Mark 20-H With A Handle

[Ron Hill]

A guy named Kenny Scoffield, who raced motorcycles as a young man, once bought a Mark 20-H from my dad.... He had my dad install a handle on it like a Mark 25...and he had my dad extend the driveshaft 2 inches and add a spacer between the foot and mid section.

He ran it on a flat bottom aluminum fishing boat and it hauled ***...BUT, many, many years ago someone stole this motor....Kenny has passed on now, but I thought some collector may have run across this motor and wonder what the hell....The motor disappeared in 1958..so, anything could have happened to it....

[David_L6]

Kenny Sceauxfeeld must have originally been from south Louisiana. ;)

[buff5]

Interesting story Ron, I have a 20H with a 2" extended l.u.. 2 cavitation plates, the extra one is not cast to the tower but merely a added aluminum plate. Here is the story, back in 54 there was a Merc Distributor at Surfside Calif named Elgin Gates. Carl had brought him back to Wisc to race in the Winnebago Marathon at a earlier time to run the new 4 cyl while he was still a Merc dealer at Needles so he got to know the boys at the Experemental Boat House at Oshkosh quite well. He raced on the Colorado River at Blyth (or had a driver???) & wanted a 20H with a 2" extension so he contacted the boys at Oshkosh & they casted & machined a 2" extension & then installed a NOS Q driveshaft. They extended the mount studs by taking stainless steel rod & cutting the extra 2", chucking in a lathe & cutting the threads, (chuck center holes still appear on the ends of the studs). This unit went "out the back door" without the factory knowing a thing about the procedure. I found this motor at Blyth some years back while on vacation at Palm Springs. This was all confired to me by Al Weber who worked & raced for Carl & ran the Service school at Beaver Dam in the 50's. Al has long retired & lives in Northern, W:) :) isc. I showed him the unit at a meet at Hayward Wisc & he immeadiatly identified it for me as he knew at the time what was going on at the Boat House. Interesting paraell story tho.
Ronald

[Ron Hill]

When Elgin Gates and Don Graves were buying the Mercury Outboards distributorship, for $35,000 they wanted my dad to be a partner... Elgin had owned the Trading Post in Needles, California, and was one hell of a gas welder of aluminum. My dad often sent Elgin gas tanks to weld.

Elgin moved to Seattle, and worked at a Mercury or OMC dealership... While in Seattle he raced "M" Hydro among other classes. The SOA, (Seattle Outboard Club) still has Elgin, driving an "M" Hydro ..conventional, as their logo, today.

AnywaY, when Elgin came back to California, my dad made him an offer. Elgin had wanted my dad to be a partner in the distributorship, a $5,000 buy in.... My dad, told Elgin and Don Graves he's rather be a dealer and that's he'd buy $5,000 worth of motors...

Well, my dad became dealer number one, a number that Mercury never changed. My dad was a dealer for Mercury Marine until he died. Mercury would never transfer the dealership to me, as they said they never knew what deal my dad had made with Carl......My dad was a dealer for almost 50 years and never had a retail shop....

When I won the Chicago to Milwaukee-Chaicago Marathon in 1967, Carl Called my brother and asked him why his son was driving an Evinrude??? My brother told him his son was five and he didn't think he was driving and Evinrude....(Carl thought he'd called my dad...). Carl never spoke to my brother again, and they had been good friends...

I'd love to see the spacer in this Mark 20-H......

My dad built engines for Elgin for years...his "C" Service motors, his "M" motors...

After Elgin sold out to Mercury, he moved back Needles, he build some houses and developed some land, called the "Gates Development" in Needles.

Elgin later started the National Pistol Association, using APBA's points and regions AS A MODEL...

Elgin was a great song writer and a super boat race announcer....NOTE TO WAYNE BALDWIN: Elginwas the announcer at every Winternationals...at BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN SHORES, ARIZONA...

Elgin once wrote a song about a kid who had a "HOPPED UP SUPER 5...Something this like this, : "We were side by side, , Our throttles wide, Me with my PR 65, With my needle (valve) I started to twittle, Man alive he was only five, but he was drivng a hopped up Super 5"...( To the tune of the Hot Rod Lincoln)...

Elgin built a house in Newport Beach, on land that everyone said was over pirced.....he had a basement for all his big game animals he'd hunted....When he sold his house, John Wayne, YES, that JOHN WAYNE, bought his house....

Elgin had all of his boat copied in Mexico...That is where the Mexican floaters came from..

In 1962, Jimbo won the Needles Marathon with a boat called the Perly Gates...This was one of Elgin's boats... a formica bottom...

[buff5]

Ron wanted me to post the pics of the above motor I found some years back, pics concern 2" extended 20H lower unit, as found.

