First 5 in the Top 100

[Ratickle]

Here's out main page photo. It has 12 people on there who I believe should be in the Top 100 of all time. Question is, who in that group will make the Top 5 or Top 10?????

I nominated Don Aronow as #1, and so far have received zero opposition......

So, since #1 seems to be taken, with a unanimous decision so far, let's get going on the Top 5.

Who are numbers 2 through 5, and why? If you need help to prove something you've heard or believe, we'll try. We may also try to disprove some of the embellishments from the stories. But, let's get it done....

Any questions, I'll try to clear them up in the main Top 100 sticky thread.


1. Don Aronow - Still being discussed, but so far-so good.
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?


http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww310/ptrose/Misc%20and%20Personal%20Boats/Top100MainPhoto.jpg

[Buoy]

As I mentioned in the other thread, #2 is Carl K in my opinion.

[Buoy]

#3 Reggie.

After this we start getting into really gray areas/arguments.
Luhrs
Saccenti
Crouse
All are certainly contenders

[old377guy]

I think that anyone with multiple inputs into the sport has a place in the top 10 and probably top 5 - i.e. builder(boat company owner), designer, racer etc. Therfore Dick Bertram and Reggie have my vote for top 5 inclusion.

[fund razor]

I like Carl.

[Ratickle]

My personal Top 5 would be

1. Don Aronow
2. Dick Bertram
3. Carl Kiekhaefer
4. Bob Nordskog
5. Reggie Fountain tie C. Raymond Hunt

[Buoy]

My personal Top 5 would be

1. Don Aronow
2. Dick Bertram
3. Carl Kiekhaefer
4. Bob Nordskog
5. Reggie Fountain tie C. Raymond Hunt

That is a good top 5, but I'd shuffle it a bit.
Swap #2 and 3 and I'm good with that.

Forgive me on your #5 tie, I'm not familiar with C. Raymond Hunt - educate me.

Looks like we're starting to get somewhere on this project!

[Ratickle]

Hunt designed the very first Deep Vee, (among other famous boat designs).


The Moppie that Bertram won with, and everyone else copied.....

[Ratickle]

No one else has a Top 5 list?????:toetap05:



Or everyone just agrees with me. I tell my wife I'm always right too.....:sifone:

[old377guy]

My revised list is:
1 Don Aronow
2 Carl K
3 Dick Bertram
4 Reggie
5 Bob Nordskog /Fabio

[fund razor]

My personal Top 5 would be

1. Don Aronow
2. Dick Bertram
3. Carl Kiekhaefer
4. Bob Nordskog
5. Reggie Fountain tie C. Raymond Hunt

Dam good list. It's a hard exercise to do.

[fund razor]

I like Gar Wood.

[bootdaddy]

Hunt designed the very first Deep Vee, (among other famous boat designs).

Yep...the ole' codgers all say it started here with the 24 degree dead rise design and everything else is imitation.

[fund razor]

Yep...the ole' codgers all say it started here with the 24 degree dead rise design and everything else is imitation.Your point, along with Paul's makes me think of an idea. Maybe it has been done? An organizational/family tree type chart with the first (moppie, right?) and then the splashes from that below, and then the splashes from those below. Offshore family tree. I am pretty sure that my boat was born from a drunken weekend with a Monza, who was the nephew of the Moppie. :)

[Ratickle]

Awesome. Just like the first Fountain, from Excalibur, from Cary, from Donzi......

[Ratickle]

I like Gar Wood.


For #2?

[old377guy]

I want the family tree diagram. Rich, Bobby and Charlie could put it together or check it for accuracy.

[Ratickle]

Do we start with the Ark?

[fund razor]

Maybe the icons could check it, freeze frame can turn it into a poster, donate the posters to HORBA and HORBA could sell them as a fundraising effort.

[fund razor]

Do we start with the Ark? Just because YOU were around for the ark doesn't mean that WE want to start there.
Start with the first 24 degree V.

[old377guy]

Just because YOU were around for the ark doesn't mean that WE want to start there.
Start with the first 24 degree V.

Ha!

[boatme]

Don Aronow (should be no debate)
Pete Hleden (leader in cats above all for many years)
Stu Jones (reason Poker runs are what they are today)
Don Johnson (reason many got into this in the first place)
Terry Sobo ( you ever see one boat company grow and adapt like them )

[fund razor]

It gets much tougher after Don A.
If Don Johnson is in, I think that Michael Mann should be in. Seriously. I bought my first boat under the influence of that dam show. :)

[Ratickle]

From what I recall, Aronow had a lot of respect for Chuck Norris, and none for Don Johnson...


You were wondering who would be #100 though......:sifone:

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

Don ... King of V
Peter Hledin ... King of Cats
Carl K ... Made it all possible
Fabio ... great ingenuity in hulls, drives and Diesels
Gar ... Was going fast before all the others.

