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How we did it in the '70s

Southern Airboat Gallery Archives

Airboat Crossing
Patroling the Delta
383 stroker
r/c airboat hull.
out in front of tower camp
image1983
Whitebear

Whitebear

Silent Prop
R. I. P.
http://www.ursinecom.com/gallery/view_a ... 1970sSTYLE


Here are some shots of boats we built in the '70s. My how things have changed. No I'm not in the pictures but my partner is. Brings back memories of when you could make a living playing.

Things I notice are the single roll cage for weight savings, our own prop adaptor and the 3" EMT stacks we had chromed.

The ONLY thing welded on this boat is the engine stand, all the rest is brazed and none of our boats ever broke a single braze. We made the rudders and used the then new spray in foam in a can.

Nobody ever heard of teleflex steering on an airboat at that time.

We made our own trim tabs from electric window openers off the same car we snatched the 455 motors from.

Rigging was black tractor paint. Motor was standart VHT engine enamel from Fergusons. The rudders, seats & instrument panel was Dupont Imron.

Back in those days Gene at Fergusons Autoparts was our best friend and source of parts. Nobody ever heard of a Doscount Pep Pro cut rate store.

No pictures yet of home made trailers. We used mobile home trailer axles and tires back then. Cut the axle ends off and raised them several inches to get a low trailer bed.

Anyway, in these pictures and in those days, we made everything except the EMT and the prop.

RICK: I got them uploaded but in spite of anything I do it will not display them in ascending order 1-12. Can you help. It should display the #1 as the album cover photo please.
http://www.southernairboat.com/photopos ... hp/cat/534

Scotty
 
Scotty, that is awesome. Thanks for sharing it.

I have no idea how we all managed to get here. We drank water from garden hoses, rode around in the back of old pickup trucks, and used lead based paint on everything.
Looking back, when I soloed on my 16th birthday in '61 in a Piper Cub, that old airplane probably wasn't even currently certified as airworthy. It flew just fine though, and that was all that was required. My instructor signed-off on me and nobody ever asked any questions. It was the 60's, and the government didn't already have their noses in every step of our lives. They really were simpler times. I miss 'em.

feather
 
There was a lot of years there everyone ran Piper Cub engines in airboats. 65HP was a standard. Once in a long while some rich high dollar boy would show up with a 90 and everyone ogled at the pure horsepower. Folks suddered when the first 125s showed up. Nobody would ever need that kinda power and look at the gas they drank ! And DAMN, the weight !

In 74-5 We built our 455 Engines cause we could get them for near free out of wrecks. Yeh we sold used engines and none of our customers complained. Of course nobody expected new engines when a new airboat fully turn key sold for $3,000. That same 3 grand turned a decent saving wage profit for us too. We worked from a sand lot next door. We buillt our own mold in a shed made of welded garage doors. We worked in the open outdoors. We had no occupational license, no State or County license either, we just built boats.

These pictures were of one of the boats we built for my personal boat, but then a friend decided he needed not just a boat but THAT boat and I sold it to him before I did much more than a shakedown ride or two in it. Also we ran all of our boats before we let anyone else buy them. We were mean in our shakedown rides to, real mean. We actually TRIED to break it.

In the days when we were building the Buick powered boats, a person who ran a car motor was considered in a social status somewhere just under those who rode shotgun on a honeywagon.

What a life! Yeh I miss it !

Scotty
 
Scotty, you have put a big ol smile on my face. Thanks for sharing that. I love old photos.

Those are some very modern-looking airboats for back then.

Do you suppose any of them are still running around out there?
 
Most of the folks we sold bpoats to back then are long since demised. If not they are too old to be boating now. Maybe a couple of our engines might be collecting dust somewhere. I doubt it though. Times change and folks want more newer modernized rigs. I heard that ONE of our Slick hulls was still around back in the late 90s. Nothing I have heard of since then.

I tried something not evident from the images. I mounted my rudders "upside down" according to the then current thinkiing because I wanted the widest point of the rudder to be in the most wind. Everybody else said Id dragg the rudders off but it never happened. Of course back then when I was younger I was usually airborne leaving a bank and for a couple boatlengths out in the water. I have slowed some in my old age, in fact I could be DRIVEING MISS DAISY now.

Looking back, old things did seem to work better than new things do now though.

Scotty
 
Thanks for the pics Scotty.....I just love that stuff. Like I say all the time...We're no happier now with a big screen TV, Electronic Fuel Injection, Turbo/Superchargers, Titanium, Carbon-Fiber, GPS, Laptops, and every other toy imaginable, then when we had our first bicycle. And people are no more intelligent now then they were thousands of years ago....We just get to save time stealing ideas from our forefathers.