[buff5]

Ron asked me to post these pictures & here are more.

[Ron Hill]

This is what my brother said after seeing the pictures...


Yeah, That's my dad's spacer block. In the 54-55 era, there were three drive shaft lengths: 20 (regular), 15 (short) and 12" (hydro short). I don't know where that was measured. The earlier engines (Pre-20Hs) hd regular or short drive shafts and drive shaft housings. Guys converted them to "Hydro" short --the 12" version.

So, although my day cut the drive shafts down three inches and re-splined them you still had to buy a "hydro short" housing. Mark 20H's came with "hydro shorts"

Well, old Kenny Schofield wanted a 20H with the longer (short) shaft. So, my dad who had lots of short drive shafts needed the short housing--hence the spacer.

The tiller handle was Kenny's idea of the only way to drive a boat (he was and X-motorcycle racer)--Which is another series of stories. There is no doubt in my mind that was the Mercury Mark 20H stolen for Kenny Scofield.

Russ Hill

[buff5]

Ok, so now we have your opinion. remember, when I found this motor is had NO handle but had all the linkage for the spark advance lever still hooked up as a stock 20H racer?????????????. Some things fit, some do not, also the steering bar was not "cold rolled" but rather a cheap piece of angle steel. Another thing that fits neither what Ron said his dad used nor what I would expect on a motor that Elgin owned. Now of course that motor could have went thru who knows how many other guys who made these changes???????,. Again, 50 years is a long time, well at least it escaped the scrapper!!!!!!!, it lives & is a 2" extended matching #'s real 20H, wherever it originated from, lets all enjoy the motor for what it is, a real piece of someones history. Ron, you never know when you post, what will turn up in response!!!!!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

............if you want to track something down...re-live some history from people who WERE THERE, in addition to current racing....BRF is the place to come.

Who would have thought that these few pieces of a tower housing and lower unit would have sparked any interest beyond a few guys that knew something was different. Why wasn't that stuff sold off as junk years ago? ...or just dumped to clear out the storage? Because it is a part of outboarding history and the few that knew about these unique pieces were destined to come together tell us about it.:cool:

Ron: When Elgin was speaking to us out on the island, we had a terrible echo because of the speak......eak..kers...spea..s...kers...tha...s... th..ha..t..h..a...td..t..od..b..ou.nc..bo..ce....u nc...th...e...t..he..sou..he..s..ou..ba..nd..ck..b ...ack..b..t..a..ock..t..o..us...us.;) We couldn't understand a thing he was saying because when the first talk hit, the speakers facing from the other direction came a split second later. I have to thank Sid and Bob Viera on our left and Jay Root on our right to keep us informed of what classes were up. I have great memories of that race. You guys out there did a great job.

[Ron Hill]

I never knew that you could not hear Elgin announce at the Winternationals, he was the best announcer I ever heard. Elgin was a funny guy. He was a Big Game hunter and friends with John Wayne and Roy Rogers....I don't think he ever set out to be rich. At my dad's "SHOP" (a 6 car garage behind our house), Elgin had his own shelf. On this shelf he always kept all kinds of candy....AND believe it or not, I never got into when he wasn't there. Elgin shared with me. He had two daughters, one looked just like his wife (And I was always in love with her)..., and he also had two boys. Both boys shot for the US Olympic rifle team, if I'm not mistaken..

I think it was right after the Winternationals, maybe 1970 at the Needles Marathon, why I don't remember, but Elgin's wife, Dolly, drove me from the river to my friends friends house, in Needles....She explained that they were going to move to Idaho, though she loved Needles, more than she'd loved Newport Beach....., and that Elgin was starting this "PISTOL ASSOCIATION." She said to say hi to my dad, and she knew Elgin missed seeing my dad.....that all the business and stuff had taken Elgin away from racing, be she knew he still missed it...and you could tell when he announced...He'd announced that day, and I was thinking how our races would suffer without his announcing.

When Elgin announced, he explained how the mountians, with thier points near Golden Shores, were called "THE NEEDLES".....hince the name Needles.. Elgin knew things like how many gallons of water per hour went down the Colorador River per minute...He told history stories....and just seems to love to talk on the PA...A "Dandy Don" style.

The people in Seattle, still give me wierd looks when I tell them that is Elgin Gates on their SOA (Seattle Outboard Association) Logo..an M Hydro..but they say it is pointed...well CONVENTIONAL HYDROS were pointed in those days...

I have a Speed and Spray Magazine, at the shop, Elgin wrote an article on Mexican Boat Racing...May post part of it...

I learned to sell propellers from Elgin....another story for another day...

