Lone Star Boat Racing Association

[Master Oil Racing Team]

HEY DENNY, IS THAT RIGHT? AND I DON'T REMEMBER IF THEY HAD A PARTICULAR BRAND NAME.


I could be wrong, but as long as I remember Denny built his own boats. Craig Lawrence also built his own boats and called them AARDVARK. Craig and Alan Register figured out how to build boats from a Marchetti I stuffed and broke the bow off of. My Dad gave it to them and they rebuilt it replacing the canvas deck with a wood one.

[shenders]

Wayne
That had to be around 72-73 right? I was the last to own it.
Gave that puppy a viking funeral in 1977 after i ordered a
new Butts at the nationals in San Antonio.. That old boat had been around for a long time.. The picture of Denny looks like a boat i bought from him but i just can't remember that far back..
Man i wish i could shake these cobweb's out..
Stan

[denny henderson]

There is a bit of a story behind that boat. Not sure how interesting it is, but I'll tell it anyway.
Craig and Alan started building boats after they rebuilt the marchetti that Wayne broke in half at Clarendon, maybe '68. Accually, I think Craig's dad Bill Lawrence, had a lot to do with convencing them that they could do it. In '74, with Craigs help, I built my first boat. A copy of a Butts Aero-wing 11'6" A hydro. None of us were smart enough to design our own, so we copied a good design. It took me months to build that first boat, but I really enjoyed every minute. We took a lot of grief from your dad and others because we copied Tim's design, so in the fall of '75 Craig and I drew up plans for our own design. He built the first one and we ran it at Firebird in '76. I ran an "A" Konig on it and Craig ran a "B" Yamato. There is another seperate story about Firebird that I'll tell later. That boat ran pretty good so when we got back from Arizona, I started building one of my own. That was the white boat that Jeff asked about. I won "B" hydro at Winona that year, Wayne was 2nd, and Danny had had a tower housing break in the 2nd heat. Thinking back on those early boats, the chines were real flat and if we hadn't set the prop so deep they would have turned over inevery turn. I wish I new then, some of what I know now.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

So, Denny....Did you have a special name for your boats like Craig did with his? Did you call it a Henderson? How did you register it? Homemade?

[DeepPurple]

Denny is right about Craig's dad being a big source of encouragement in our reconstruction of your mangled boat. Not only that, he did a lot of work on that boat as well as the subsequent boat we built. Craig's dad was a wonderful man. In fact, both his parents were great.

Regarding your hydro, I think we replaced the fabric deck with another fabric deck. I know we put a fabric deck on one boat. I remember Craig and I going to an airplane hanger with Mr. Grupe to visit an airplane parts guy to buy the fabric and the dope (not drugs). I'm thinking wood decks on hydros were not in fashion yet when we finished that boat.

alan

[Danny Pigott]

Denny Was The Boat You Won 250H At Raleigh NC Build By You.That Was Great Race You Ran.

[denny henderson]

Thank's Danny, I appreciate that a lot. Yes, I built that boat in 2001 and ran Mitch Meyers 250 on it at DePue. It runs great but I'm not crazy about the low profile look.
Wayne, I have built only two boats for other people. Bobby Wilson and Kevin Lubinski. I have always registered them as Henderson Boats. Other than a breif period in the late 80's, I have raced only boats that I built (since '74). For two years, I ran a 250 Pugh that belonged to Jim McKean. It was probably the best hydro I ever drove. I'm currently designing a new one, hope I can get excited enough to get it built before next season.

[Mark Poole]

Nice to see you here Danny. I was racing OPC in the early 80's in Ga and SC. Maybe someday when you have a little time you could write a few paragraphs about the story of the Wild Geechee tunnel boat. Do you know if the boat is still hanging under the pavillion at Rocks Pond?

Mark

[Danny Pigott]

Mark The Boat At Rocks Pond Was The Wild Geechee Too.It Has Been Gone For A Long Time. When D.F.Jenkins Passed Away The Geechee 1 Went Back To The Man That Build Them, His Last Name Was Bruce .

[Mark Poole]

I was a kid the last time that I saw the boat race at Kings Ferry. The Geechee Too did not work as well as the first one I heard. The person that built them was a cabinet builder, correct? Do you have any pics of the boat?

Mark