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Thread: Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

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    Default Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

    Here is my dad, 1945, I was a year old. It was a Rockholt, Evinrude, Six Stud motor, called a 60-42, serial number 0041. They only made 50 of these six studs, The cylinders were made of mostly nickle, which helped them stay straight, and that was one reason they were fast.

    My dad had sold this engine, about the time I was born, and he was supposed to go in the Army. He had it sold for $250. All night before the guy was to pick up the motor, my dad didn't sleep. Next morning, he told my mom he wasn't selling the motor. She said, "She never asked him to sell it." I was born a week later.

    My dad was to go in the Army, he'd sold his car and boarded up the cabin, at Lake Elsinore, and quit his job...Sunday before he was to report, President, Roosevelt said, "The war was changing and married men, with children, over 40 would not need to report effective immediately."

    My dad was listening to the radio, coming home from Elsinore, in his '37 Plymouth....when he heard Roosevelt speak!!!

    This picture hung in my grandmother's house until she died. The blacked out part had said, "Love, Your Son".

    My dad got the boat racing bug in 1935 and never lost it....He died in 1997. He had the "BUG" for 62 years!!!
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 03-14-2019 at 03:16 PM.

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    Default Hearst Regatta 1948

    The Old Man, never listened to Johnny Cash music, except when he rode in the car with me...But he was a "MAN IN BLACK" for many of the same reasons Johnny wore black. This is the Hearst Regatta, 1948. 35,000 lined the shores.

    The Old Man's Rockholt had silver leaf numbers...Skippy was the boat's name, because when he bought it, it had a big rocker in the bottom and all she'd do was skip. My dad flattened the bottom and she ran like an ARROW. After that, my dad was a BUG about flat bottoms.

    Any of you guys that used to watch us run at Nationals, my dad would never put the motor on the boat until about 15 minutes before the race. Last thing he'd do was sand the bottom lightly, making sure it was "Flat as a NUN'S CHEST and he always said that was pretty flat".....The Hill Family got that line from Lee Morehouse who built many of our boats....Lee loved saying he'd gotten the boat's bottom slicker than S on a BH.... Which translated means, slicker than snot on a broom handle. Lee loved to say, also, that the bottoms of his boats were so smooth that a fly couldn't land on them without breaking a leg...

    Other last thing my dad would do before a finals, would be to sharpen my prop and square up the trailing edges with his pocket knife.....

    My father never won a Hearst Regatta, seems Rocky Stone from Willamina, Oregon won almost all of them...
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 10-10-2023 at 01:07 PM.

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    Default 1949 Hearst Regatta

    My dad had a new DeSilva in 1949...From the Kids, you know...Billy and Ralph DeSilva were considered the "KIDS" in 1949,

    My dad got the name Forever Amber about the time the book came out...Seems, when he played poker with the boys at Lake Elsinore he could get "AMBER" and still play pretty well...The boat club guys would go down to our cabin and raise hell for a few days at a time...

    My dad was leading this race, when a guy, Lee Cockren, got al ap late start, it was legal in those days, and Lee pulled out in front of my dad, my dad hit his swell and blew over backwards, knocking his two front teeth out. My dad never raced after the 1949 Hearst. My brother won A Hydro that day.. There were 32 hydros...they ran them in two heats...

    You can see the six studs on the head and the Perfect Circle piston Ring decal on the tank..This engine ran alcohol and it would take a decal off, if any alcohol was spilled on the motor....The decal was their, until we changed to a different fuel tank...
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 11-04-2007 at 11:13 AM.

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    Default This Ain't the Cabin

    Funny, I thought I was the "ORIGINAL" Party Animal in the Family...Now, my kids tell me they thought THEY were the "ORGINAL" Party Animals...

    Partying may, run in the family...My Old man has the cigar, in the middle of the picture, and no hair!!!!
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 11-04-2007 at 11:13 AM.

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    Default My Brother Won The Hearst in 1949

    There were 32 A Hydros, my brother started last in the first heat and worked his way to the front, in five laps. My dad chewed his butt between heats to get a better start, but he started last again, and again passed 31 boats. The Boat was a Fillinger, the name was Pumper. As the Johnson KR motors, or at least some parts, were also Fire Fighting Pumpers used in the BIG WAR...You know, the one we won!!! My dad had bought some Pumpers surplus after the war. They made my brother's A out of a Pumper. They did get a "FACTORY" block...