[Offshore Ginger]

Don ... King of V
Peter Hledin ... King of Cats
Carl K ... Made it all possible
Fabio ... great ingenuity in hulls, drives and Diesels
Gar ... Was going fast before all the others. Jim , good choice and mark did you choose Don Johnson because you once owned a 38 Scarab which i might add was a very nice boat , and paul , we need a pic of Peter H on here .

[C35]

don johnson was just passin thru. but he turned alot of ppl on to this sport. Incl me.

[Ratickle]

So, for number 2 through 5, 4 spots, we currently have nominees of;

Reggie Fountain
Carl K
Dick Bertram
Bob Nordskog
Ray Hunt
Gar Wood
Fabio Buzzi
Don Johnson
Peter Hledin
Stu Jones
Terry Sobo
Michael Mann
Rich Luhrs
Bobby Saccenti
John Crouse

[Ratickle]

Just because YOU were around for the ark doesn't mean that WE want to start there.
Start with the first 24 degree V.


Hey now.....:toetap05:



With todays power options it would have performed a lot better........

[Ratickle]

So, is that it for the nominees for 2 through 5???????


Going once.......

[Top Banana]

In 1958 in Newport Rhode Island, the America's Cup sailboat race with 12 meter boats was being held. I was zipping around the bay in my little 14 foot molded plywood outboard, that I raced out of Newport earlier in the summer in a 87 mile endurance race. There right before my eyes was this great little support boat that was used to "gofer" things needed on the 12 meters.

I saw it and made no connection at all. Dick Bertram saw it as he was serving as foredeck crew on one of the 12 meters. He noticed how the little boat just went back and forth in any kind of water from Newport harbor to the ocean. He found out who owned the boat... and who built it ....and asked C. Raymond Hunt if he could build a bigger version of the same boat....like a 30 footer.

He could and he did and the Deep Vee hull design was born. The new 30 footer won the Miami to Nassau race with Sam Griffith driving and Dick Bertram and Carleton Mitchell as crew. It took hours off the previous record. The boat was made a bit bigger...31 feet and made in glass and Bertram Yacht Co was founded. Those 31 footers went all over the world and many of them are still in service. One of the best ocean running designs of all time.

My top 5 would be:
1.) Aronow
2.) Bertram
3.) Kiekhaefer
4.) Jim Wynne
5.) Odell Lewis

[Ratickle]

With additions, for number 2 through 5, (4 total positions), we now have nominees of;

Reggie Fountain
Carl K
Dick Bertram
Bob Nordskog
Ray Hunt
Gar Wood
Fabio Buzzi
Don Johnson
Peter Hledin
Stu Jones
Terry Sobo
Michael Mann
Rich Luhrs
Bobby Saccenti
John Crouse
Odell Lewis
Jim Wynne

A total of 17 names for 4 positions.....


Anyone else come to mind? Let us know in the next couple days or we'll close 2 through 5 and start the review of their credentials before the judges and members start the voting....

[Top Banana]

Since you are looking for a total of 100. Maybe breaking them into time periods might be easier. The 60's / 70's / 80's / 90's / 00's

That gives a cleaner look at what each person actually contributed. Odell Lewis and Jim Wynne were the only people that actually drove the turbine boat back in the day......does that make them better than Doc Magoon who was great in outboards and sterdrives, but never raced a turbine?

Just a thought....anything you do to remember and honor these guys is very much appreciated.

[Ratickle]

That is certainly something worth discussing. But, I'm thinking the Top 10 may be the only ones we rank as a most influential placement. Then maybe the key players from every decade.

What do we do when we get to someone like Billy Martin, (or yourself:)) who is in every decade????


:sifone:

[Buoy]

That is certainly something worth discussing. But, I'm thinking the Top 10 may be the only ones we rank as a most influential placement. Then maybe the key players from every decade.

What do we do when we get to someone like Billy Martin, (or yourself:)) who is in every decade????


:sifone:

Somewhere in the 100 is also Martin Sanborn. I just remember him as the voice in the 90's

[Ratickle]

Guys and girls, I'd like to put this one on hold for a bit and start a nomination thread specifically for Vincenzo Balestrieri, who we just lost. His accomplisments in Offshore are incredible, may he rest, and race, in peace.

He would have easily been in my top 25 places of the Top 100 most influential of all time.

[Ratickle]

Well, I have almost finished the Inside story on Vincenzo, I think he has moved up to a Top 10 in my opinion of the Most Influential in the Top 100.

When you finish reading Part 2 of his history, we'll see if you agree with me.....