See, I went to Kingsburg and spent last Friday with Fred Hauenstein, Jr. I'll post some pictures of my trip later....Do you realize Freddy's Go Karts are still in his garage, from whe they raced Go Karts???.....almost 50 years ago!!!!

This Kenny Scoffield guy, gave me my first boat. He'd bought this Mark 20-H and an old Terrill runabout that Mike Mehan had...The sucker had about 3/8 rocker in the bottom, and would bounce like a mother...We were at a race at Parker, and Kenny told me to get the front seat and hold on... I was TEN, no padding on the front seat, and no padding on my butt....Kenny took about three hot laps, it was that day I realized I had muscles, that I could see, in my forearms..

It was October, 1954...My dad had inspected at DePere, Wisconsin at the Stock Outboard Nationals. Vic Bonnon, from California, had finished second to Don Badacinni, from Florida. My dad had DQ'd Badacinni's block because all ports were to spec, except one was illegal,, my dad called it a hand built motor and they had used the spec sheet as a "HOP UP GUIDE" and that alone should toss it, but my Old Man had had a run in with the Stock VP (Don Guerin) at the Oakland Nationals, in 1952, and Guerin had Proxy votes from his Comissioners and he ruled that one port should not cause and engine to be DQ'd...

Well at Parker that same weekend, that I got a ride in Scoff's Terrill runabout, Vic Bonnon's "A" motor broke a rod and the rod came through the crankcase... Vic assumed th motor was ruined and when my dad offered him $150, cash, Vic sold it to him......a GOOD "A" RUNNING "A" BROUGHT ABOUT $100, in those days..(Turned out the block was fine....another story at another time)...

When Kenny heard that my dad had bought me an "A" motor, he said I'd need a boat and that I could have his.

Lee Morehouse was at the race and said he thought the bottom needed work and he had room on his trailer and he'd take the boat home.. Lee glassed the "Rocker " out the bottom and I raced that boat all the next season...and Lee Morehouse hauled to all the races for me... He also painted and lettered my boat, and never charged us a dime....

That is when Kenny decided to use the 20-H on his fishing boat...

Kenny had this Damn Dog, Skipper. He took Skipper everywhere. Skipper was Kenny's speedometer, the dog would hang his head out the window until Kenny was going 60, then he'd pull his head inside the cab of Kenny's truck....One time Kenny and his Dog were at the Needles Marathon and Kenny wasn't married, then, and never had kids. He and I were riding the Farris Wheel and Skipper was sitting on the dirt watching us ride....Kenny made the guy stop the Farris Wheel and let Skipper ride with us...

Not long after that race, Kenny and Skipper were hauling down the river, not in the 20-H boat, he had a PO Johnson, and he hit a sand bar at the Topock (Golden Shores) bridge and he and Skipper both few out of the boat...He picked Skipper up to put him back in the boat, and the dog bit him....

Kenny had raced motorcycles, and had many very bad scars on his chest and neck. When I was younger, , the scars scared me and I was afraid of him... As I got older, I realized he was one of the niced guys in the world....He once broke a front axle on his motorcycle, and fell off, on the Grapevine, he skidded like 100 feet on his butt....He called his mom, from a gas station, to pick him up, when he got home he was stuck to the car seats. They had to turn a hose on him to get him out of the car...He got the parts he needed to fix his bike, his mom bandaged him up, and drove him back to the Grapevine...

He took pictures of his (BUTT'S) recovery and had one picture framed, inside of a toilet seat cover, that hung on the wall of his bar in his house

Anyway, I guess I knew I was going to Hauenstein's and thought about my childhood....and Scoff's Mark 20-H, with a two inch extension, just "Popped" into my head....Never dreaming I'd really see the thing again...

[buff5]

Thanks Ron, your story is a history lesson regarding early days racing in itself. Think I have a pic of you in a race boat in a old speed & Spray or Boat Sport. Will have to look for it now.

[Ron Hill]

I was getting my brother's 1949 Hearst Regatta winning "A" lower unit out to go to Puddingstone tomorrow... When the cast "FLAWS" jumped out at me...

My dad always made wood patterns, then had them cast in sand cast aluminum... Then he machined them on his little South Bend Lathe....

Not how my brother's lower unit looks like the space casting in the 20-H.

Several things about the other story:

1. Elgin and my dad saw each other weekly in this ear, and my dad did all of Elgin's motor work on his alkies, but the MERCURIES were alwasy "BOX STOCK" like Carl wanted them....So, if Elgin wanted to modify a motor, he'd have Russ do it...as in Russ Hill, Sr.

2. Elgin had several boats built in Mexico, and they actually had very low transoms, as when they copied the boats, they didn't allow for the transom angle, or they screwed as you had to runa Mexican float in about the 5th hole....

