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Mike
yes in that pic and also Greg's pic there seem to be snaps in that area. the red boat definetly looks to have a tonneau cover there in the back. Yes I can see a 72 having gauges but on an early OB what did they have the need for gauges?? tach and fuel site gauge in the floor in 72 maybe trim, temp,speedo as the OB were more advanced
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Matty,
Is it pretty much confirmed that ONLY the I/O 16's had the floor vent and NOT the OB hulls? The reason I ask is if that is fact then there is no reason the picture's I posted could not have been the first experimental OB built by the factory. Someone on the board with intimate knowledge of what Mercury was offering for an OB back then would have to provide some insight but based on how busy the factory was building 16 Ski Sporter's at that timeframe, the only reason they might have experimented with possibly building an OB version of the 16 was because of a pending "new Mercury" OB being offered. If 1968 would have been the 1250, then the question for the historians is what would Merc have had in 1964/65?
Would a powerful enough eggbeater have been offered then (1965) to warrant the factory starting to prototype a 16 OB?
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Greg,
a color photo of that 16 would be great, the records show 452 as an outboard filed in with skisporter records. so 452 would most likely be a LH helm and skisporter deck. but the cutouts for the floor vent and dash plate would not be there why would you cut a hole to ventilate the sealed well?
and a factory outboard would have the small hole behind the driver for the control cables.
The 67 catalog makes no mention of the baby not until the 70 catalog does any mention of the baby appear.
hull 452 sold in nov of 67 basically 68 . alot happening in 68 ownership changes the model lineup expanded .the first production baby was popped in aug of 1970.
that would give the Chisholms a year to to settle in and a year to develop the baby.
I don't think donzi gave any consideration to OB motors or who was developing what the baby was all about price point. most if not all of them left the factory unrigged.
from what I know of merc eggbeater. When they went to black paint they were black and silver then they went to black silver and red then black silver and blue the real early ones had kiekaffer on them.
this could all be bull**** and the negative of that black and white picture of the 16 could have be reversed when developed :eek: :p
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nope not a reversed developement. maybe a dopplganger from a parallel evil universe/?? i would say it is a valid left hand helm factory 16 ob 1967
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Well it looks like 1967 is a lock for early 16 OB's but I'm still wondering about the 1965 hull that Dr Benz sent me photos of. Here are a couple of pics of 1964 Merc OB's, the 850 and 1000.
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well a lock for atleast one.
Maddad,
If you get a chance measure the distance from where the inner strakes end to the transom that will give some idea of time frame.
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i'd like to see a positive hull # verification before we authenticate this...
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hey Greg was is this a Kennedy relative's sexual assault trial ??? what gives with the green blockouts
what are you hiding?? ;)
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Agree Buizilla, but the purported 1965 16 OB hull I posted a pic of is now in Germany so no hull # verification would be possible. The only thing I can say is that Dr Lou Benz, who no longer posts on this site, was very matter of fact about the hull's history and the involvement of Gerry Walin back in 1965. Here is the snippet post.........and a Brownie tie in. Hmmmm
10-02-2001
lou
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 113
Big Bad Donzi: The boat was made this way by Donzi, Walin was a Donzi & Evinrude Dealer up north and sold both inboards and outboards. Don knew him very well. This was Gerry's personal boat He put a 135 hp Evinrude Starflite motor on it. Brownie said that Gerry died in an accident, I purchased the boat in 1976 when I worked for Bertam in Miami.
Matty, those are block outs of the top secret Surface Tension motors which I intend on using extensively for my board racing activities.
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greg,
i'm glad it is a skunkworx for surface tension and board racing
i didn't want to see you pop up on court tv :p
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Does anyone know when Evinrude came out with the "Starflite" series of OB's? That might help authenticate that the 1965 hull was the first ever 16 OB.
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Not measured yet matty, but here's a picture.
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Mike,
hard to tell from the angle of the pic. the 16 bottom was re-worked sometime in the early 70's. I don't have the exact measurement in front of me right now. But the original Walters design on the skisporter has short inner strakes ending like 3 feet or more from the transom. The baby and the early 70's 16 skisporter have inner strakes that are longer ending like 2 feet or so from the transom. There was a grumble green 73 or 74 16 skisporter with an e-drive for sale here a year or so ago it had the longer strakes.
Greg has the measurement on one of his babies. That would be the way to tell a production baby from an early i/o or proto type baby.
I am tracking all this info down as it seems that the designers that took over after Walters and Don left felt that the inner strakes needed to be lengthened. This was also done on the Hornet as well as adding some deadrise.
I would also like to expierence the ride in a 16 with the longer strakes to see if the ride or handling is any different from the ride I know in the 16 with the short strakes.
here's a look at the short strakes from the famous R. Stones yellow 16 air shot .
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Matty and maddad,
It's hard to believe that Mike is no longer with us but here is his post on his OB. I tell you, between my brush with death and then Mike's tragedy, it really took the wind out of my sail on the Surface Tension project this year.
mattboy, Just went out and measured mine, 1976 #151. Strake ends 21" from transom. Michael "HIGH LIFE"