Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

[Ron Hill]

Here is my dad, 1945, I was a year old. It was a Rockholt, Evinrude, Six Stud motor, called a 60-42, serial number 0041. They only made 50 of these six studs, The cylinders were made of mostly nickle, which helped them stay straight, and that was one reason they were fast.

My dad had sold this engine, about the time I was born, and he was supposed to go in the Army. He had it sold for $250. All night before the guy was to pick up the motor, my dad didn't sleep. Next morning, he told my mom he wasn't selling the motor. She said, "She never asked him to sell it." I was born a week later.

My dad was to go in the Army, he'd sold his car and boarded up the cabin, at Lake Elsinore, and quit his job...Sunday before he was to report, President, Roosevelt said, "The war was changing and married men, with children, over 40 would not need to report effective immediately."

My dad was listening to the radio, coming home from Elsinore, in his '37 Plymouth....when he heard Roosevelt speak!!!

This picture hung in my grandmother's house until she died. The blacked out part had said, "Love, Your Son".

My dad got the boat racing bug in 1935 and never lost it....He died in 1997. He had the "BUG" for 62 years!!!

[Ron Hill]

The Old Man, never listened to Johnny Cash music, except when he rode in the car with me...But he was a "MAN IN BLACK" for many of the same reasons Johnny wore black. This is the Hearst Regatta, 1948. 35,000 lined the shores.

The Old Man's Rockholt had silver leaf numbers...Skippy was the boat's name, because when he bought it, it had a big rocker in the bottom and all she'd do was skip. My dad flattened the bottom and she ran like an ARROW. After that, my dad was a BUG about flat bottoms.

Any of you guys that used to watch us run at Nationals, my dad would never put the motor on the boat until about 15 minutes before the race. Last thing he'd do was sand the bottom lightly, making sure it was "Flat as a NUN'S CHEST and he always said that was pretty flat".....The Hill Family got that line from Lee Morehouse who built many of our boats....Lee loved saying he'd gotten the boat's bottom slicker than S on a BH.... Which translated means, slicker than snot on a broom handle. Lee loved to say, also, that the bottoms of his boats were so smooth that a fly couldn't land on them without breaking a leg...

Other last thing my dad would do before a finals, would be to sharpen my prop and square up the trailing edges with his pocket knife.....

My father never won a Hearst Regatta, seems Rocky Stone from Willamina, Oregon won almost all of them...

[Ron Hill]

My dad had a new DeSilva in 1949...From the Kids, you know...Billy and Ralph DeSilva were considered the "KIDS" in 1949,

My dad got the name Forever Amber about the time the book came out...Seems, when he played poker with the boys at Lake Elsinore he could get "AMBER" and still play pretty well...The boat club guys would go down to our cabin and raise hell for a few days at a time...

My dad was leading this race, when a guy, Lee Cockren, got al ap late start, it was legal in those days, and Lee pulled out in front of my dad, my dad hit his swell and blew over backwards, knocking his two front teeth out. My dad never raced after the 1949 Hearst. My brother won A Hydro that day.. There were 32 hydros...they ran them in two heats...

You can see the six studs on the head and the Perfect Circle piston Ring decal on the tank..This engine ran alcohol and it would take a decal off, if any alcohol was spilled on the motor....The decal was their, until we changed to a different fuel tank...

[Ron Hill]

Funny, I thought I was the "ORIGINAL" Party Animal in the Family...Now, my kids tell me they thought THEY were the "ORGINAL" Party Animals...

Partying may, run in the family...My Old man has the cigar, in the middle of the picture, and no hair!!!!

[Ron Hill]

There were 32 A Hydros, my brother started last in the first heat and worked his way to the front, in five laps. My dad chewed his butt between heats to get a better start, but he started last again, and again passed 31 boats. The Boat was a Fillinger, the name was Pumper. As the Johnson KR motors, or at least some parts, were also Fire Fighting Pumpers used in the BIG WAR...You know, the one we won!!! My dad had bought some Pumpers surplus after the war. They made my brother's A out of a Pumper. They did get a "FACTORY" block...


Once, my brother was testing at Long Beach, he was watching the speedometer and hit a wave, in this Fillinger, he flew up in the air and his butt went through the cloth deck. My dad got mad as hell at him, which is something he did in those days,..and he then helped a guy make a "Lie Detector" for speedometers....It was basically a check valve in the line, and it would hold your fastest speed, no need to look at the speedometer, you could look where you were going. Though a great idea, my brother still managed to blow his Swift Hydro over because he could not believe he was going 70 and he watched the speedo until the deck hit him in the face...His face went right through the plywood deck. When they pulled the boat in, the speedo still said, "70."

[Ron Hill]

Maybe, I liked the 36 Class because my dad started racing is C Service and C Service, in those days was a "FISHING" Motor... If you notice, this old P-50 had the muffler....a requirement of the class..

My dad''s "SKIPPY"...at speed, the old man ran them wide open...He was a "RACER"...

I was 3 when he blew this motor up at Havasu Landing...I asked my dad what happened and he said, "He blew the motor all to hell." For the next year, I was asked to repeat that line about 500 times...Everyone thought it cute, to hear a three year old say, "Yea, my dad blew his C Service all to hell."

After Havasu Landing, 1947, my dad never raced C Service again...ONLY "RACING C"....

[Ron Hill]

Russ Hill, Sr. and Ronnie Hill, August 12, 1956 Stock Outboard Nationals, Cambridge, Maryland...Photo by Hank Bowman.

I finished third to Dean Chenowith and Billy Schumaker....Don Pontius was 4th...

The badge did say Ronnie Hill.....

Jimbo please note: The K on the SPARK HANDLE is for a KG-4, NOT KG-7...

[Ron Hill]

This was live TV, my brother had just won the "TROPHY DASH" with his C-6 Swift....Upset win for Russ, as Howard Thompson, 2-C usually won D Stock Hydro.

Second picture, again live TV, Dick Lane from KTTV announces as Russ Hill, Jr. gets his trophy for WINNING D Stock Hydro...

White T Shirt is Bobby Willlard, from Oildale, who, along with his dad, raced for 26 straight weeks...Gene Bettis is next to Bobby...

ADD: The kid holding C-6 is Me, Bill DeSilva is walking toward me with the hip boots on..Howard Thompson is standing behind his KG-9 holding the flywheel...That KG-9 of Howards, was once on the cover of Speed and Spray or Boat Sport where they had two D Hydros, side by side...Jack Maypole was driving one of the boats, as I recall!!!! (Found the Link Boat Sport ...Hmm, it was June 1953).

[Ron Hill]

3-C, Bobby Willard from Oildale, California, leads Ronnie Hill and Gene Bettis is AU Trophy Dash...

Oh, I remember now, as I see Bobby Willard is leading, fastest guys started last.....and we only ran three laps....Hard to come from last to first, I never did!!!!

[Ron Hill]

Here Lee Morehouse (Back to us)..is holding my brother as he starts his KG-9 powered, Swift hydro...A C, D, F, X Hydro....as they were called...

Lee may have built more than 50 Morehouse runabouts, he had been an artist for Walt Disney, and on every boat bottom he'd draw Mickey Mouse before he put the glass on!!!!

The Morehouse Family, Lee, Ibby and Danny were great supporters of Boat Racing both with CASH, and hard work at the races...Not to mention the boats Lee built and repaired for little or no money!!!