Weather looks terrible....
- Thread starter Specracer
- Start date
Cobrar
GT Owner
Well there are at least two other things, as I have rediscovered. --- lots of wine and blondes...;-)
Cobrar
GT Owner
Well sort of, I'm at Lake Tahoe. I am sitting aboard a boat moored just off a restaurant called Gar Woods. This is fun and it isn't Taxacusettes!!
Rally On!
Rally On!
Let me know when you're headed this way. I had out truck drop the cars at the same warehouse as the other Midwest guys. It's in between Sacramento and Sonoma. I need to run Kurt out there anyhow and have to bring back Chet's car, so we can get them all at once.
You are alive! You have happily ignored my other forms of communication see you soon bud!
Kingman
GT Owner
Gar Wood was a very famous boat racer. In the Unlimited Hydroplane division, there is a trophy named after him.
http://www.h1unlimited.com/2009/03/the-gar-wood-story/
..............fun facts for your pleasure as I sit behind a PC performing a format and re-install
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Cobrar
GT Owner
Sorry, phone was out of service for most of the day today around the Lake (AT&T).
Did get a call from DBK while at Gar Woods, but no other messages when I got back just now. See you tomorrow.
Cobrar
GT Owner
I have definitely heard of him as he raced in the Gold Cup races on the Detroit River (home) and many of the mahogany/wood boats were fabricated north of Detroit (Algonac). The odd thing was coming across a restaurant 200 miles from home using his name. I had no idea anyone out here had knowledge of the fellow.
Kingman
GT Owner
I first heard of Gar Wood when I started going to the Gold Cup races on the Detroit River back in the 60's. Pop's wanted to get some publicity for the fledgling computer company he was working for (Burroughs). He proposed using computers to time the heats. They accepted....and he was appointed Chief Timer (I was appointed Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.....and 'Go-fer'). Nonetheless, the Unlimited's raced all across the US (Spokane, San Diego, etc.....even in those days).
You probably remember the Roostertail Restaurant, The Dodge Boys, Miss Bardahl, Miss Chrysler Crew, My Gypsy, etc...
sandman
GT Owner
The Gar Wood-Lake Tahoe link is due to the classic wooden boats: Gar Woods, Chris Crafts and Hacker Craft. Tahoe has a long standing and still thriving wooden boat community so a lake side restaurant and bar using the namesake works well. Unlimited Hydroplane racing was also a staple at Tahoe post WWII into the early 60's with Henry J. Kaiser, Stanley Dollar, and Bill Harrah all fielding U boats, Dollar even won the Gold Cup.
Man, those were the days, weren't they? "Miss Wahoo" with Mira Slovak at the wheel, Bill Muncey piloting the Atlas Van Lines...and on and on. 'Seems like yesterday.
And who could forget Lou Fageol's 360* flip of the "Slo-Mo-Shun-V"?
(It's really a miracle more driver's weren't injured or killed back in those days.)
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Cobrar
GT Owner
Those are great stories and believe it or not, the Roostertail still exists, perhaps not quite as exclusive as it once was, but once each year it comes alive for Gold Cup.
http://www.thunderboats.org/history/history0311.html
I once had a 1957 Chris Craft speedboat. I swear to this day that if you look up the word MAINTENANCE in Websters, it will have a picture of a Mahogany boat. Once restored, they are incredible. At the season's end, you just want to cry.
I did happen to see two of these late 50's craft chugging around Lake Tahoe while I was there. I should have taken a photo of them in black & white - just timeless!
Cobrar
GT Owner
I wasn't aware that the boats were that popular here. In the Detroit area we have craftsman who have been restoring/rebuilding these boats non-stop since their first arrival. It is a real specialty and the skills are often passed down to successive generations.