[Ratickle]

Well, since we finished up with Vincenzo's story,

The Count of Offshore, Part 1 of 2 - Serious Offshore (http://www.seriousoffshore.com/?p=1252)
The Count of Offshore Part 2 - Serious Offshore (http://www.seriousoffshore.com/?p=1293)

and are getting close to time for the Key West Worlds, it's time to start thinking about finishing out our Top 100 Of All Time by first finishing out our Top 5 of that Top 100. It was almost a no contest that Don Aronow was Number 1, so review the thread, review your choices, and let's get back on the discussion of who should be in those 4 remaining spots.

[Ratickle]

No more additions?????

Reggie Fountain
Carl K
Dick Bertram
Bob Nordskog
Ray Hunt
Gar Wood
Fabio Buzzi
Don Johnson
Peter Hledin
Stu Jones
Terry Sobo
Michael Mann
Rich Luhrs
Bobby Saccenti
John Crouse
Odell Lewis
Jim Wynne

[old377guy]

Bobby would be in the top 10 as he's still active.

[Top Banana]

Of all the names I see thrown out here, I am sorry to not see Sam Griffith. Sam was a real life WWII war hero. He was a wild man racing everything from planes to cars to boats, both inshore and offshore. He started some small things like the Gold Coast Marathon. This was a race that started at 79th st in Miami at the Pelican Harbor Yacht Club. Sam started that yacht club too! Anyway, the race was from Miami up to Palm Beach. Sounds cozy doesn't it? Except the race was run on the inside on the Intracoastal through the canals and the cement sea walls. Sam chose for his ride a 225 three point hydro that would run over 100 mph. Many young and upcoming drivers,cut their teeth on this race and many famous drivers took wrong turns and found themselves turning into a dead end canal at 80 or 90 and having to get their boat,stopped...NOW!

Sam survived two times that his plane was shot down and he exited with his parachute....except it didn't open. TWICE. He smuggled rubies out of India and when the war was over Crouse discovered that Sam had been awarded almost every medal except the Congressional Medal of Honor by America,France and England. When it came to offshore powerboat racing, Sam drove the boat that,Bertram owned and rode on, but it was,Sam who set the strategy and the race pace. He won the Miami Nassau race like 4 out of the first 5 times it was run.

Sam was the racer that Aronow and Odell and Brownie and most everyone else racing at that time, held the greatest respect level for among racers. His life was cut short by cancer. He died before his time and never had chance to build up the many wins others did later. Remember he was respected,so much the first championship given to the best racer anywhere in the world....it was called....... The SAM GRIFFITH TROPHY.

Please consider Sam Griffith when you are making your choices.

[Ratickle]

Well, we will consider this an official nomination for Sam. I always knew there was the Sam Griffith trophy, and have pictures in the articles about Vincenzo with it being presented to him. I don't know much about Sam himself, so will start to dig for additions to your input above.

[Top Banana]

7672076721
Well, we will consider this an official nomination for Sam. I always knew there was the Sam Griffith trophy, and have pictures in the articles about Vincenzo with it being presented to him. I don't know much about Sam himself, so will start to dig for additions to your input above.

Thank you. I realize that even I did not have him in the top 5 that I listed a few posts back. He has been off the radar screen for so long that often his feats are forgotten.

Here is a little shot of Sam in the early 60's driving a Bertram over in England for the Cowes race. This was around the time that Don was racing his Formula 233.

[Ratickle]

I found a little history on that photo. Is it accurate?


76732

Sam Griffith driving Blue Moppie in the 61 Cowes-Torquay - a race he never won!

[Ratickle]

From Class 1

MAN AND MACHINE AGAINST THE SEA
Hailed as the ‘the world’s most rugged ocean race’ the fabled Miami-Nassau races brought powerboat racing to the attention of the general public and signaled the beginnings of modern offshore racing. These races also provided the sport with its first hero - Sam L. Griffith.

Victory after 9 hours racing
The first Miami-Nassau race, run on May 6, 1956 was the brainchild of American race car promoter Capt. Sherman ‘Red’ Crise and yacht designer, Dick Bertram. Of the eleven intrepid pioneers who entered this now famous 184-mile race, eight went the distance to complete the race. The first boat home after nine hours 20 minutes, at an average speed of 19.7mph, was the Griffith-Bertram entry, Doodles II, a 34ft wooden Chris Craft with two 215hp Cadillac Crusader engines.


76733
The Miami Nassau race back in the 60's: Sam Griffith is shown driving while Richard Bertram and Jim Martenhoff sit on the transom


The Sam Griffith Trophy
Griffith was a larger than life character who made the sport his own in those early years. He was regarded as ‘the man’ and before his untimely death in 1963 he would win four Miami-Nassau races, break Gar Wood’s 41-year-old Miami-New York powerboat record and capture the Around Long Island Marathon. Many have since sought to emulate his skills and when Class 1 came of age with a sanctioned World Drivers’ Championship it was his name that was selected to adorn the trophy that is today the sport’s biggest prize.