16 OB Baby Owners - How Many Are Left?

[linckeil]

here's a '76 for sale in mass. listed on ebay right now....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1976-...orcev4exp=true

[linckeil]

here's a guy in mass selling one. its on ebay - here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1976-...orcev4exp=true

i asked the seller for the HIN, but havent heard back yet.

[Greg Guimond]

for the record 16 baby production numbers are "169" from aug of 1970 to april of 1978. a production baby would have rh helm most came all white with blue stripes but other colors were produced. there were one if not more prototypes before that production run the first documented on was in 1967, plus the mid 90's newer one's


I know of a few locally plus on lake george I will check the club's records. here is one from lake george with yellow stripes very uncommon.

http://www.lgdonziclassic.com/galler..._5752.JPG.html

Draggin it TTT. I never realized that the first prototype 16 Baby was back in 1967

[Greg Guimond]

While I was searching for weedeater info, I ran across the interchange below. Should be of interest to the 6 or so folks on this forum that have the 16 OB Baby model. In essence it creates a nice bit of controversy about when the first ever factory 16 OB Baby was actually built. lou indicates he owns the first 16 OB Baby ever built, a 1965 "stinkin" wacker! Anyone know how to contact 'ol lou? He had a lot to say 12 years ago The attached picture is of the alleged 1965 16 Baby.


10-01-2001
lou
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 113
BIG BAD DONZI, my 1965 16 outboard belonged to Gerry Walin he was the first owner, I also have a money clip with the starflight IV that was given to him by Evinrude for setting a speed record. It was one of the first Donzis built.
__________________
Lou


10-01-2001
BIG BAD DONZI
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 128
Lou, if Gerry is still around, ask him if he had the transom customized hinself in order to make it outboard compatible. Production Donzi 16s did not leave the factory that way in 65. What outboard speed record does the clip refer to? (Mercs have ruled as long as I can remember)


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.
__________________
Lou


10-02-2001
BIG BAD DONZI
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 128
Lou, that was a hell of an achievement by Gerry hitting those speeds back in the 60's. That Evinrude ad is great and your clip is a true piece of history. Still do not recall any outboard 16s being produced in 65 but Don did special things for his friends and this might have been one of those. All the Best

10-03-2001
Tito
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 21
BIG GRIZZLY I know Lou and I have seen his 16 outboard run. I have been wrenching on boats since I worked for River Marine in 63, and he may be too modest to tell you, but his donzi outboard blew my 1970 H&M Donzi 16 away. My boat did an honest (and scary) 65 on my gps. His boat has an evinrude V-4 135 that is a factory race motor it has four exhaust pipes the size of softball bats and only a two bladed prop. It sounds like an airplane and it SCREAMS! What ever has been done on that motor is working right. I also was a non believer. He also owns a wicked 45zx and has a SH*T load of toys.
__________________
Tito

Tito ; Thanks for your comment. I have been meaning to take a picture for awhile but have just not done it. I have had that boat since 76 and I am so familiar with it that I sometimes take it for granted. I am in Chicago and will take and post detailed pictures when I get back to Florida in December . It is just like any other 16 but outboard with a real interesting motor from the mid 60's.
__________________
Lou

I left Donzi on Halloween, 1967, and until then, we had not built any stinkin' outboard 16's. It was a product of the Chisholm brothers after the recession of 1970. Jr., your time table is a little off. Aronow, 64 up to April 65. Teleflex, April 65 to Halloween 67. Chisholm brothers, Halloween 67 to Genth.
__________________
BROWNIE

[mattyboy]

Greg,

you may want to search the 135 hp starflite the only reference i see is to the live and let die boat 1973
here is a link on Rude history

it also shows the speed record in the 1960s

http://www.evinrude.com/Historical-Timeline/

hull 452 was an all red hull white deck red stripe started in july of 67 and finished in aug of 67 invoiced in nov of 67 it is also mark EXPER I would imagine for experimental it is the first recorded OB 16

you have posted pics of what I believe to be this hull it is a LH helm boat at that time they were going ape**** in production no time to re tool the deck to a RH helm

the pic is bw and there are notes about the OB well

the other pics you posted of lou's boat show some signs of being an I/O hull like the floor vent I don't think they would cut that in an OB boat but who knows . without a visual inspection of Lou's boat one will never know

one thing to keep in mind a production Baby OB has longer inner strakes than it's skisporter sister this was done in the 1970's the change eventually made it over to the skisporter.

