MOB NEWS

Galveston, Indiana Meet

Saturday, February 18, 2006

This year a new meet was added to the schedule of events for the MOB Chapter. The Galveston Indiana Meet was held at the Community Center on the outskirts of town. It is a beautiful building with plenty of parking, a huge inside display area, complete kitchen and a banquet area. Due to the cold weather, only about 30 MOB’sters showed up that day. In all about 20 motors were displayed inside the center. The oldest motor shown was Kirk Butler’s 1913 Evinrude Detachable. Greg Schmidt had a super clean Elto Ruddertwin that may have only had a few hours on it. I looked inside the tank and it was spotless. It was one of the cleanest original motors of that vintage I have seen. Speaking of clean original motors, Brian Browning found this 1950’s Buccaneer 5 that may have never been run on a boat. None of the screws, bolts, or brackets had any marks on it as if it just came right out of the box. The fellow who Brian bought it off of stated that the motor may have only been run once in a test tank. Brian told me that he took some of the motor apart, mainly he took the recoil off and inspected the magneto. It appeared to him that it looked just like new. Unfortunately, Brian managed to scratch the recoil screws up a little!

Terry Aeschliman provided a chili lunch that every one enjoyed on this cold February afternoon. There was plenty to eat and if you went away hungry, it was your own fault. After the lunch, Jay Walls held a business meeting and he and Dave Tranter gave away the plaques for the display motors. A vote was held on whether to add the Galveston meet to the schedule and it was approved. Other topics were discussed like the 10^th Anniversary Constantine Super Meet that is going to be held in July. During the meeting, a couple walked in the building and walked around looking at the motors and displays. I believe they were from the local town since they were not members of the club. After the meeting, they were approached by a couple of club members. The couple had heard about the show today and stopped by to see if anyone from the club could identify their old motor which belonged to a member of their family. They went out and brought in the motor and the members gathered around to see what it was. The old motor had been in a garage fire and she sure looked it. The motor turned out to be a 1923 Johnson A and she needed a lot of attention. Well, the couple were not interested in selling the motor, thanked everyone who helped them out and packed up their motor and left.

At this meet, it was announced that there was going to be a down hill boat race on the banks of the property of the Community Center. The event had to be canceled because of lack of snow and the fact that only one flat bottom boat showed up! Maybe next year!

See Ya On The Water,

Rick Eichrodt