18' Switzer Wing

Rick Connolly of Arizona
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    I figured I would show a few "before" pictures as well. Ron Hill spotted the
boat in Lake Elsinore and was very helpful with info helping me to aquire it.

As you can see it had a rough life sitting outside for 15 or so years. Southern
California was a little kinder
to it than other parts of the country would have been.
I looked at it long and hard before I bought it.  I didn't see anything that couldn't
be overcome/repaired.
   The deck is in rough shape, but suprisingly the hull was
actually in very good shape for it's age. Cleaning out the boat and finding dead
rodent skeletons and such is always
a pleasure.

I found a few intersting things out about this wing. It was  made in 1966 and the
16th of the18 foot Switzer wings built per
Bob Switzer. I talked to Ken Kitson
and appears like it was
originally his Miss Diablo II. A few years later Ken traded
it back in to Mercury Marine for the lighter, (300lbs or so) and more successful
Miss Diablo III which is also being restored.


Bob Massey then aquired the wing from Mercury after Ken traded it in. Bob raced it
for many years in the early 70's and then apparently sold it.  
The wing had, "ass repairs
by Roger Hoover" written on the side.  
I always thought it would be great to talk to
Roger to find out
more about the boat. Through a stroke of luck someone on Danny's
Power Cat website was related to Roger and put me in touch with him.   What are the
odds of that ?? Danny is also the one who first told me
about the boat. Ironically Roger
lives about 45 minutes away from me
and is a wealth of knowledge about Bob Massey
and the boat.


As you can tell it takes a lot of people to help with a project and
make it come together. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone !!

P.S. - I was sleeping late the next day after driving all day to pick
the boat up in Lake Elsinore. My wife went outside to get the newspaper
and saw the wing sitting on the trailer. She then came into to the house
and lightly knocked on my head saying, "Just trying to see if anyone is
home inside there. What were you thinking when you bought this one ??"
Rick Connolly,
Phoenix, Arizona

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