Good Stuff
Felber
 
I really like the shape of the hull, Do you feel they handled nice? It's just that I thought "that" shape for the river I'm going to be running should work pretty nice. I would put the top width at our maximum legal road width of 8' 6", and shallow deckover 15 to 17' long. Kinda like Waterthunders but 8" wide at the bottom at back and 3" flare to tops at back. The rest shaped like yours. I just like it. Great Pics! Doesn't look like things have changed that much however things have just become a bit more refined due to trial and error, education and ongoing development in the industry. Great Stuff 8)
 
Cold, that hull was 7' X 12'.

Due to the bottom it handeled like a dream for frogging and quick turns. It was stable but not docile for long strait deep water runs. In turns all you had to do was coax it a bit and it did the rest, it would spin on a dime at any speed. Thats NOT for everyone and it would flat scare some. I loved it. It took a bit of counterstere at times just as any performance car or even airplane does.

The narrow nose was a god send in deep grass etc except where you have sawgrass mounds. The wide noses will divert from the mounds and the narrow nose will wedge in between them. I have however chased hog and deer with it and never had a problem catching either. The narrow nose was good at the high speed end as well where the wide nosed boats tended to become airborne or at least more sensitive to gusts and stuff. Wind would push the back of the boat but not the front of it.

If I were to comment on it for todays deep water ride use , it would need a higher transom and sides for the detroit V-8 stuff. The 455 Buick was about the same weight as a SBC but that hull wouldnt have been suitable for a BBC. Caddys were way too heavy for it. It was incredible with a 4 cylinder aircraft though. We sold some that were rigged with 160 aircraft power and they were awesome. Several were took out in the ocean even. They sat on top of the water like a cork.

So for river work assuming you have a lot of turns and diversions that hull would have been perfect cause of the quick handeling. High flotation for heavy loads was not its strong point though.

Ferlber, you have it right. I find I can do nicely without a lot of the toys out there today, though I use them, I'm not lost without them. Thanks for the comments man, you got it right.

Scotty
 
Whitebear

Looking and reading your post brings back old memories of Melbourne (Eau Gallie) and the Sarno Marsh. Just wondering if you or anyone else remembers when they started H&H Airboats (Hopwood & Henderson) or the Old Toms Fish Camp out Sarno extention? Does Toms still exist? Some of the old names I remember are Grady George and The father and son Fortenberry’s, the son always run what we called the Bumble Bee. It was a Corvair motor, which we thought was just a step above a VW.
A couple of other names are Michael Brantley, David McCormick and Tilton Hussey. Just woundering if anyone knows them or what hapened to them?
 
KJC, I knew (kind of) Bob Hopwood. He gave me my first airboat ride when I moved to Florida, in a boat he called "Goldfinger". Scared the daylights out of me but the fascination stuck. I met but did not know Albert Henderson. I knew one of his daughters though and maybe one of his sons. Its been lot of years since then. I bought my first airboat from H&H airboats. Was a Gore with a 125 HP O-290. Word had it back then that Bob Hopwood was the face on the Gerber Babyfood jars.

There was a song about the little fish camp west of town, might still be in the Waffle House Jukebox. Not sure it was about Tom's but could have been. Could have been about Camp Holly or Kim Hannas place. Don't think I ever went to Tom's myself and I dont know any of the folks you mentioned. At least I dont think I do. In my old age with significant CRS, I always lay down a qualifier nowdays. I have met a lot of people over the years and I have always been on the move so its entirely possible I know a bunch of folks I don't realize I know. Names are not my strong point. I frequently see folks I know thatI know but can't put a name with them.

Details get fogged by the years but it sure was a nice place to live back then. Made a lot of friends living there. I feel I made a good choice to move there after I got my discharge from the Navy.

Scotty
 
I live one road behind where old timers use to be I still hear stories about Grady, Morsette, Winette and the Fortenbary's I know the son is still around. I was talking to some old EauGallie river rat's this weekend. Everyone was talking about all the old cabins like Sugar Shack, Gator Den, Dog House, the two story house boat and a host of others. I was fortunate as a kid to camp out several times at the dog house and Gator den. I'm grateful I grew up around here when I did, I probably would have fit in better in those day's but at least I caught the tail end of it. The whole conversation came up when I told them about an old trail I took that goes from Wolf Creek all the way to 192 I guess it aint been run much since the dam was put in and the cabins were destroyed. There is a great book written by one of the local river rats called something like (tales of a Florida fish camp) there is nothing cooler then reading a book of Florida good ole boy stories that you have heard growing up or known off. The whole book is based on airboating and fishing in Brevard in the early years.
 