3. No one in their right mind would make a casting for a one off piece, except my dad... Had anyone at Mercury done this, they'd have milled it out of a billet....

I remember Elgin's last kneeldown race. It was Long Beach, 1954...He was running the Pearly Gates, built by Ivan Brower, this boat had a plywood bottom with formica glued to the plywood, basically a "FLOATER BOAT".

Bobby Parrishg had a DeSilva, he was leading Elgin, Elgin was running bank to bank, at Long Beach's sig=ngle pin turns... Bobby left the door open for Elgin, in the first turn of lap two, Elgin went for the hole, and Bobby "SLAMMED THE DOOR" at the pin, when Elgin crossed his wake he barrel rolled. Elgin always raced with hip boot waders on, and after his spill, he tried to swim for three more laps and damn near drown...

Bobby was about 18 at the time, maybe 17, and everyone was saying Bobby gave Elgin a driving lesson...Elgine started racing twin engine Mark 55-E's on a Javlin right after that...Not many 18 year olds had twin engine boats...

[buff5]

Ron: Yes, I understand the "making" of the one time part. Dont know where the old Merc employee came up with his story but it was "right now" & I am sure he believes what he said. I listen to all & yours makes a lt of sense to me. Well, anyhow if it is your fathers work you now know what happened to it & that it still exists. Again I have to ask you, how do you put a small picture to the left by your user name?
Thanks
Ronald

[Ron Hill]

I PM'd you and also e-mailed you Jeff e-mail...

When I posted about the 20, I never dreamed I'd see it again.

If you knew how many boats shops, and marinas I've haunted, looking for parts, over the years, you would not believe it anyway. My dad would go to Nebraska to look for Fresh water, ROCKY MOUNTAIN motors...My best C Mercury was a Wizard block, and it was from Lincoln, Nebraska...My numbe two C, Mark 30-H was also a Nebraska motor...

I have posted about my dad's Evinrude 60-42, (Hex Head, Six Stud to some)...serial number 0041....If and when this motr surfaces, I'll try to buy it or go to court to get it back. As that was my dad's motor, given to Evinrude for a museum, that was never built. The motor should have been, at least, offered back...This motor had a lower unit that looked to be a Factory unit, but, when measured, was much smaller...

My brother reminded me why Kenny Scoffield wanted a handle on the 20-H, it was like his motorcycles...

Last year, Jimbo and I got to talking about Needles and boat racing, we counted maybe 25 people that had raced in Needles.....we could not find one race motor in Needles.. Jimbo had BOUGHT MY CROSS flow "D" MERCURY WITH HUBBELL HEADS, AND A GRANT TOWER. WHEN JIMBO WENT TO VIETNAM, THE MOTOR WENT SOMEWHERE... NEITHER OF US CAN REMEMBER WHERE IT WENT.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Ron..When did Jimbo go to Vietnam?

[Ron Hill]

Jimbo went to Vietnam the summer of 1965, I'll say. I was going to Flagstaf, to college, and it was the summer of 1965 that Jimbo got drafted.

Jimbo's brother, Babba, had a Honda 250 motorcycle, and his good friend had one like it...When Jimbo's brother, (Pete) was in town we never borrowed his Honda but when he was out of town on the "Rails" (Pete actually worked for the railroad for 46 years before he retired)...we'd ride the **** out of his Honda...and the neighbor's Honda, too!!!

I'd say it was around July 30th, 1965 that JIMBO WAS TO REPORT TO THE BUS STATION, in NEEDLES, TO GO IN THE ARMY...

I came down to Needles on Thursday, before the Monday Jimbo was to go in the ARMY. We'd decided that if we got killed on one od those motorcycles that weekend, at least we (HE) wouldn't have to die in Vietnam...

We rode Motorcycles all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday...110 degrees, in our bathing suits, we rode to HAVASU when there was no road FROM CALIFORNIA to Havasu...We RACED DOWN THE RIVER DIKE roads, we raced on Route 66, we generally raced our asses off for three days.......


When I put Jimbo on the bus, Monday morning, for the army, I EXPECTED to never see him again...

Jimbo's first race after his returned from Vietnam was the HAVASU CLASSIC, "UIM OUTBOARD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS" 1967, WHICH HE WON, SINGLE ENGINE, ALONG WITH TED MAY, HIS CO-DRIVER...

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I was just wondering. I had never heard of him being out of racing for that long of a stint. So it happened a year before I ever heard of Viet Nam. At the beginning of my senior year, fall 1966, an army guy spoke in our auditorium about it. I was wondering at the time why he got us all together just to talk about a conflict over there.