
Originally Posted by
Ron Hill
Ted May built and named the first Pumpkin Seed Boats I saw. Fiber glass was very new in 1955. Ted made a carboard piece, round bottom and pointed. He laid fiber glass cloth and fiber glass resin on the cardboard. When the glass "Popped Off" as Ted called it (Hardened), he'd pull the bottom off the cardboard. He'd turn it over and make a very crude transom, and both side decks, a dash and a front deck. Nothing was straight, boat probably weighed 60 pounds.
He managed to get some old KG-7 long shaft Quickies from the Mercury Distributor, for free or he just stole them. No fin, no real steering wheel, had two hand airplane steering well from war surplus. and like a spark hand for a throttle, no return spring.
Ted made at least five of these Pumpkin Seeds and he made his own open stacks a with a hacksaw blade. He's sit on the motor and throttle with his foot. He could go sideway and fast as straight.
When we started racing on TV, he showed up with four boats and wanted to race. No life jackets, football helmets and football jerseys. (Ted had played quarterback in the Navy).
Nothing legal or safe. My dad and a few people decided to let them run around the lake between head to be like Rodeo Clowns. Someone gave them the name Mercury Maniacs. As the heats ended these four Pumpkin Seeds would come roaring out of the back stretch as we didn't want them near "Real" race boats.
To us "REAL" Racers we were surprised how the crowd cheered the Mercury Maniacs. People would park their cars on their side of the "PUDDLE". Ted being a show man that he was. Would have someone dump gas on the water and light it, Ted would come roar through the fire like EVIL KNIEVEL BEFORE THERE WAS AND EVIL.
Davey Corckett and Coon Skin has were popular. Ted would were a coon skin hat and one of the other Mercury Maniacs would pretend to shoot him with a rifle, Ted would jump out of the boat and let it run into the rocks on the first turn are where no one sat. He usually, had someone there to kill the motor.
That it the Pumpkin Seed Boats I know.
On Yamato motors because the are metric, the thumb screws can be taken out of the clamp bracket, Mercury "T" thumb screws can be used, There is enough aluminum to thread the metric clamps. Every Yamato were ever raced had Mercury thumps screws in the clamp brackets.
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