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Thread: Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

  1. #41
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Prop Story...

    I was racing for Harry Bartolomei, in 1967, and we went to Valleyfield to race the John Ward Race (500 CC World Championships)...Harry was, maybe I should say still is, a man who never worried about what things cost. Pop Smith, without a doubt, was the greatest propeller man EVER. He had worked in a forge before he started working propellers. His propellers were as close to perfect pitches as could be made. Pop Smith even taught Mercury Marine Propeller people how to work propellers. I have been in the propeller business since 1969, and consider myself an expert, but I would never want to be compared to Pop Smith (R.Allen Smith was his real name)as I know I could not compete with POP!!!!...Pop and I were great friends, we had several business agreements that made both of us money....I made him castings, he made me props.
    But in 1967, few people in the world, Waldman and Hering maybe, Harry Bartolomei had a complete selection of Smith Alky wheels...(MAYBE 25 props)...

    We got to Valleyfield and ran the 500 CC qualifier..I ran a Dieter Schultz hydro and a VC Konig (New ROTARY VALVE) 500 CC engine...I qualified with a fifth in my heat, two heats, which meant I was a 10th for the final, maybe 9th...

    At the Saturday evening pre race party, Dieter Konig asked Harry why he didn't run the muffler. (We had run open stacks)...Harry answered he liked to hear them wind...Dieter said, "Run the MUFFLA".....Dieter Schultz asked why we ran didn't run the "Mufflaa?" We said, It ran best without the muffler."...Dieter Konig and Dieter Schultz said, "Run the muffleaa and Smith wheel number 295 V..." THEY FIGURED HARRY DIDN'T HAVE A 295 V BLOCK. PROP...(As they had some favors in their pockets at this race)..

    Harry told me, he had a 295 V in the trailer. We put the 295 V and the muffler on and Harry added a LITTLE NITRO... Bottom Line, we won the 500 CC World Championships, and I invented LAY DOWN HYDRO....as that Konig with 20% NITRO, SMITH WHEEL 295 V, HAD SO MUCH POWER I COULD NOT KNEEL, I HAD TO LAY DOWN TO DRIVE.

    I went from RAGS to RICHES with a propeller change...muffler change and a lot of nitro....

    Thanks, Harry Bartolomei for giving me the chance to drive your 500 CC at the John Waard Trophy Race.!!!

    Harry is the one that taught me I didn't race for money. The first heat out at Valleyfield was A Outboard Hydro..I won and $100 Canadian Dollars... Waldman and Herring were behind me. The reason I had won the heat was it was rough as hell and my throttlwe stick wide open. I remembered Gerry Hedlund telling me how he'd won an "A" Hydro rce when his throttle stuck but choking the motor going into the turn. So, that is what I did. And it worked.

    Next heat was the John Ward Race..I won the first heat. As I started to get in my A Outboard Hydro throttle fixed for the second heat, Harry said, "Ron, rest, don't go out." I said, "Harry, they are paying $100 a heat to win...." Harry reached into his pocket, pulled out two one hundred dollar bills and handed them to me...And said, "Sit down and rest."

    I said, "Harry I want to kick those guy's ***..."..It was then I realized I didn't race for money... I raced to win!!!!

    ADD HARRY: When I was racing for Harry, I considered him "OLD"....but I always liked his comments about my women...He'd say someting like..."Ole My God....I can see what you like about her!!!".....I'd give Harry a look like you "DIRTY OLD MAN"...Of course, now days, I'd say the same thing!!! (Maybe more)...
    Last edited by Ron Hill; 01-04-2024 at 01:27 PM.

  2. #42
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    Default Jerry Waldman and Me, Valleyfield, 1967

    John Lawrence gave me this picture at Alexanderia the other day...I don't know who the young man is with the goatee...But, I'm the guy in the blue sweat shirt, and Jerry is looking at us... The big white trailer in the back ground use to carry Jerry's A, B, C, D, and F Hydros, and Bobby Herring' A and B hydro... What a stack of boats they'd bring to the races...

    Thanks, John for the memories...The 1967 John Ward Trophy Race, 500 CC World Championships...Harry Bartolomei owned my boat, which I won in, Freddy Hauenstein was second....Seems a Cresent might have been third. The Quincy's were a distant 5th or so, as the new VC Konigs were changing the landscape.
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  3. #43
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Havasu 1967

    Governor's Son, Mike Reagan, World Outboard Champion... Well, we won't go into the REST of the story..

