Pete called his Mustang boats "sleds". They looked a little bit tri-hulled from the front, though not as pronounced, but from the back it looked like a flatbottom, though it was slightly concave. The middle section was actually a sponson that quit a little before halfway down the boat. The two outer portions of the front of the boat gradually tapered down forming a tunnel untile they feathered out about 2/3rds the way back. For a fast boat, it handled rough water incredibly well. With the mosly flat bottom it planed out quickly and that center step really dampened waves that would pound a true flat bottom boat. The only problem Mark had was that in a tight fast turn, it would spin out every time. It was pretty spooky the first time it swapped ends. After the second time, he knew he had better watch it, and so Baldy, Mark and I began working on correcting the problem.

Baldy called Freddie for suggestions. I don't remember whether it came with a center fin or not, but I do remember at Freddie's suggestion to move the cast aluminum center fin back toward the transom. That didn't help. Then Baldy had his welder make a bracket and cut out and make a cutlass shaped fin to mount on the left side of the transom. It was aluminum and about 4 inches wide, 10-12 inches long and 1/4 inch thick. It lasted about halfway through the turn before a permanent bend of about 75 degrees. Baldy had the welder make another one just like it, but out of steel. Not much difference except the bend was more like 60 degrees.

Although we didn't actually meet Pete until 1974 Baldy talked to him on the phone. Pete had sold lots of his 15 foot sled, but not many 17 footers like Marks. No one had complained about the cornering problem. Maybe they weren't running Speedmasters with the lower unit cranked up to just below the bottom. Pete found us an inboard SK heavy brass center fin that was 10 to 12 inches deep and told us to move it further back toward the transom. In the meantime Baldy had his welder make a new steel bracket and had a fin made of springsteel and only 1 1/2 inches wide and about 8 inches deep. We had to move the SK fin back once more, and when it was about three feet from the transom, the boat turned hard and true.