Jackie Wilson..

[jackie wilson]

Sorry Jackie but there were a bunch of hulls capable of handling the big V-8's. We built one of the first, the Shadow Cat, which was designed in 1979 specifically for the T-4's and promised V-8's. The fact is both motors never lived up to their promise, had weak mid sections and generally were engineering failures. We wound up putting 3x 2.4's on the Shadows (4x 2 liters on a later Conquest) to make up for the unfullfilled power that was promised. We did have 1 semi successful season with injected t-4's on the transom but that required one off lowers from engineering and about a mile of bungy cord to try and prevent the motor mounts from failing........

As you can see from the photos we could use all that power and weight plus.......

I wasn't meaning custom built raceboats----------but production line, everyday, take granny for a spin pleasure boats. ie; Baggies -----Glastron--------Fletcher-------family type stuff that made profits for builders and dealers.

I'm certain Mercury didn't buy all those boatbuilders with a view to putting a T4 on their tail, think it was the numbers game------OMC had a large number of lumps in the Bayliners--'till Mercury did a Remington.


Every single producer of circuit race boats suffered transom failures with the V8. Don't matter whether it was Molinari/Velden/ Burgess or Hodges, they didn't seem to be able to cater for the weight and pure grunt of it.

Just look at history for a record of the carnage. !!!!!!!!!!

[Rotary John]

Question to those involved. I have heard the drivers capsule was a result of all the serious crashes with V-8's on the back and Merc and OMC jointly funded its development.

[Lars Strom]

Question to those involved. I have heard the drivers capsule was a result of all the serious crashes with V-8's on the back and Merc and OMC jointly funded its development.

After the 1984 F1-V8 season OMC gave money to Velden and Hodges to develop
a safety cell for the class.

http://www.motorboatmuseum.org.uk/co...ons/safety.php

In 1985 there was more boats in the F1-V8 serien with safety cells then with out.
I drove a brand new Velden with safety cell in Belgium's GP 1985.

BTW..
Normally the Burgess F1-V8 boats did not have a transom problem.

Well..except this one..The transom with the Mercs fell of in the F1-V8 race in London 1984..

[T2x]

Question to those involved. I have heard the drivers capsule was a result of all the serious crashes with V-8's on the back and Merc and OMC jointly funded its development.

Bernie Little started the capsules when he put F-16 canopies on his Unlimiteds in 1985. We had the first set in Offshore ready for installation on our 35" Conquest Cat, Jesse James in late 1986, when the owner/throttleman, Mark Lavin, was killed in a stuff at Key West. Following that the Lavin Foundation was started at a meeting including GG, Bob Nordskog, George Linder, me, Dr Matt Houghton, some engineers from Bell Helmets, Lifeline, and other safety product vendors. The cockpit safety standards and construction techniques followed within 12 months of that meeting and included tunnel boat cockpit specs developed in Europe. I don't recall OMC and Mercury funding that but somebody paid to have a Hodges cell dropped from a helo.

T2x

[Rotary John]

TX2: If I read your post correctly it was 87 that capsules were on F1 outboards, yet Lars say he drove a capsule boat in 85 and 1/2 the boats on the circuit were capsule. Or was it the standards you were refering to in 87? I believe reading some where Strang saying OMC and Merc both gave money for capsule development.

[Lars Strom]

Again...OMC helped Velden and Hodges with money to develop a safety cell/cockpit late 1984 and was used in the F1-V8 serie in 1985..

Bob Spalding and Bertil Wik was the two first F1-V8 boats with safety cells 1985..

[Lars Strom]

This is Bob Spaldings F1-V8 Hodges boat with safety cell . Year 1985..

[Lars Strom]

Well..Skater Cats used Evinrude XP V8 power also..
This is my Skater 32.

[jackie wilson]

Again...OMC helped Velden and Hodges with money to develop a safety cell/cockpit late 1984 and was used in the F1-V8 serie in 1985..

Bob Spalding and Bertil Wik was the two first F1-V8 boats with safety cells 1985..

How come you guys make statements and THEN ask the questions, and as for OMC and Mercury funding the development of the safety cell----YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS !!!!!!!

Let's go back to the beginning. Spalding ---Percival---and Hodges with OMC big bucks, formed a race team with Hodges being the manager ----cum boatbuilder, and Bob and Tom the drivers. Tom had a biggie in Liegge and died a week later.

Hodges was devastated-------and set about making the sport safer. He had already worked with the formula one cars at Nicholson McClaren and had built safety cells for them with great success.
SOOOOO with his own money, and no financial help from anyone, he got to work on building the cell as we know it today. He wanted it tested to destruction-so he dropped it from a helicopter from about 100' -it stayed intact and did not damage the mannequin which was strapped in was unharmed. There were many sceptics ---so Hodges strapped himself inside and was dropped . It was a success.

Meanwhile there were other efforts being made by Velden working with one of the universities in Holland-but he kept getting bogged down and was asking Hodges for advice which he gave him free of charge.

Another route was being taken by Bill Brown [ex Cosworth director] he HAD funding from the UIM and was working with alluminum. It all came to a juddering halt when he dropped the mannequin from the chopper and killed it a couple of times . [ the dummy was on loan from the british car industry and was full of sensors and trick **** and cost thousands to make].

Parkinson and Fred Hauenstein got together and squeezed a couple of thousand out of Mercury to help Chris with the escalating cost of the cell. THAT WAS THE ONLY CASH HE EVER GOT FOR THE CELL.

He GAVE the design, and the drawings, and the methods, and the know how for free to anyone who built race boats. He never made a red cent out of the deal.

What really pisses me off is the fact that if the 2 factories gave him a million apiece-----It still would not have been enough to compensate for all his own bloody efforts [ OBE ] his innovation saved countless lives.

So NOOOOOO ---NOOOOOO- a thousand times NO ----- OMC and MERCURY were not in any way -shape or form instrumental in the creation of the safety cell.

Lars was right in the fact that Spalding and Erickson were the first 2 drivers with cells. think the swede took Percy's place in the team.

All i want is for the world to recognise the fact that Hodges thought of it ----made it---and gave it to the world.

[jackie wilson]

Well..Skater Cats used Evinrude XP V8 power also..
This is my Skater 32.

Dropped a clanger didn't i Lasse-----------'twasn't Erickson----------it was Bertil Wik, Been waiting all my life to get something wrong -----and i just did.

Incidentally the safety cell was not enough to save Bob when he sank the boat with him in it for too long a time in Seville. He suffered brain damage and was never the same guy again. He married Jilly Percival and was happy for a while---but he couldn't keep his zipper fastened for long and was given the big E.
Great character and we were great friends for many years.His kids and mine are still friends 40 years on.