Historic Outboard journeys in Australia

[larysumi]

Hi GasGasGas,

Interesting stuff. Would you happed to know how they Caribbean steering wheel centres were made International plastic's. I have one that is in need of restoration or copying. It would interesting to see some old factory photo's and if any of the tooling was still around.

Cheers, Michael.

[GasGasGas]

Hi GasGasGas,

Interesting stuff. Would you happed to know how they Caribbean steering wheel centres were made International plastic's. I have one that is in need of restoration or copying. It would interesting to see some old factory photo's and if any of the tooling was still around.

Cheers, Michael.

Hi Michael,

Because of their association with Mercury, all Caribbean, Bertram & Pride boats were fitted with (push-pull, rack & pinion) 'Ride Guide' steering systems.  Ride Guide (Quicksilver) were a division of Mercury.  Something like the attached photo.  Don't know where you would source one from but hope this helps?  If you only needed the 'plaque' that goes in the centre of the wheel, you could probably get a decal made up for low cost.

Cheers

[Greg]

Hi GasGasGas
It seems as though you may have a source of information re international plastics (your father) I have a keen interest in Dorsett/Caribbean fiberglass boats, my project can be viewed at
(fitouttolaunch ) one word goggle search. I would dearly love to know the true history of these boats because of my involvement in this project, but generally speaking it would be great to see the history of fiberglass boats in OZ as I believe that this will be all lost with the passing of the years.
There must be a huge amount of information out there and it may be an unreasonable request trying to get information from you, but if you are willing I am sure many would appreciate anything you may be able to pass on.
Getting to the subject of my boat even though it is an inboard there are some who may be interested. Progress has been slowed by moving house again, Christmas, family, visits, loosing focus etc etc. I am now getting back on track, the conversion of the Isusu engine to marine is proving to be very time consuming but I feel I am getting there. It is however nowhere near installation. After that is in,should be full steam ahead.
Cheers for now
Greg

[GasGasGas]

Hi Greg,

The boat looks brilliant!  Good job.  I'll send a link to my father, he'll like to see it.  By all means, send any questions to me and I'll relay them onto him....he's more than happy to discuss and has brilliant memory.

Back onto Hans....A mate of dad's (another previous International Marine employee) is Bob Ford.  Bob keeps a large file on Hans with various photos & clippings.  Dad picked it up frmo Bob yesterday.  As soon as I get my hands on it, I'll be setting up a well overdue WikiPedia site specifically for Hans Tholstrup.

Never forget waking up in my bunk bed one morning (down at Portsea) with a giant hairy arm hanging off the top bunk...I jumped up & ran out of the bedroom to alert dad.  It was Hans.  He'd driven a tinny from Tasmania that night, arriving (sea sick) at about 3:30 am.  He'd called dad, tied up the boat to Portsea Pier and made his way to our house.  I helped him on his way the following day & checked out the boat.

Will be good to get him onto Wiki with some accurate info & photos.  He's a legend.

[Greg]

Thanks for you reply GasGasGas, I "googled"  Hans but could not get a firm handle on his recent history I`m curious to what has become of him as I too remember his adventures both on land and water.
To more selfish matters I wonder if you could ask you father the following.
1.Does he know how fiberglass powerboats sales began in Aust.
2. Was Arch Spooner  of( international marine ?) the father of the fibreglass powerboat industry in Aust.
3. What was the original main brands of fiberglass powerboats
4. Does he know the history of the Dorsett,Caribbean relationship
and finally
5. does he know what Dorsett models were made/imported here and what they were called
Its a lot of info.any help will be appreciated.
Cheers for now

[GasGasGas]

Hey Greg, sorry I haven't gotten back to you.  Will have to wait till I see my father in a couple of weeks to get more info on early fiberglass manufacturers.  Will follow up your questions though.
Cheers.

[Chair]

Hello all, well we just struck gold, I got an email from Hans himself today and he tried to join the board, but a bug has inhibited him. I'll try to get him to chat with us, but he wants to find his boat. I'm sure an update will follow shortly
Chair

[senojn]

Wonderful news David .
This will take us on another tangent !

[MERCMAN]

Have you seen the number of "hits" that this particular Thread has had to date?

Well over 14'700 so far. Wow!

MERCMAN.

[andrewallan]

Prob spammers.....not wishing to be a "downer"!

But, it's great to see more interaction.

Huay

[austral]

So what ever happened with Hans ?