"A what? A PRAM??"

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09-20-2014
smittythewelder

"A what? A PRAM??"

Here's one for the REAL OLD guys (meaning older than I). As a little kid in the mid-Fifties, I spent too much time staring at a one-off magazine my dad had picked up, probably a Popular Science special, on kit boats. Back in those excellent times, my dad's generation, having suffered through the Depression when they were kids, and having survived WW2, come home, married, and started families, had reached a position of having enough money that they could spend a little of it on fun stuff like boats. Being Depression-frugal do-it-yourselfers, many of them figured they could save money, and have even more fun, by building their boats themselves with plans or kits.

For what its worth, that generation did a lot of DIY projects from kits or plans, from additions to the house to ham, CB, and marine radios and "hi-fi" gear (my dad and I even built a Heathkit color TV). Heath is long-gone, as are Archer, Hallicrafters, Knight, ( some of you will recall others), and I hear that the last survivor from those days, Radio Shack, is close to going under. The DIY generation, and their sons, later got into kit and plans-built airplanes in big enough numbers that I could buy "Kitplanes" magazine off the rack at the local supermarket in the '80s and '90s.. Yet that game is in decline now, too. At the local big Experimental Aircraft Assn fly-in in 2013, I was disappointed to see that the numbers of little owner-built airplanes were way, way down from ten to fifteen years earlier.

Well, before this degenerates into another pining-for-the-Good-Old-Days thread, back to boats. In that kit-boats magazine were photos and short descriptions of two raceboat kits. The first of these, now rare but still better known, was the Chris Craft 10' Utility Racing Pram, "suitable for sanctioned racing in classes JU, AU, or BU." That's right, a pram, with a pram's truncated flat bow! But a very sleek, racy pram, a pram a Seattle kid obsessed with the Slo-Mo Unlimited hydros could get excited about. I googled this a few minutes ago; Chris Craft sold over a thousand of these kits, and there are a few still around. The second such kit, by Custom-Craft, was very similar, though it actually looked like it would be a better raceboat, having softer chine angles. I found nothing about it on Google.

So, sixty years later, I'm wondering if anybody here had/build/raced or just saw either of these little pram-runabouts at a boatrace . . . ??
09-20-2014
Allen J. Lang

Smitty, back about 1952 my Dad and I built a CC racing pram. Started off with a Johnson TN 5 hp whiched it along fairly well. There was a local racer who raced one with a KG7H. We bought a almost new 12 hp Sea Bee which pushed it rather well. Had a lot of fun with this rig. On 4th of july 1954, I sold it to a friend and purchased a 13' Herb Voss ( Pete Voss' Dad) runabout with a Evinrude Speedifour which at that time fitted into APBA's E Mod class. Joining the Eastern Outboard Racing Club on Long Island, I had to race the free for all heats against the big boys 460s,KG9s and the C service class. Had a lot of fun back in those days. The guy who had the racing pram up dated to a current B set up and changed the KG7 to a KG4 and turned it over to his daughter.
09-21-2014
champ20B

pram

Quote:

Originally Posted by smittythewelder

Here's one for the REAL OLD guys (meaning older than I). As a little kid in the mid-Fifties, I spent too much time staring at a one-off magazine my dad had picked up, probably a Popular Science special, on kit boats. Back in those excellent times, my dad's generation, having suffered through the Depression when they were kids, and having survived WW2, come home, married, and started families, had reached a position of having enough money that they could spend a little of it on fun stuff like boats. Being Depression-frugal do-it-yourselfers, many of them figured they could save money, and have even more fun, by building their boats themselves with plans or kits.

For what its worth, that generation did a lot of DIY projects from kits or plans, from additions to the house to ham, CB, and marine radios and "hi-fi" gear (my dad and I even built a Heathkit color TV). Heath is long-gone, as are Archer, Hallicrafters, Knight, ( some of you will recall others), and I hear that the last survivor from those days, Radio Shack, is close to going under. The DIY generation, and their sons, later got into kit and plans-built airplanes in big enough numbers that I could buy "Kitplanes" magazine off the rack at the local supermarket in the '80s and '90s.. Yet that game is in decline now, too. At the local big Experimental Aircraft Assn fly-in in 2013, I was disappointed to see that the numbers of little owner-built airplanes were way, way down from ten to fifteen years earlier.

Well, before this degenerates into another pining-for-the-Good-Old-Days thread, back to boats. In that kit-boats magazine were photos and short descriptions of two raceboat kits. The first of these, now rare but still better known, was the Chris Craft 10' Utility Racing Pram, "suitable for sanctioned racing in classes JU, AU, or BU." That's right, a pram, with a pram's truncated flat bow! But a very sleek, racy pram, a pram a Seattle kid obsessed with the Slo-Mo Unlimited hydros could get excited about. I googled this a few minutes ago; Chris Craft sold over a thousand of these kits, and there are a few still around. The second such kit, by Custom-Craft, was very similar, though it actually looked like it would be a better raceboat, having softer chine angles. I found nothing about it on Google.

So, sixty years later, I'm wondering if anybody here had/build/raced or just saw either of these little pram-runabouts at a boatrace . . . ??

Well, this stuff was 25 or so years before my time, but I kinda have a bit of story about these boats as well!!

My friend, who was an elderly man was John C. Renfroe. He raced in the early days of it all. He was a member of the AOMC and used to get monthly publications. I was about 23 or so and I found a Evinrude Lightfour 9.7HP....It was one of three I went through. He told me about when he and some fellow racers experimented with this four cyl 15cid motor by using a "midget racing foot". Well the midget foot was geared a little lower (2:1) to the fishing gearfoot at (1.5:1) so the motor ran like hell, as he put it, then KABLAAMM!!!! The aluminum rods broke! That's when it was discovered that the bronze rods of the 6HP (7.5cid) midget were a must as well as a direct fit. He showed me a picture of an early class "A" lightfour Evinrude in action in one of his AOMC books, and it was on a racing pram. I actually built one like it for my Lightfour and used an old Stannus race prop on it. The difference was that I streamlined the stock gearcase to match the midget unit, trimmed down the skeg, and polished it. I was able to take advantage of the higher gearing so I kept the aluminum rods. It would fly at about 32mph! It was like a plywood 10' jon-boat with the interior of a B-U racer. A pine tree destroyed it in a storm a time later unfortunately. The Lightfour had good success in "A" class until mercs came along.