    Once, my brother was testing at Long Beach, he was watching the speedometer and hit a wave, in this Fillinger, he flew up in the air and his butt went through the cloth deck. My dad got mad as hell at him, which is something he did in those days,..and he then helped a guy make a "Lie Detector" for speedometers....It was basically a check valve in the line, and it would hold your fastest speed, no need to look at the speedometer, you could look where you were going. Though a great idea, my brother still managed to blow his Swift Hydro over because he could not believe he was going 70 and he watched the speedo until the deck hit him in the face...His face went right through the plywood deck. When they pulled the boat in, the speedo still said, "70."
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 04-06-2020 at 10:12 AM.

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    Default P-50 Johnson

    Maybe, I liked the 36 Class because my dad started racing is C Service and C Service, in those days was a "FISHING" Motor... If you notice, this old P-50 had the muffler....a requirement of the class..

    My dad''s "SKIPPY"...at speed, the old man ran them wide open...He was a "RACER"...

    I was 3 when he blew this motor up at Havasu Landing...I asked my dad what happened and he said, "He blew the motor all to hell." For the next year, I was asked to repeat that line about 500 times...Everyone thought it cute, to hear a three year old say, "Yea, my dad blew his C Service all to hell."

    After Havasu Landing, 1947, my dad never raced C Service again...ONLY "RACING C"....
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    Last edited by Ron Hill; 04-06-2020 at 10:12 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Hill View Post
    My dad had a new DeSilva in 1949...From the Kids, you know...Billy and Ralph DeSilva were considered the "KIDS" in 1949,

    My dad got the name Forever Amber about the time the book came out...Seems, when he played poker with the boys at Lake Elsinore he could get "AMBER" and still play pretty well...The boat club guys would go down to our cabin and raise hell for a few days at a time...

    My dad was leading this race, when a guy, Lee Cockren, got al ap late start, it was (https://erasmus-home.com/) in those days, and Lee pulled out in front of my (poker freerolls), my dad hit his swell and blew over backwards, knocking his two front teeth out. My dad never raced after the 1949 Hearst. My brother won A Hydro that day.. There were 32 hydros...they ran them in two heats...

    You can see the six studs on the head and the Perfect Circle piston Ring decal on the tank..This engine ran alcohol and it would take a decal off, if any alcohol was spilled on the motor....The decal was their, until we changed to a different fuel tank...
    9)
    Such an amazing picture, I would love to play poker like those on this picture

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    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Parker 9 Hour 1968: Fred Hauenstein and Ron Hill Drive the DeSilva Wing

    This is the first pit stop, 1968 at the Parker 9 Hour. Ron is in the blue driver's suit.

    I think we saw 94 MPH, that year. Ray Nydahl had seen 100 MPH on his Keller in the Switzer Wing that Ted May and Ernest Threlkeld drove...
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    Default Chicago to Milwaukee to Chicago Marathon 1966

    1967 Chicago-Milwaukee-Chicago

    This race was considered historically as an OFFSHORE RACE, but it was an all outboard race with LEGAL OPC Classes.

    I had raced for OMC at Parker in the spring of 1967 with a twin engine DeSilva. We didn't finish as we had gearcase problems, but I really enjoyed the race.

    DeSilva's had build me a new 17" runabout for twin X-115, which were just coming out. I had never raced a closed course OPC race in my life, but my dad took the boat to Waukegan to get two motors installed, so we could race the OPC Nationals at Canton, Ohio (Before there was a football hall of fame)...

    I was already in the Midwest with Harry Bartolomei's boats.

    It was Saturday night, late at DePue, and I just had showered and was thinking of going back to bed, when I decided I hadn't eaten all day, so I slipped down to the Holiday Inn restaurant, barefooted, to just grab a snack.....from the kitchen... Well, I ran into Charlie Strang, his mother, Ann, and Jack Leek...Charlie was the motor inspector and Leek was just helping out...