    Dick Sherrer: Super DicK" sure looks young.... but then again, so do I...
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 11-04-2007 at 09:41 PM.

  4. #44
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    Default Goldenshores 1969

    Ron Hill, Queen and Clark Maloof...

    The announcer was Elgin Gates. Elgin had been a partner in the Mercury Marine Distributing business. He was from Needles originally, then moved to Spokane... The SOA, Seattle Outboard Association's Logo is Elgin Gates in an "M" Conventional hydro...

    Elgin was a great announcer. He started the National Pistol Association based on APBA Regions, Divisions and Points. When he moved out of Newport Beach, he sold his house to John Wayne...

    Elgin was multi talented. He could write songs, sing and play the guitar like the wind...

    He and my father were life long friends.
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 09-20-2023 at 10:55 AM.

  5. #45
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    Default 51 Years Ago...(2013)

    44 Years ago, I was a senior in high school. They ran this article about me in May of 1962. This is my Morehouse DU...Really, it was my brother's C Racing Runabout that Ed Karakowa owned. I cut much of the bottom off near the nose and added about a foot of lift to it, added a cowling and set the motor bact 2 inches. I held the DU record until the weight were lowered. I won many Colorado River Marathons in the is boat....

    My mother was PTA President, my senior year....I think that was COOL now..at the time...there were moments when I wasn't sure ......My parents were older than most as I had a brother ten years older than I and sister thirteen years older....

    My mom made me custom shirts that were :Squared OFF" at the bottom, because you had to have your shirt tucked in, if it wasn't squared off, Of course, my mom made mine extra long... Some sewing machine she made hundreds of life jackets...
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 12-21-2013 at 10:46 PM.

  6. #46
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    Default North South Race

    Lee Morehouse got into things... He put stars on my numbers for the North-South race and a Reberl flag on the deck..... Eddie West, Jr. is behind me. Lee had connections at Disney...At this race, the Mickey Mouse Club News reel came and took pictures of me. It was this news reel that convinced Our Fred Miller he wanted to race boats...The News Reel, was shown several times on the Mickey Mouse Club TV show.

    Bottom picture is of some neighbors that came over and also went testing with us often...Except Eddie, his older brother had drown in the surf, and he couldn't go near water. But he loved those boats. He and his dad made it to many a Speedboat Redeo that was on KTLA Channel 5, every Sunday...

    If you look, you can see the hooks in the chine of this Morehouse AU...
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  7. #47
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default T2X Asks

    I think....

    T2X,

    As I recall, OMC had a 16' Souter, single, and 18' twin and a 21' twin.... Having won the 1967 Marathon with a Glastron, Bob West, Evinrude's Director of Marketing, wanted me to run the NEW 17 Glastron that OMC had...

    I got out of school on Wednesday and flew to Waukegan and started testing Thursday. I assumed that Lake Michigan was ROUGH when we raced there in '67....After Thursday's and Friday's testing....I realized that '67 way smooth....

    OMC had hired Paul Kalb, Father of APBA Mod Racing, and it was his son who was going to drive the 21 Souther. I had never seen one before but thought they had some bitchen cool lines, but didn't think they could be fast with that much V. Hell, seemed to me they had twice as much V as the Glastron....

    Denis Berghauer was going to driver the Schultz to Chicago and then OMC was going to gas it and Dewy was going to drive it back to Milwaukee....This was one of two Schultze Boats that had made it to Parker in the Spring of 1968....

    The other Schultz boat had been destroyed in a nose dive while being driven by Dewy Berghauer...

    Joe Haybay, was supposed to drive the 18' Souther, but he took one look at Lake Michigan and started crying to Chuck that he wanted the 21 footer....(Joe somehow had tested them both and knew the 21 was faster than the 18 and handled rough water like a dream...

    Chuck switched boat with Joe. Joe won the race, I was second, I never saw Chuckie Kalb again....

    I left Milwaukee after that race saying I'd never get back in a 17 foot Glastron again....The power we had, I was on the props part of the time, or flying out of the seat the rest of the time...

    After watching Joe drive that thing...I said, "I wanted it for Havasu and I got my wish....I was in the top five at Havasu when the coils melted..The stacks got them too hot, and the Souter wasn't flowing air because the engines were so well protected from the air flow.


