Les St. Pierre: Occupation: Railroad engineer for Canadian Pacific Railroad

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Karl Williams Sr.
To:Ted Abel





Thu, Jul 30 at 8:22 PM

Occupation: Railroad engineer for Canadian Pacific Railroad

During the time I knew Les he was stationed at a railway yard in the Montreal area where he shuffled rail cars and engines during his shift. He also was engineer on a train from Montreal to Toronto.

Les St. Pierre did not have a trophy shelf loaded with high Point Awards or National Championships. His main accomplishment on the race course was winning CRR at Valleyfield, Quebec with a Hubbell cylindered PR against a field of Konig’s and one Evinrude Hex Head PR. As mentioned in a previous “a little history” Valleyfield was a much larger race than the CBF Nationals. The competition was far greater and the water conditions were always rough. The degree of roughness varied a lot. The afternoon Les won the CRR class it was too rough to run a four cylinder Konig full out. Les having a great deal of rough water racing experience had his equipment setup to get the job done. Someone had taken a photo of the finish at Valleyfield and Les had this photo enlarged to cover most of the living room wall at his home in Rouses Point, N.Y. He did place second in the 1974 CBF Nationals at Calabogie, Ontario in C-Service Runabout.

Les’ boat racing experience began at Verdun, Quebec racing a DeSilva runabout (with 14” sides) (previously owned by Stan Leavendusky and Karl Williams) with an Evinrude Speeditwin against a field of Evinrude & Johnson 25 H.P. engines on various locally made runabouts. The conducting club was not affiliated with CBF. The club did mandate life jackets and helmets. The Speeditwin had to get a great start to win over the lighter boats.


Shortly thereafter he did buy a C-Service engine from Stan McDonald and later added two additional C-Service engines and PR. From this time forward Les ran all CBF or CBF/APBA sanctioned races. Les attended every race in the Ottawa valley circuit and always started and finished.

In 1974 his DeSilva needed a lot of work to keep it going and Les asked me to build him a new runabout. During the 1975 season I loaned him my 30” bottom DeSilva until the new boat was finished. In the spring
of 1976 I moved to Springfield, Illinois, finished his new boat and took it to the CBF Nationals at Rawdon, Quebec in July. Les really like the boat as it was not loose on the water or lively to drive.

Before retiring from racing he bought Chuck Howgate’s C-Service engines, four cylinder “C” Konig, DeSilva and trailer. I am not sure if he ever ran the equipment. With severe arthritis and the associated medications his decision to leave Quebec and norther N.Y. state for the warmer Florida resulted in his selling everything to Karl Williams in 1985-86. At the time Antique Outboard Racing Association had started and the equipment was sold quickly.

In October 1984 he decided to sell his C Stock Merc that had been rebuilt by Doug Overbury. I don’t know if he actually got to race in this class.


My last communication was a phone call from Les Wednesday May 5, 1994 after he moved to Florida. Sometime after 2009 he passed away. Unfortunately I do not have his date of birth or passing date.


As mentioned in the beginning Les did not rack up National Championships, he supported boat racing in a big way, his personality was non-abrasive contributing to everyone enjoying his presence, he took care and kept
his equipment clean and most of all he really enjoyed boat racing to the fullest.


B & W Photo - Les in his DeSilva/Speeditwin
Color Photo - Les in his new Runabout/Speeditwin