    I was like totally embarrassed, barefoot....an all...but I started talking like I was dressed for the occasion... Seems, the next week Jost had put together a Marathon from Chicago to Milwaukee to Chicago...Sponsored by Jim Moran, World's Largest Ford dealer and if I wanted to race in it, I'd have to go to the plant Monday morning and help rig the new 17' Glastron the Bob West of Evinrude had bought for me, for HAVASU (to run in November)...

    I said my dad, mom and me we going to Waukegan to rig the DeSilva for Canton anyway...So, we'd be there with bells on...

    Monday we got to Waukegan, and Harold Nauss told me I'd better run one motor on that DeSilva....as he figured I would probably kill myself with twins...
    We had back seat steering, so I sat where you would if she was a kneel down runabout....So, we agreed to put one motor...

    OMC said they could do the rest, on that boat, and my dad and mom left for my grandpa's in Arkasas....said they'd be back in a week and a half...

    Burt and me started rigging the Glastron..Don't remember Burt's last name...

    Tuesday morning I woke up sick with a burning fever. I went to the emergency room and told them I thought I was going to die.

    The doctor gave me HORSE PILLS, at this time, I didn't care if I raced or nit, I just wanted to live. I had no clue if the boat got rigged or not...

    I get to the plant about closing time and Mouse tells me to go to Chicago, to the Holiday Inn...I go back to my hotel and go to bed...Saturday, I drive down to Chicago...hardly able to move, but check in and maybe attend the driver's meeting...but don't recall, they may have let me miss because I was sick...

    Sunday, I get to Navy Pier and all the boats are in the water...Leek asks if I'm going to race or stand there???? I tell him I'm not sure... Leeks looks at me like only Leek can look... I put on my jacket and helmet. I honestly didn't know how to get the motors started. Jack gets in and gets one going, tells me to get the other one going and jumps out on the dock, I head out toward other boats on one engine...not able to fire the other....

    Finally, I say...Now wait, if one runs, so should the other. So, I shut off the one that runs...I can hear the starter isn't kicking it over... So, I put it in neutral, he she fires up, I drop her in gear and the other won't start...I see, I figure they need to be in neutral to start, finally, both engines are running and I put them both in gear..

    She roars up on plane and I notice that all the boats are heading toward Milwaukee... So, I follow, it is so rough and I'm so weak, after about the third nose dive, and the second time I'm out of the seat I realize the waves are about 5 feet high....So, rather than cross the waves I decided I'd go down the troughs....I didn't know if I could get to Milwaukee that way, but was getting a good ride....I go about a mile offshore, then cross about a block of waves then go a mile offshore...about the third time I did this, I realized i was in second place...so I pulled in behind the leader for fear I'd get lost, it didn't seem long that a helicopter was over us....so we started following that, we came to a turn boat, and guys were waving flags, I had never seen Milwaukee by water, but the lead boat went right by the turn boat, I turned on the boat and started back to Chicago, the other Glastron with twin Merc turned as soon as they saw me, but now I was leading...

    At this point my brain was thinking, I caught these guys and we are half way...I can win this...Well, I kept looking over my shoulder and they were coming but they were in catching me...I'd nosed in about every mile and fly out of the seat...After awhile I noticed that the deck went up when the bottom went down, til sometimes I couldn't see (The deck and bottom had delaminated.

    I made it back to Chicago in 3 hours and one minute.... Charlie Strang still says this was the day Ron Hill carried the deck around his neck like a big collar.....

    This was the first win for Strang's X-115...The first OMC win since Charlie had left Mercury....(A story in its self)...Carl protested the motors saying they had "RACING RINGS"...

    Carl built the Merc BP because of this win...Carl called my brother the next morning at 5 A.M. and wanted know why his kid won a race with an Evinrude??? My brother told Carl his son was 3 and upstairs sleeping....(Carl thought he'd called my dad, the oldest Mercury Dealer in California)....Carl never spoke to my brother again....

    Because of the medication I was on, the sun burned my arms and hands to second degree burns......I slept all day Monday and Tuesday....Then got ready to go to Canton to the OPC Nationals... I won a new Evinrude and 1/2 a year's teaching salary in the Offshore Race...I even got mentioned in John Crouse's book because of the win.

    Sometimes, you get lucky when you get a late night snack!!!
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    Default

    Parker 1978
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