Waterthunder I used to eat lunch regularly at the little shack at the end of the WTAI radio road, (is that Jones Road?) turn right go to the end, its on the left. Later they add a MX track called the Blue Heron. I remember the owners were Sonny and for the life of me I can't remember his wife. I even played guitar and sang in there a few weekend nights. Everybody said it was one of the roughest places in town, but I just never had any trouble at all in there. I think it was called Uncle Bills back then. I always found friendly people that were quick with a laugh. I suppose if you went looking for it you could have found trouble just as quick.

Back then I was playing and singing in quite a few places around town to have some extra money to run the boat and go camping and fishing.

Scotty
 
Yep that's my neck of the woods. There use to be a fish camp out here, both of the canals go out to Lake Washington.
 
Waterthunder
A LOT of years ago A guy named RAY used to live there. I won't mention his last name for privacy etticut. PM me if your interested. Ray had a BIG RED, I mean Firetruck RED! Boat with one evil hopped up 220 GPU on it. He always made a GREAT showing at the Sarno airboat races. I never knew him well but I did know him. Always liked the guy. Seems his family ran a roofing business back then. If thats your neck of the woods, your in some good company out there, save one. I always wanted to move out there, but could never find out WHO had the lots for sale. Likely now its so pricey a working man can't buy in.

Scotty
 
Ray still lives on my street their roofing business has been in Brevard since the 50's. He is a very unique character that's for sure he goes out in his airboat pretty much every other day. Your right the property around me is way out of reach for the working man. I got really lucky and bought mine for a song before everything went stupid in price. Actually when I bought it everyone said it was too much for swamp land. I bought mine at 21K now the same piece costs 200K. I'm sure the tax man will drive me out before too long my taxes are aproaching my house payment!
 
The Sugar Shack!!!

I haven’t thought about that in many many years. That was a castle in the sky. It even had a two seater out house between the main rooms. The room on one side had many beds and bunk beds for sleeping and the other room was a kitchen, living room and card room. Gin and 31 was the game of choice. We would hunt on the public land around Winder; run trout lines for catfish and soft shell turtles. We sold the turtle for a dollar a pound at Tom’s fish camp. This helped for gas. Gas was about .25 cents a gallon. The Sugar Shack had electric lights (12 volts), Gas and Kerosene heat and a gas refrigerator. This was high class at that time. When anyone pulled up, they parked under the camp and we had battery cables hanging down so you just clipped them onto your boat battery for lights the more boats the better. You have to understand this camp was built up about fifteen feet above the water. We left the doors unlocked, you used what you wanted and left what you brought and didn’t use. I guess that is all gone but for the memories. 90 hp and 125 hp on the Gore hull were the norm, Waterthunder you are right about the setup of a boat. I have been in three or four 90hp Gore boats with two 15 year olds and run dry all day.
 
Whitebear wrote " I met but did not know Albert Henderson. I knew one of his daughters though and maybe one of his sons."

Well, Albert is still around and will probably be at the monthly meeting of the Brevard Air and Powerboat Club at our clubhouse on Sweetwater Dr. in West Melbourne on June 7 at 730pm. Albert is one of the original members of this club.

Fellow airboaters are welcome to come to the meeting and and meet him and other old timers and swap a few lies. (oops, I mean tell stories)lol

Vern
 
Short Round

Thats fantastic ! I really need to join back up when I get back in the U.S. I was a member years back but I travel for more than a year at a time most times. I've been here 4 years now. Hard to be active in a club when your never there. I remember the club house being built and all the personal contributions from members to make it happen. Both money and skills. I wasn't a member that far back though.

Folks who don't spend time listening to these old timers miss so much of their/our heritage.

Thanks man

Scotty
 
I use to stay at the Dog House, the cabin Frank Winette was involved with I know it had a few different names but we called it the dog house because there was a sign on it with a picture of Snoopy laying on top his dog house. Even as a kid I knew it referred to an escape from the wives. That place was huge after the addition was done it would sleep 12. It was burned down in 83 right after the boat wreck. The last none floating cabin that I'm aware of in north river and south of Winder was the Gator den. I know it wasn't burnt down till after 88. Man I wish they were all still around like bulldozer for some reason I never got the same feeling from camping out at dozer. There are more rumors to who and why ALL the cabins burned down then there are about the JFK assassination.
 
There used to be a 2 story cabin on Buldozer. It burned just before I was running that end of the river back then. I remember pilfering the remains with an old metal detector. Found pull tabs, nails screws, melted siverware, and oh the metal foil condom wrappers LOL !

I've heard about as many tales about the burning as the cabin had nails.

Scotty
 
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