Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

[Ron Hill]

Think....

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Quote:

Originally posted by Ron Hill T2X, As I recall, OMC had a 16' Souter, single, and 18' twin and a 21' twin.... Having won the 1967 Marathon with a Glastron, Bob West, Evinrude's Director of Marketing, wanted me to run the NEW 17 Glastron that OMC had... I got out of school on Wednesday and flew to Waukegan and started testing Thursday. I assumed that Lake Michigan was ROUGH when we raced there in '67....After Thursday's and Friday's testing....I realized that '67 way smooth.... OMC had hired Paul Kalb, Father of APBA Mod Racing, and it was his son who was going to drive the 21 Souther. I had never seen one before but thought they had some bitchen cool lines, but didn't think they could be fast with that much V. Hell, seemed to me they had twice as much V as the Glastron.... Denis Berghauer was going to driver the Schultz to Chicago and then OMC was going to gas it and Dewy was going to drive it back to Milwaukee....This was one of two Schultze Boats that had made it to Parker in the Spring of 1968.... The other Schultz boat had been destroyed in a nose dive while being driven by Dewey Berghauer... Joe Haybay, was supposed to drive the 18' Souther, but he took one look at Lake Michigan and started crying to Chuck that he wanted the 21 footer....(Joe somehow had tested them both and knew the 21 was faster than the 18 and handled rough water like a dream... Chuck switched boat with Joe. Joe won the race, I was second, I never saw Chuckie Kalb again.... I left Milwaukee after that race saying I'd never get back in a 17 foot Glastron again....The power we had, I was on the props part of the time, or flying out of the seat the rest of the time... After watching Joe drive that thing...I said, "I wanted it for Havasu and I got my wish....I was in the top five at Havasu when the coils melted..The stacks got them too hot, and the Souter wasn't flowing air because the engines were so well protected from the air flow. I flew home from Milwaukee, my parents picked me up at LAX and we drove to Seatle to the APBA Stock Nationals, from there we went to DePue, to the Alky Nationals, then over to Michigan to the Marathon Nationals...Then, home for part of September and then to OMC's plant in Belgium and on to Paris... I've got some good pictures (of Europe '68)on slides, I may shoot them, and post.. ADD: The 16' Souter, with a 75 HP made a good ski boat. I got married in 1969 and my wife and I'd go skiing....Just the two of us, go way up river from Needles where is is smooth as glass... I'd have my wife drive...she'd never driven a boat, and I'd ski...I could "Whip" way to one side and with the rope tied to the other side, I could roll that Souter (We called it a Levi --Like the pants...Levy, it's nickname was the "Splinded Splinter"...... I pulled more than 50 teachers, in total behind her, the teacher's named her....) Anyway, I'd "whip" way out on a single ski and I could pull the prop out of the water and the boat would go sideways like hell...My wife would stop and yell and scream at me...tell me I was trying to kill her........I'd promise to NEVER do it again. We'd go up river about 2 miles and I'd do it again....Finally, my wife figured out what was happeneing, and everytime I'd "Whip" out, she'd just turn into me.... That old Levi might still be at Schwarzenbach's Apple Valley Marine...where I left it in 1970..... Lou Eppel was given my father's 60-42 Evinrude Hex Head Racing C to be put into the Evinrude Museum....which never was constructed...I'm still looking for the motor...Eppel never had any kids racing at OMC that I knew about.... Last Add: Denis Berghauer was first to Chicago, in the Schultz, after running the shoreline from Milwaukee to Chicago...Seems some swimmer were a little made when he came down the shoreline doing about 95.......and some sailboats were that way too...He got to Chicago, got as and the battery was dead...AND no one had a battery.....They had to drive down from Milwaukee to get him...OMC didn't plan the pit stop too well!!!! That wasn't as bad as what they'd done at Albany, NY....They tried to crank a counter rotating the wrong way...Not the Berghauers.....OMC....