Switzer Wing

**Powercat** · 11-27-2004

1960 Switzer 80hp Merc DR

**Mark75H** · 11-27-2004

Look how extra long the deck is and how far back the driver sits!

**Ron Hill** · 11-27-2004

Hey, Mark 75-H, Ted's and my goal is to interview Bobby Switzer...maybe, his brother too... (Dave Switzer).... I feel the long deck had a ton of lift designed into it....and in those days big boat, most anyway, were still thinking like I still think, and that was FLAT BOTTOMS to carry the weight....

The BIG WINGS had FLAT PADS....on both sides of the tunnel...

This is Kenny Kitson and me in my Snapper... We ran very close to each other for the first hour or so...(Kenny won), but what I'm showing is the how different the styles of the two boats were... Scotti finished second, overall I think, with a SINGLE MOLINARI.....the hand writing was on the wall about designs of the future...

Enjoyed drving the wings, but you had to plan ahead for a turn...by plan ahead, I mean like start turning about 200 yards from the corner..the V hull turn like a RINKER runabout!!!

**march3stv** · 11-27-2004

This one actually turned on one sponson oposed sliding around the corners as most of them did...

**Ron Hill** · 11-27-2004

The gun had fired.. Ted May was boat 80... Ron Hill was boat 70...The boats were waxed and damp in the morning, walking on them to get to your seat wasn't easy!!! You can see my big butt in the white tee shirt! Ted is on the wing section crawling to the cockpit...

**Ron Hill** · 11-28-2004

The last picture number 80, was Ted May at the 1967 Parker Endruo. Ted was the first day leader of Havasu in 1966, but the first day was only two hours. On the second day, (Four hours of racing) after two hours the gearcases came loose and caused the driveshafts to break. 1966 was early in OMC's Racing effort, and this was the frist race with these new Charlie Strang gearcases. The gearcases had been installed with a gasket between the gearcase and the midsection. When the gasket got hot, it burned away enough to allow the gearcase (S) to come loose...After Havasu, 1966, we never ran a gasket between the gearcase and the midsection..

At Havasu, 1967, Ted ran the same wing and was doing well, when a hole opeed up in the center wing section and the boat went down.... Well, not really, both pickle forks were in the air, and when I came by Ted was sitting between the two forks, watching the race... He never got wet, when the patrol boat picked him up he was dry.

OMC sold the wing to Bobby Massey or gave it to him thinking it wasn't worth repairing. California glassmen and Bobby fixed it and by Parker 1968, Bob won the outboard Division at Parker. He wasn't the fastest, but it was a 9 Hour Race.

In the 1969 Parker Enduro, Bobby blew a Triple Jones over backwards and had serious injuries. I saw the accident, he didn't really blow it over, it started to blow over and stalled out, cork screwing and throwing Bobby through the side of the Jones cockpit.

Bobby recoverd in time for the 1969 Havasu Classic, but blew his new Molinari twin over, testing for Havasu, at Lake Elsinore and was killed. Bobby was a fine guy...

Here is a picture of his Switzer number T 40 (T for twin)..

**Ron Hill** · 11-28-2004

After OMC sold Ted May's Switzer to Bobby Massey they were hard pressed to find another wing, as most of the old Switzers were tied up with Mercury and the NEW WING wasn't out yet...

So how OMC got a hold of "The Black Coffin" of J. Ernest Threlkeld... a teacher like me, only he was a band teacher...

During the month of February, OMC test for Parker at Havasu Spring at a plce called George Savards... George was a pain, but he had a nice bar, restaurant, and motel...

I was testing my DeSilva wing...actually, Ray Nydalh was doing all the testing.

We could see 98 one evening and Ray didn't want o quite until he saw a hundred.... Finally, as the sun was sitting and he had no fuel, with the wing all the way down, below the pads at the transom, he saw a hundred...

Thinking about the name "BLACK COFFIN", I went home and bought a fire proof suit...I didn't bill OMC because I didn't want them to know how much I'd paid...

Erine and Ted ran this wing at Parker to 8th place...First 99.9 cubic inch OMC, I had two Evinrudes, they had two Johnsons... Looks like Ernie at the wheel, as Ted always ran a bright orange helmet.....