The Texas Chapter had another great antique outboard spring meet at Lake LBJ in Kingsland, TX. You can see all the photos at the meet Gallery link – just click on a picture to view it full size: http://www.texaschapteraomci.com/?p=2836
My wife Susan and I arrived to the Longhorn Resort Thursday afternoon along with a few other members that also came in early to get an extra-long weekend, which was really nice having more time to enjoy the resort and lake. A cool front came in Thursday evening allowing the members to wake up to a brilliant clear sunny day on Friday. Many of our club members rolled on in throughout the day on Friday with boats and motors in tow.
Dennis and Sharon Schmitt brought their great looking pickle fork tunnel boat with a mid- 80’s Evinrude 60 HP race motor. Bob and Brenden Macaluso brought their late 50’s Crosby with a 61 Evinrude 40 HP which is a neat looking rig that was made in the transition year from fiberglass to wood. The 16 ft. Crosby had a fiberglass bottom and a wooden interior. Bob was able to purchase this boat at Louis Rothermel’s meet last November.
Tony Robinson and girlfriend Andrea arrived mid-day Friday with his rare 1950’s Wizard big-fin boat with Evinrude 40HP. Tony put some real miles on his rig over the weekend spending a lot of time cruising the lake.
Dave and Doug Samstag came along with Doug’s race hydro boat powered by an expertly restored early-70’s race Mercury 25HP. Doug got some pretty good speed out of his rig on Saturday morning. Eric and Gail Peterson came with their slick early 1980’s Carlson with Mercury 115HP. Eric also ripped down the lake on Saturday in Gus Gustafson’s hydro boat racing against Dennis’s tunnel rig. Dennis was able to record their race with his helmet cam, which was a great sight.
Scott Atwater Al along with wife Katie and daughter Addison arrived later Friday evening with his hot G3 with Scott 75 HP. On Saturday, Brenden and Al worked to get the Scott tweaked just right so the G3 was performing to Al’s satisfaction. Joe McCauley and his son Finn also pulled in later Friday evening with their go fast Alison powered by the perfectly built 1975 Johnson Stinger 75 HP. Joe and son made many high speed passes in the high 60’s MPH range. Great sounding motor!
Chip Rathbun ran his 1958 Corson and matching Johnson 50HP. Saturday afternoon Chip dressed in a leather skullcap, large fighter pilot goggles and a white scarf looking just like Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.
I came to the meet without a boat and was able to purchase from Meatball an original 1961 Glass Magic with 63 Mercury 65 HP. The boat was in excellent condition and quite sporty looking. The Mercury-powered 14 footer ran great jumping off the starting line like a thoroughbred pony at the race gate.
On the sale and swap part of our meet John and Cindy Slator came with a nice load of misc. motors, parts and boat stuff for sale. Bob Macaluso also had a pick-up truck of misc. motors and other sundry items for sale along with a couple of motors brought by Tony Robinson. A few items did change hands. Darrel Beaulier, Robert Black and his wife Donna joined us for the day Saturday.
We all had a lot of fun on Saturday running our rigs and sharing stories. Saturday evening chef Meatball Murray along with his friend Bad Bob cooked up an all you can eat awesome fried catfish dinner, coleslaw, hand cut French fries and fried okra. Dessert was a cherry cobbler made by Cindy Slator along with a tray various cookies. After dinner we had a brief club meeting whereby the members thanked Meatball for cooking a great dinner. We also thanked my wife Susan and Sharon Schmitt for cutting the fries, preparing the coleslaw and making homemade tartar sauce.
Another great meet came to an end whereby Sunday morning brought cool weather and rain. We all look forward to the fall 2014 meet to be held Oct. 31st thru Nov. 2nd.
Article submitted by Adam Finn.