Joe Price

**sponsonhead** · 03-15-2005

Although he personally might take umbrage to being referred to as a "Gentleman", one of the greatest people I met in this sport was Joseph Lee Price.

Joe could do it all: Build superb boats, put together a strong engine, and most of all, bang out a record-setting propellor with the best of them. And it goes without saying, he was one damn fine partier.

In the mid 70's, Joe came to live in the loft apartment in the old Craig-Craft shop down on the Edmonds waterfront. I got talking to Joe once and found out he was a fine Jazz musician. He played piano and trombone, and toured for a brief time with Les Brown's Orchestra in his younger days.

So, I'd grab a case of Vitamin R, a stack of Basie Albums, and go up to Joe's place in the evening and shoot the sh*t with him about music for a few hrs--and usually would leave with a couple of new props Joe would have for me.

The neat thing about Joe was that he didn't care who you were: If you were a front runner or a back marker, he didn't care. If you needed a prop, he'd make the best possible wheel for you. This used to really infuriate the Selvidges and Morrie Shuman, who were basically paying Joe's expenses. If a new kid who had previously been in the back of pack went out in J and beat the Shuman boys, you could almost bet for sure he was running a new Joe wheel. Needless to say, this never sat too well with the Shuman team.

Then there was the year Joe had the "Prop Auction" at Lawrence Lake about 1974 or so on Friday night. Guys were bidding (and winning) props at prices like 25 cents or a $1.50---then setting records with these props the next day.

And I won't even TELL you about the Legendary "Joe Price Variety Hour" at Pateros, which to this day, I truly believe was a determining factor in Bob Wartinger's divorce a short time later.

Joe was truly a one-of-a-kind, and one of the most gifted craftsman in all of outboard racing. I still miss him.

R-19

**Peter Crowley** · 03-16-2005

I got some of my best ASR propellers from Joe. He was a fun guy to talk to! The Craig*Craft boats sure did look like the Price-Craft boats.....Another guy up your way- that made my absolite BEST ASR prop was George Lockhart. This prop had the best speed AND the best acceleration! About that same time, I got about 5 props from John Czaplewski that were really good too.....

**sponsonhead** · 03-16-2005

Peter,

A few weeks ago, we had the annual Anniversary "Old Timers" meeting for Seattle Outboard Assn, and George Thornhill brought George Lockhart along for the ride. George has retired from prop work for a few years now, but still comes around once in a while and is an old, good friend of mine.

We were talking about outboard racing, and out of the blue, Geoge says to me, "ever hear of a guy named Peter Crowley? I built him an AU prop once and he said it was one of the best wheels he ever had. For some reason, I always remembered that guy's name."

Wish I could get a prop or two out of George right now.....

R-19

**Bezer222** · 03-16-2005

George, Did the best props we had in the 70's and 80's for our flatbottoms. He was good enough to do work on a couple of props after he "retired" and is a great guy.
I always thought that he should have written a book about props. Some of you guys should get with him and get some of his knowledge down on paper.
It sure would be interesting reading!

**Ron Hill** · 03-16-2005

When Joe moved to Seattle area, he kind of told people he'd help us and had helped us build boats. Or at least that was the story I heard.

The funny thing was, he did better workmanship than we did...My dad and I did our best, but we weren't really GREAT... But Joe's boats were great.

First time I ever met Joe was in Seattle....everyone up there thought we were old friends.

Roy Miner had Joe come down and build him a couple of boats.. I remember how fast Tom Schidt's runabouts were...

To me, the real funny part was: Where did he learn his trade? As he was more than excellent with props. I may still have some of his pitch blocks around here...though, I think I gave them to Jeff Wilson...

Craig Selvidge taught me things about props, that he had learned from JOE!!!!

Good choice of a GENTLEMEN BOAT RACER....as I have heard he did help anyone who needed prop help!!!

**CSR4C** · 09-19-2007

Around 1966 Joe Price would build you a boat for $100. The catch was that you bought the materials for the boat. Gave him room & board while he built the boat at your place. I met Joe in Eugene, he had just came from Klamath Falls where he built a B runabout for Darrell Perkins. Joe was building a C or D runabout for Dale Powell, then he went to Tacoma to build C & D runabouts for Don Gano, then back to Eugene to build another one for Powell, then Tom Scheidt. By the time Joe was finished with your boat you had much more than a $100 in it.
A few years later I worked with Joe building Price Craft boats & learned a lot from him.
Darrell Sorensen

**arcticracer** · 12-10-2007

I just returned to Alaska yesterday from Oregon visiting with my dad, Dale Powell. I spent a lot of time looking at old racing photos, record books, Propeller mags, etc. I asked him about how Joe got to Eugene, he lived with us for quite awhile, travelled with us to races, etc.

Somehow Dad got Joe's name he says from Ron Hill, apparently he was in California and had built a few boats, and wanted to build more. He came to Eugene I think late 65 or 66, we built a 40' X 40' shop in the back yard, outfitted with everything needed to build boats. The first boats that came out of there was a CU and DU that my Dad ran, and in 66 a JU that got me started in racing. My brother Mark was 1 year younger than I was, and we would spend countless hours in the shop helping Joe, watching the boats take shape, or watching as he took worn out old crappy props and turned them into gold. Mark started a couple years after I did, he ran the original Price Craft JU I started with. It was a bit heavy (like me) so he built a really light boat, the first Price Craft as far as I know without Joe's signature rounded chines.

When the JSH class was started, Joe built his first hydro. The boat won 1-US, set a couple short lived records, and won the Nationals in 69. The second JU Joe built won nationals in 68 and 69 and also set a couple records that did not last very long. My brother won the JSH nationals in 70 in a Hedlund ASH with the same prop that I had been using. My Price hydro took 2nd. Joe's props were different than what some other teams were using, they were smaller diameter, smaller blades, but were hard to beat in competition. They were a little slower in the kilo and top end than the Karelson that Janis Lee was running with the big Lockhart props.

Dad sold his Castegnato CU and DU and started running Joe's boats, he set a couple records at Lawrence Lake. Won national high point in CU. About the same time Tom Scheidt also got started in racing, and was running Price Crafts also. Tom was fast as hell, and set some records, won the Nationals at least a couple times as I recall. Don Gano was another racer in Washington that did extremely well in Joe's boats. The competition in region 10 was great, you were guaranteed to see some good racing with a lot of Joe's boats in the thick of things. There were a lot of other Price boats of course, you could tell...... they were uaually in the front of the pack.

Dale Powell Jr.