Donald Prescott
College Station, Texas
1969 15t
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Yes, my
father bought this boat from Southwest Marine in Bryan while I was
in High School (circa 1970).
Gary Sherrill & Juan Longoria had used it as
their race boat (just fooling
around on Lake Somerville, I think) and I
believe it had twins (70 or
85s)on it, then they installed a 135 (150?)
Chrysler with huge chrome
megaphone exhausts and speed-prop. I remember that
the gearing was so high that
by the time Juan could pull Gary up on slalom
he was deaf and out of sight!
(Memory is definitely improved by 30 years.)
That was the set-up that flew
when Gary hit a small wave at speed. I guess
that put some sense back into
them and we bought it with a 70 Chrysler
installed. It would do an
indicated 40+ and put in lots of ski hours. It was
originally a light metallic
blue, but the gelcoat was not very good nor was
the metallic flake, so I
repainted it in the late 70s (the bottom color you
see in the photos) then added
the topsides paint (Imron) in early eighties.
Retired the Chrysler when CD
ignition parts became too expensive, and bought
a '78 Mercury 115 in 1983
which has had it's share of troubles. Re-ringed
all and replaced a couple of
pistons in '85, rebuilt the bottom & replaced
all gaskets last year, now
have some carburetor & timing, plus lower unit
alignment. Then I need to
rebuild the transom.
Looking forward to it- It's
already given us loads of fun.
Cheers, Donald
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