[mattyboy]

Greg

the first time I see the 16 OB from the factory is the 71 brochure. I have to find the 70 brochure to see if it is in there

from the LGDCC library

http://www.lgdonziclassic.net/pdfs/1971Brochure.pdf

[Greg Guimond]

Very interesting feedback Matty and really nice to see well preserved and formatted documentation. I can remember receiving that exact package in the mail. I was able to track down Dr Lou Benz and he kindly provided the following email which has some really cool (to me) info on the first 16 OB........read from the bottom up.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Lou Benz
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011
To: Guimond, Greg
Subject: RE: 1965 16 OB
These are pictures of the boat when it was picked up, I planned to send the
hull out to be media blasted so everything was removed and in boxes. I THINK
I may still have the bare dash panel as I forgot to put it in the boat.

-----Original Message-----
From: greg.guimond
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011
To:
Subject: RE: 1965 16 OB
Thanks Lou,
If you can dig up any photos of your old 16 OB that would be great to see.
Cheers

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Lou Benz
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011
To: Guimond, Greg
Subject: RE: 1965 16 OB
No contact information. Here are some pictures

-----Original Message-----
From: greg.guimond
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011
To:
Subject: RE: 1965 16 OB
Must have been a collector. Do you have his contact email or phone?

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Lou Benz
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011
To: Guimond, Greg
Subject: RE: 1965 16 OB
I sold the boat over a year ago, the man that bought it was from Germany he
had some agents pick up the boat. When the agents got here they also bought
a Magnum Missile from me that belonged to Don Aronow but I did not hear from
him after that.

-----Original Message-----
From: greg.guimond
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011
To:
Subject: RE: 1965 16 OB
I am going one step further then just the bench seat concept. I am creating
a set of hidden rumble seats as well. Your comments below are very
interesting. How long ago did you sell the boat? Is there anyway that you
may have kept the Germans contact info?

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Lou Benz
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011
To: Guimond, Greg
Subject: RE: 1965 16 OB
I do not know where I have the pictures they are photographs not digital, I
will look. I don't have any of the boat at rest in the water. Basically it
was an inboard that was converted to outboard, Brownie said that he did not
build outboards when he worked at Donzi but the pictures and documentation
prove otherwise as that boat had only one previous owner Gerry Walin and was
titled to him in 65 as an outboard. It had a 1965 90 hp Evinrude starflite
with a custom exhaust that looked like four baseball bats sticking out of
the back of the engine. The same type that was used by Walin to break the
speed record

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Lou Benz
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011
To: Guimond, Greg
Subject: RE: 16 OB
I sold the boat to a German, the boat was
custom made for Gerry Walin and was a modified inboard and probably the
first outboard built. I did not want to sell the boat but he talked me out
of it. I now have a Donzi spitfire.
Lou

[mattyboy]

Greg

it may very well be a 65 that was converted there are no clamshell vents on the rear deck . The factory very well may have modified it they also modified a 19 hornet hull race boat to an OB in the very early days of Donzi.

[Greg Guimond]

That makes sense that it was an experimental conversion from an I/O to an O/B given the air vent location beneath the seat in the cockpit area. Matty, what year is the first known 16 I/O again?

[Greg Guimond]

I am on a flight to LA so have time to do some more research at 30,000 feet. Here is the picture of the 1973 Starflight 135 that was used in Bond. I'm going to poke around now to see how far the Starflight series may have gone back before 1973

[Greg Guimond]

Well this would indicate that the Starflight series went back into the 60's but no mention of the 135HP model......hmmmm


Evinrude Starflite

---

In 1958, OMC re-introduced 4-cylinder models to the line of Evinrude and Johnson outboard motors- the first since the discontinuation for 1951 of the opposed quad cylinder Evinrude Speedifour. Instead of an opposed configuration, the new 4-cylinder models were a 90-degree V-4 design. The 1958 and 1959 offerings using this new design featured 70.7 cubic inches of displacement, producing 50 horsepower at 4000 RPM. Evinrude's version was advertised as the Starflite V-4, later dubbed the "Fat-Fifty" gained from a fuel economy. The Johnson division advertised their version as the Super Sea-horse V-50. Both Evinrude and Johnson models featured chrome-accented and well-styled cowlings, were mechanically identical, and were complemented by non-electric start models with less trim (Evinrude's Four-Fifty and Johnson's Sea-horse V-50).

