MOB News

Lake Webster Meet

North Webster, Indiana

Saturday May 19, 2007

By Rick Eichrodt

On Saturday, May 19^th, the MOB faithful came out to Lake Webster for our first wet meet of the 2007 season. It was a super day to play on the water and mess with the “old iron” that we all enjoy. Many members, who live close by, started to arrive early in the morning to make this an all day event. There are a few members, who live a little further away, that rented a motel room across the road from the city park. Again, Harry Brinkman deserves credit for arraigning this wonderful meeting place for the MOB to come together for a day of fun, blue smoke, food and friendship. Thanks Harry!

The day turned out to be a typical Indiana spring day with a cool morning. Quite a few members showed up in sweatshirts and long pants. Later on, as it got warmer, those sweatshirts were tossed in favor of tee shirts and short pants. The skies were a mixture of blue and white clouds with no hint of showers in the forecast.

The spring meet is the start of the outboarding season for the MOB and also it brings out the Emmett Walls Trophy for “big iron”. A traveling plaque is awarded to the owner of the best running “over 30 cubic inch” motor which is voted on by the membership. This year’s winner was Richard White. He won with a recently acquired 1956 Mercury Mark 55E. Richard had some stiff competition but won by only 1 vote. Also in the winner’s category were Roger Dykehouse, Jack Gilbert and Howard Fetterer. Roger Dykehouse won “Favorite Classic Outboard” award with a Mercury KH7. Jack Gilbert won “Favorite Antique Outboard” award with a 1915 Wisconsin. Howard Fetterer won “Favorite Boat Award” with his wooden Lyman with a Johnson 35 on the back.

The pavilion was full of outboards and related items on display. There were many brands of motors on display under the roof of the pavilion. The displays consisted of Koban, Mercury, Elgin, Caille, Johnson, Neptune, Martin, Evinrude, and Clinton. One member set up a real nice display with an Evinrude Lightwin 3 horse and an Evinrude Camping Stove with assorted fliers and advertisements. The oldest motor on display was a 1915 Wisconsin Rowboat motor. The newest motor either the 1955 Mercury MK25 or the middle 50’s Evinrude 3 Lightwin. Everyone who displayed an outboard was awarded a nice “Mercury Cedar Green” dash plaque for their efforts.

The “on the water” activity was second to none as the docks were packed with members and their boats, ready to thrash the waters. Quite a few MOB’sters brought one boat but did the quick change act and ran different outboards on their rigs. There were about 11 or 12 boats out enjoying the Indiana springtime and Lake Webster.

Around noon, the activity turned to the popular MOB “Pitch In” luncheon with “Grill Master” Stuart Fillinger doing the grillin’ and the MOB’sters doing the chillin’. Nobody went away hungry and it was a packed pavilion with all the food and drinks being enjoyed by the hungry MOB. After the lunch, the business meeting was held with the awards and plaques given out to the participants. Included in the business meeting was the discussion of the Constantine Super Meet and the call out for the Rowboat Motor Round Up. Jay Walls, MOB President, presided over the discussion and after the business meeting, the action returned to the water for more running and outboard action.

Chris Scratch gave a clinic on how to take a bunch of old parts and build up a 1912 Evinrude powerhead, in running condition. Members were surrounding Chris while he worked to free up the stuck rings in the piston. It took most of the morning to get the pile of “stuff” into a running motor. All that Chris started with was a box of parts, a cylinder, piston, crank, rod, case, flywheel and transom clamps with a few nuts and bolts thrown in for good measure. Everyone applauded Chris when he got the motor to run on some “Gibb’s” magic potion. He ran it a couple of times to prove that it did indeed run. He plans on completely restoring the motor and finding all the rest of the components to complete the resurrection of the 1912. I am sure he will do just that.

The afternoon wore on and Lake Webster provided a great place run the motors. Lots of MOB’sters took turns giving rides to other members and many different outboards were seen running again. One such motor was Alan Nacke’s 1928 Elto Quad with JJ Walls giving the old gal a good turn on the lake. Cory Fillinger went along with JJ to keep the bow down and this outboard wanted to fly. Sherm Caldwell ran a real nice Johnson P-50 but could not coax his V-45 to do more than just cough a few times. Dale Hume gave his 1938 Johnson KA-38 a workout on his newly acquired Alumacraft boat. Gary Clark was seen out in his Crestliner with a Wizard WG7. Chris Scratch ran his Alumacraft with a MK55 on it. Roger Alford was out in his repainted Lone Star with Johnson power. There were many other members out playing. Pretty soon the afternoon wore on and the crowd started to thin out. By around 4:00 PM, the meet was reduced to just a few diehards who didn’t want to stop playing with the “old iron”. By 5:00PM, the last of the MOB’sters had left the city park. The next big event is the Constantine Super Meet that is going to be held on July 6^th, 7^th and 8^th.

See Ya On The Water At Constantine!