MilesMaster Boat

[Ron Hill]

John Schubert and I drove #14 Molinari owned by Jim Briggs... I was boxing some pictures the other day...and thought...WOW!! Look at my engine angle on the Molinari, then look at the engine angle on the Miles Master...I NEVER drove a Miles Master, though they often looked fun...Gary Peacock, as I recall, would run those boats on the prop....Bob Holloway made them look good...Bob was a Mercury dealer in Modesto, California and he bought lost of Record low Rake props....

Dick Summerfeldt! So, 988, twin Molinari is NOT Dick Summerfelt. IS Dick still around? I first met Dick at Essex, Maryland, 1967. He was running D Runabout and wanted to buy a prop...I told him $150 new or he could try it and bring me $200....He took the prop...about an hour later he came back and handed me two one hundred dollar bills...

I guess, Dick raced a Molinari Mercury in Paris that year, 1967, and either blew over or barrel rounded. He managed to get his leg tangled in the steering cable, which the end result was that he lost a leg...

I never saw Dick again until Havasu, 1971. Dick had blow a twin Molinari over....like number 988, and the patrol boats picked him up....he was not talking well, and they thought he'd lost his leg in the accident...The patrol boat put him in the boat and hauled out just in front of me...I hit the patrol boat wave and blew over...totally *** OVER TEAKETTLE.....I was leading single engine at the time..

I've never seen Dick since Havasu, 1971...

ADD: Molinari Boats...Jimbo McConnell and I agree that the most fun boat to ever drive was the HIGH RIDER Molinari like #14. T.A.R.T. Driver John Schubert and I drove #14 in Paris...The next week Jimbo and I drove, in Berlin together...Schubert had to go home to a job...that he got fired from, and Jimbo had wrecked his boat in Paris...So, Jimbo and I won the 1970 Berlin Six Hour....That style Molinari would go where you wanted it, when you wanted it, never was rough in the cockpit...You want to go faster, trim her up....just a FUN BOAT.....about 90 is all I ever went in a High Rider...

Prop is much like the low rakers of the day...