the fantastic lunch the club always puts on)   Honestly I don’t know how TJ, Jim Fordosi and Chip Rabbit put it all together ? 

Once I was out of the truck, the first combo I noticed was Scott Wimbush’s Dodge truck with a huge load of outboards and parts of all kinds topped off with a pickle on top ! (Fork that is) ! Scott had texted me that he intended to bring his trailer loaded with treasures that are like a magnet to those of us that appreciate the finer things in life, (Anything outboard wise) !

As I moved on to some of the other vehicles in the parking lot there were various other truck beds loaded with Mercurys, Johnson and ERudes and even a weird rare Military Johnson that followed Rex Jackson home some time ago ! Thanks for bringing it Rex ! One of the things that was music to our ears were the miniature engines that The gentleman who builds them brought  A couple perfectly detailed Ford small block 289 that screamed like a banshee when he lit it off ! Another flat head Ford engine, a perfect copy of a Harley Davidson V twin and an older Holt engine with all the valve train exposed ! Along with the engines were several other miniature items, Two working transmissions a complete rear axel with working differential an intake manifold and some other perfect castings !  TJ please thank the gentleman that brought that fine display !

The parking lot was filling up and more cars and trucks arrived with other treasures. The best fun part was catching up with old friend and talking about their latest projects !  I saw motors being toted in all directions, Don Moore snatched a really fine 1955 Johnson right out from under Bill Mohat’s nose, First money gets the prize ! Bill has been looking for a 1955 Johnson 5-1/2 hp in good COSMETIC CONDITION (doesn’t have to run) to put in his man cave so if you’ve got one you’d like to sell give Bill a call !  

Moving on to other deals I saw Mike Seachrist brought a nice KG7 Mercury with a Quicky lower unit that didn’t last long in the back of his car, didn’t see who bought it but you can bet we’ll see it on the water sometime this summer ? Gil and son Matt Seivers found the Oliver 16 in the back of my truck and think it will make a good addition to their collection, hope they have as much fun running it as I did ! 

Jay Miller brought a very unusual boat engine, a Dragonfly air outboard, it’s one of the rare engines you don’t see very often ! It needs a little TLC but could be a very unique add to your collection !  Marty Belfi and brother Tom brought a load of marine parts, a lot of neat little chrome pieces and I saw Bill Jatzek carting off a motor or two also ! I lost track of all the other deals that transpired but I think everyone made out with some good deals ? 

By now it was lunch time and Dave,TJ and the ladies were ready to serve ! The line was almost out the door by the time we got there but the good part was I finally met one of our newest members David Johansson. Dave had a prop that our treasurer Bob Joynt is promising he can rehub!  If you have a spun hub in a prop Bob is the guy that can rehub it !  By the time the word got out Bob will have several to do !  John hagerman caught me with a mouth full and asked if I had planned on saying anything while everyone was present ? John said if I did he would like to say something also, so I got up on the fireplace bricks and asked (shouted) to get everyones attention !  

I wanted to thank TJ, Jim Fordosi and Chip Rabbit for organizing our meet here today ! If you’ve never hosted a meet it’s hard to understand all the work that goes into putting something like this together !  A big round of applause was given and appreciated ! The food is second to none and the service is right there with it, a big round of thanks to Dave and the ladies, Cindi Hagerman, Leslie, Maryann and my wife Peggy for serving all the trays of food !

I mentioned that we have a couple meets coming up, next will be my Lagoons meet,  just as a reminder, sorry but we are asking everyone to bring their own lunch this year, details are on our web site wrcoutboards.org ! Ryan Hollingsworth and wife Kelly will be hosting a meet at Pymatuning Lake july 20th !  June 8th is our Portage river run organized on by Marty Belfi, Marty has researched the area and said there are about 12 miles of open river we can navigate ! And there are a couple places we can tie up and get something to eat !  John and Bill Reed will also be putting on a meet at Leesville lake, date and details to be announced !  Mike Seachrist is also planning to host the Atwood Lake meet again details to be announced 

After lunch was over there were several more deals that had to be to finalized, then like all fun things it was over and everyone was loading up to head home ! Thanks to all that attended, you make these meets what they are !  See ya’all at the next meet, till then Keep the Blue Smoke flowing !

–Gary