In 1960, displacement and rating of these motors increased to 89.5 cubic inches and 75 HP at 4500 RPM. A high-output generator named the "Unicharger" by Evinrude was added for 1961. Rather than a separate pulley-actuated generator, the Unicharger model featured a stator mounted below the flywheel. Additional models featuring electric-shift (Evinrude's "Selectric Shift" and Johnson's "Electramatic Drive") were added in 1962. After this year, Evinrude's 75 HP model with electric-shift was known as the Starflite 75, the manual shift model as the Speedifour 75.

In 1961, Gale added a V-4 model to their model line. Inheriting the Sovereign moniker from the 40 HP, twin cylinder Big Twin-derived model, the Gale V-4 was similarly a top-of-the-line model. It featured a styled motor cover different from the Evinrude or Johnson V-4 but was similar in many aspects.

In 1964, a 60 HP (at 4500 RPM), 70.7 cubic inch, manual-shift and 90 HP-rated 89.5 cubic inch, electric-shift model was added. Johnson's version of the 90 HP model was advertised as the Johnson Meteor; Evinrude's version as the 90-S. 1966 brought an upgrade of the 75 HP and 90 HP models to 80 and 100 HP, respectively. All models were available in both short-(15") and long-(20") drive shaft models. The diversity and continued production of OMC's V-4 line of outboard motors make for great ease in locating, swapping, and upgrading parts such that an experienced outboard mechanic may assemble a long-lasting and sturdy motor that may well perform above and beyond its original factory rating and specifications.



Technical Specs

---

50 to 100 HP, 70.4 to 89.5 cubic inches displacement (depending on year), 4 cylinders

[Greg Guimond]

Ok did a little more forensics work and took a closer look at Lou's email and he says the 16 Baby actually had an Evinrude Starflite 90 when Gerry Walin owned it in 1965, not a 135. Lou says he changed motors over to a 135 when he took ownership of the 16 Baby in 1976. Here is a picture of a 1965 Evinrude Starflite 90-S so that narrows it down some more. Now to find the race version of that motor.

[Greg Guimond]

Ok, may be onto something here.........found this post from 2008 on another forum


October 19th, 2008, 05:32 PM woodbutcher1953

---

Join Date Oct 2008

1964 Evinrude Starflite 90-S

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and looking forward to checking in on it from now on. The question I have is that I just bought a old fiberglass boat, it's a Devil Ray by Custom Craft. The motor that came on the boat is the Starflite 90-S. My question is, what can any of you out there tell me about it ? I've got some experience with outboards, buy almost everything I have dealt with had been older than this, and Mercury. I had a friend tell me it looked like it had a special lower unit on it, and the motor might be something special. I didn't know if Evinrude made a factory racing motor that they sold to the public, or if what I've got is a standard Evinrude. Also, is this an electric shift motor ? It looks to be from the controls with the single lever and three buttons on top of the control box. I'm really just interested in knowing more about it. Thanks for any help you can give me. David

[Greg Guimond]

Ok here is a confirming ad that shows the race version of the 1965 Evinrude 100-S Starfire that Lou refers to pretty specifically in his email and thread replies. And here in writing is a reference to Gerry Walin and his use of the Starflite 90-S race motor with the baseball bat exhausts in the left photo to set a speed record in 1966.

Entrop built another boat, Starflite III, and on September 17, 1960, using a 90 cubic inch Evinrude, he flew across Lake Havasu, Arizona, at 122.979 mph. By this time, Strang had left Mercury and was offering technical advice to Entrop and his crew. Strang soon joined OMC, eventually becoming Chairman of the Board. Entrop built Starflite IV, but retired from racing without ever running it. In 1966, Gerry Walin took Starflite IV through the straightaway traps at a speed of 130.929 mph on Lake Havasu.

[dsparis]

Check with these guys they'll be able to answer your questions.


http://www.boatracingfacts.com/home/index.html