    I flew home from Milwaukee, my parents picked me up at LAX and we drove to Seatle to the APBA Stock Nationals, from there we went to DePue, to the Alky Nationals, then over to Michigan to the Marathon Nationals...Then, home for part of September and then to OMC's plant in Belgium and on to Paris...

    I've got some good pictures (of Europe '68)on slides, I may shoot them, and post..

    ADD: The 16' Souter, with a 75 HP made a good ski boat. I got married in 1969 and my wife and I'd go skiing....Just the two of us, go way up river from Needles where is is smooth as glass... I'd have my wife drive...she'd never driven a boat, and I'd ski...I could "Whip" way to one side and with the rope tied to the other side, I could roll that Souter (We called it a Levi --Like the pants...Levy, it's nickname was the "Splinded Splinter"...... I pulled more than 50 teachers, in total behind her, the teacher's named her....)

    Anyway, I'd "whip" way out on a single ski and I could pull the prop out of the water and the boat would go sideways like hell...My wife would stop and yell and scream at me...tell me I was trying to kill her........I'd promise to NEVER do it again. We'd go up river about 2 miles and I'd do it again....Finally, my wife figured out what was happeneing, and everytime I'd "Whip" out, she'd just turn into me....

    That old Levi might still be at Schwarzenbach's Apple Valley Marine...where I left it in 1970.....

    Lou Eppel was given my father's 60-42 Evinrude Hex Head Racing C to be put into the Evinrude Museum....which never was constructed...I'm still looking for the motor...Eppel never had any kids racing at OMC that I knew about....

    Last Add: Denis Berghauer was first to Chicago, in the Schultz, after running the shoreeline from Milwaukee to Chicago...Seems some swimmer were a little made when he came down the shoreline doing about 95.......and some sailboats were that way too...He got to Chicago, got as and the battery was dead...AND no one had a battery.....They had to drive down from Milwaukee to get him...OMC didn't plan the pit stop too well!!!!

    That wasn't as bad as what they'd done at Albany, NY....They tried to crank a counter rotator the wrong way...Not the Berghauers.....OMC....
    Last edited by Ron Hill; 11-22-2017 at 03:36 PM.

  8. #48
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Miss Bk's Post


    I miss you and your whole crew at these Bakersfield races....

    Back in the 1970's, my future sister in law saved up her spare cash for over a year so she could buy her stock outboard racing boyfriend (my brother) the best prop available.

    When she finally had enough money, she purchased the prop and gave it to him for his birthday.

    A few weeks later was a SCOA race at Bakersfield. My brother had a picky old Mark 20H that had to be started above the water line.

    His girlfriend and I didn't have the muscle needed to hold the boat up *and* pull the rope, so we had it sitting on a metal milk crate while we started the motor. Once it fired off, we would grab the handles and lift the foot over the crate and let him go...

    But this time we didn't lift the boat high enough --- and when we let him go, the blades made a horrendous noise as they screeched against the metal, and the motor came to a halt.

    She and I looked at each other - speechless .

    We pulled the boat toward shore, just sick to our stomachs that we had destroyed my brothers new prop, and especially knowing how long it had taken his girlfriend to save up for it. (she was still in high school)

    But before we got that boat up on the stands, a tall guy comes out of nowhere, and yanks the prop off the shaft while telling my brother to keep his jacket on....

    Without us even havig time to ask for anything, he then starts banging on the prop, carefully removing the jagged, peeled edges away. He slides the repaired prop back onto the motor - just in time for the second heat! My brother didn't win, but without RON HILL's help, our day would have been OVER, and our weekend shot.



    It's those kinds of things that matter - people helping people and that is what makes this world a better place.

  9. #49
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Hansen Dam 1962

    Probably one of the last races we ever had at Hansen Dam...It flooded the next year, and they never really made it back into a lake...My brother's 1962 Sid Craft... My dad Evinrude Six Stud, serial number 0041...On a "D" Quickie... Hubbell "HORNS"...I was still racing this motor in 1966, and doing well...
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  10. #50
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    Default Weed Eater Outboard

    I came home one day and found Chad building an outboard out of our Weed Eater...This is the second motor...He and his grandpa made all the patternes and then had the parts casts, then they machined them together...Aaron Sorensen build the scale tunnel boat...
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 09-11-2006 at 05:09 PM.

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