MOB News

10th Anniversary Constantine Super Meet

July 14, 15 & 16

 

By Rick Eichrodt

 

 

This year the Constantine Super meet celebrated its 10th anniversary.  Dan Jones volunteered to lead up the Super Meet and what a wonderful job he did.  This year started out with some rain on Friday morning but then the skies cleared up in the afternoon and the rest of the weekend was a hit, as was the Meet.  2006 was the 50th Anniversary of the Champion Hot Rod and Roger Dykehouse called on all Hot Rod owners to get those motors off the saw horses and back out on the water.  In all, 18 Champion Hot Rod’s made the trip to Constantine Michigan and some of them went out on the St. Joseph River for the Event.  The report is in another article submitted by Roger.  The banks of the St. Joseph River were packed with everything from motors, displays, trailers and boats.  The Constantine Super meet, again, was held at the American Legion property.  Constantine is located along SR131 and the St. Joseph River about 10 miles north of the Indiana Michigan state line.  This event has become an international event as we had the longest distance traveled winner coming from “down under”.   Traveling all the way from Beaumaris, Australia, Robert was in the States taking in quite a few AOMCI meets along his way across the country.  The Super Meet also had members coming from all parts of the country, from California to Canada to Connecticut.

 

The first day that members were allowed to arrive and set up was Friday, July 14th.  This year was a packed house.  The Swap and Sell area was sold out.  It was hard to find a camping spot in the area provided for the many families who wanted to stay on site.  This is truly a family affair with many wives and children in attendance.  It is a welcome sight to see the many young members active in the club.  Friday is reserved as the set up day and there are no special events scheduled on the water.  Constantine is one of the few sites where the go fast boys can bring their above the water or open exhaust motors and run.  Friday was also the day where B. J. Pawlaczyk actually ran one of his motors.  Yes, it is true; he was in a boat, at the tiller and he ran two of his outboards!  We have proof of this and check out the pictures.  He can be seen at the tiller of his 1919 Tip Top.  BJ also ran his 1913 Hasse.  Rumor has it that he now has gotten the bug and may be seen next year, again on the water running some of his very rare outboards. 

 

 

 

Saturday, July 15th was a jamb packed day with a busy schedule of events.  Things were kept on pace and luckily, the weather cooperated.  After the business/drivers meeting which all the rules of the event were explained to everyone, the Bob Hatcher Event was first on the docket.  Again, Mark Zimmerli was the organizer of the event and a very big “Thank You” goes to Mark for making this competition one of the highlights of the Super Meet.  The Hatcher Event is for small outboards, this year the 2 horse power motor was the theme.  It is a cold start, performance run event and tests both the driver and the motors in how they are operated around a set course.  You see, the driver is also tested because he has to row a small portion of the course and then restart his motor and continue on. 

 

After the Hatcher event, the on the water time was split up between the smaller outboards and the racing motors with some special events tossed in for fun.  The times and motors were listed on the event package and flags of different colors were displayed announcing which class of motor was allowed on the course.  There was plenty to do between watching the outboards on the course, walking through the Swap and Sell area or viewing the motors on display under the Judging tent.  This year the boat display area was full of motors ranging from a 1929 Boyd Martin with a Lockwood to a Crosley with a Merc 450, to a Lone Star with an Evinrude 35 on the back and everything in between.  One of the first events scheduled in the afternoon was the Champion Hot Rod Roundup.  Many Hot Rods took to the water in both hydro’s and utility runabouts.  After the HR Roundup, the Modified and Stock 3 horsepower and Zephyr Time Trials were held.  It has been quite a site to see what kinds of modifications are made to these little outboards.  Both the Modified 3 and Zephyr motors are highly modified and a huge amount of work has gone into the development of these groups of outboards. 

 

In addition to these events, there were many other events to choose from.  The Cup of Gas Contest and How Slow Can You Go events were going on through out the day.  In the Cup of Gas, a prescribed outboard is given one cup of gas and is run at a set RPM to see how long it will run.  Members are asked to guess how long it will take for the motor to run out of gas.  This year’s winner was off by only 17 seconds!  What a guess.  In the How Slow Can You Go contest, members bring their outboard to a test tank and run their motor to see how slowly it can idle.  This year’s winner was an unbelievable 160 RPM’s!  Many think that record will stand for a long time.  It was made by a Caille Rowboat Motor. 

 

The display tent had many motors on display including the Champion Hot Rods gathered in one area.  The motors were displayed in groupings like “Most Unusual”, Original Classic, Restored Antique and so forth.  Outside the display tent was an area for the boat and motor combinations.  There was a large turnout of boats in Classic Boat and Motor category.  Each member was given a “Peoples Choice” ballot and had the opportunity to vote on anything on display. 

 

Wrapping up Saturday was the Auction held after the water course had shut down for the evening.  This year a huge amount of items were auctioned off and many motors, parts and pieces found new owners.  At 6:30PM, the cocktail party started on the patio of the Legion.  At 7:30, the Awards Banquet began and this year the banquet was enlarged to 120 members instead of the 80 of last year.  The master of ceremonies, Dan Jones, gave out the awards, plaques and trophies.  Roger Dykehouse headed up the Hot Rod Roundup and announced everyone was a winner this year as he had not seen that many Hot Rods at one place.  Dan thanked everyone with the American Legion for providing such a wonderful place to hold such an event. 

 

On Sunday, things started to wrap up with some of the participants packing up and heading home.  At 10:00AM, the River Cruise started from the Meet Site and went up the St. Joe River.  Robert Gibson went along with this author.  I know Robert had a ball running up the river.  He mentioned to me that he had nothing like the St. Joe River in Australia.  In his country, all of the scenery is barren.  Robert said that most of the rivers are just dirt and dead trees, just many shades of brown.  He was amazed at the greenery along the river.   Robert couldn’t get over all the many houses and cottages that line the river.  It is something to see someone so impressed with what we sometimes take for granted.  On the return trip, I asked Robert if he would like to take the helm.  Boy, did his eyes light up.  We exchanged positions and he started the 1956 Mercury MK25.  Robert was grinning from ear to ear the entire time that we headed back to the meet site.  On the return trip, Robert and talked about antique outboard collecting in his country.  He told me that in his country there are not many of the old motors that we are familiar with.  He said that he did have an early Evinrude rowboat motor in his collection.  When he received it, the motor was stuck and needed a lot of repair.  I think his motor was in the late teens.  It is now running and restored.  He told me that he has a few outboards in his collections mostly Evinrude and Mercury’s.  He has some more motors that are more common in his country.  He and I had a great time running the Merc and talking about old motors along the way.  After the River Cruise, Robert and I exchanged email addresses and now keep in touch. 

 

After the River Cruise, the day was open to all the motors until 12:00PM, and then the “go fast” boys got the green flag to run.  Since it was Sunday morning, the town has asked that the loud noise be restricted until after noon, then anything goes.  By that time, much of the meet has wound down and just a few die hards were left.  Next year, Steve Roskowski takes the helm again and he hopes that the Super Meet in 2007 will exceed this year’s turnout.  I would like to thank Dan Jones for his turn in the Captains Chair.  He did an outstanding job.  Also I would like to thank the many volunteers who helped setting up, running the events, the many judges, and anyone who helped out, it sure made this a “Super Meet!

 

 

See Ya on the Water,

Rick Eichrodt

MOB Correspondent