WRC Guys & Gals,
Thank gosh for good friends like Bill Mohat ! After a bit of begging and promises I probably can’t keep I hitched a ride with Bill to the meet. No actually Bill was more than gracious about saying yes to me ! We were on our way at precisely 7:30 and made a quick stop at Speedway for a couple breakfast sandwiches and some Java to start the journey south.
Arrival time at Atwood was just a little over 2 hrs and upon entering the parking lot, we saw that there were plenty of trucks and cars with trailers, no doubt there was a fishing tournament today ! But our gang were there and had already cornered most of the prim parking spots.
Bill, Lilly and I exited the car to confront some of the guys gathered around one gentleman’s trailer with several outboards for sale. I saw at least one of them toted away on a shoulder and a couple more being looked at. Moving down the line Doug Bics, Kerry York, Scott Wimbush and Jay Miller greeted us. Kerry had his recently restored, by Jay, Mercury 25 ready to tear up the water, yea 25hp right ? Those Merc 25’s are a bit under-rated and most likely were actually closer to 40hp, but we’ll never tell ! But Kerry had some competition today as Bill Reed also had one of Mercury’s 4 cylinder beasts on the back of his little 12ft, A KG9 the successor to Kerry’s 25. But we’ll go into the water part later !
Walking further down the line we ran into John Fairgrieve, John had his trusty FeatherCraft Vagabond with a tried and true Evinrude 25 ready to go. Our Treasurer Mr. Bob Joynt greeted me in his usual jovial manner, and had brought his Patina Special with an Evinrude 10 on the back. Big Bill Jatzak brought his Lyman with a 30 Oops 25 Johnson on the transom.
Down at the launch ramp dock several of the guys had already launched, and Kerry was just about to. With Jay backing the truck down and Kerry in the boat, things were about to get interesting ! Jay told Kerry we’ll leave it on the trailer till you get it running. Deep enough in the water Kerry started pulling 1 pull 2 pulls 3 pulls and Kerry says “your turn”! So Jay, AKA Mr. Mercury hops into the boat and gives it a couple tries ! Ok so now with a dock full of on lookers offering suggestions they backed the boat in further and launched it.
We turned the boat around so it was headed out making it easier once it was running. A couple more pulls and Jay had it running, he and Kerry headed out for the maiden run. With all the onlookers mouths agap Jay opened it up and surprised everyone ! Kerry’s old boat and motor planed off and really moved the two of them. estimated speed was ??? call Jay or Kerry !
While walking back up to the other dock area John Hagerman came up to me and said “Gary if you’d like to take a boat ride, my boat is tied up at the dock” ! I didn’t need a twist of the arm to take John up on his offer. John’s boat is a gem and his “58” Evinrude is a perfect match to the boat. I untied it and idled over to the launch ramp dock where Bill & Lilly were sitting, Bill asked who’s boat ? I said I don’t know I just wanted to go for a boat ride, You in, might as well go down with a sinking ship (me) ! So off we go in a hijacked ride, Lilly, keep an eye out for the water Nazis ! We caught up with several of our members out for a ride and headed down the lake to enjoy the leaves and colors, it had turned into a beautiful day ! On the way back we were running about 19 mph according to Bills speed app on his phone. I stopped and told Bill I think we can get more speed out of the old beast, so I raised the engine two pin notch’s, just enough to gain 3mph it was bouncing on 22-23 mph ! Back to the Dock and all tied up with nary a water Nazi in sight Phew !
It was now Mr. Bill Reed’s chance to impress the lookyloos ! Luckly Bills KG9 motor has a recoil starter which makes starting much easier. Again with the 1 2 3 pulls, but Mr Bill doesn’t give up that easy, finally it fires and he’s off. Gentle Bill, that’s 40hp you have on the back of that little 12fter, but Bill’s no stranger to the need for speed, little unruly but under control he opened it up, my guess from afar is 35-40mph ? As I walked back up from the docks I could see it was BYOB time as everyone was seated enjoying lunch. I should mention the other members that enjoyed the day out on the lake. Doug Bics in his boat with a nice running 12hp SeaKing, Bill Jatzak and son in his Lyman, Bob Joynt in his Patina Special, Scott Wimbush in the Old White Boat, John Fairgrieve in his FeatherCraft, Bob Korosa And several others I can’t recall We all sat and chatted at lunch catching up on what everyone has been doing.
A big thank you to Rick Whitman and his wife for the peanut and chocolate goodies, Bill Reed, Bob Joynt and any of the others that brought treats to add the everyones lunch’s.
Bill, Lilly and I bid our fair wells to everyone and headed down the road back (home, not yet) but hopefully soon ! Thank you all for making this a wonderful day for me ! God Bless!
Gary