Please allow me to introduce myself

Guys and Ladies,

I have met some of you from another site and a couple of you encouraged me to take a look at this site. I have been out of fast boats for 32 years while raising kids and growing a business. I always dreamed of having a Cole flatbottom. This desire manifested from a black Cole that hung out at Possum Kingdom lake in Texas when my brother and I were teenagers. My family vacationed at that lake every year when I was young. We built a Sleekcraft jet boat together and tried for years to outrun this guy and never did. I told my brother that some day I was going to own a Cole. It only took me about 36 years from when I made that statement but I finally did it.

I bought a boat with beautiful paint from a guy in San Diego but the engine was toast. I went way overboard building the engine but that is just me. I tend to do everything as right as I can. Some people think I am ridiculous but this habit has served me well over the years.

I was lucky to find a wife 35 years ago that understood me and accepted me for who I was/am and she supports me in my crazy hobbies. I know I have a boat that will be a handful and probably went too far, but that was my dream 36 years ago. I know that black boat is probably long gone now but if he were still around, I think he would be looking at the back end of mine  (once I learn to drive it), ha! I am a dedicated Christian and family man that has crazy hobbies and loves mechanical things that make beautiful noise. I love to build things with my hands as well. I do almost everything myself.

I have attached a few pictures of my boat and the engine I built for it. I am still waiting to take it out for some runs once I heal up from crashing a sport bike while doing a track day session a few weeks ago (another one of my crazy hobbies). Hopefully I get healed up before the weather is too bad. Bad timing for a crash and I have never been hurt on a sport bike until I get this boat ready to run. I guess my Cole will have to wait just a little longer while I heal.

Dean

Here are a couple more pictures

Welcome Dean! That is one bad ass ride for sure!!!

Beautiful boat!!! What city do you live in?

Magnolia, Texas

DeanHarvey said:

Magnolia, Texas

Click to expand...

He lives close too me! :smile16:

Customtouch, here is your motivation you have been waiting for! :smile14:

Welcome Dean and beautiful flat!

not sure what years you hung out at PK but more than likely the black Cole was Johnny Patterson. He had a Sanger with a 427 Cammer, and sold that and bought the Cole.

I hung out there with a lot of Abilene friends and knew Johnny and the PK bunch well. I had a black and gold Hondo flat.  Sold it to a Breckenridge local named James.

I then purchased a new Sideskraft runner bottom in 1980.  Took it to PK a lot til I got transferred to OKC.  I still own the Sides....

Come up to Steele Creek/Plowman on Whitney and run the both with us Northern guys.

Welcome aboard Dean.  Its good to see another flat on here.  (I'm coolglastron on PB). 

If you need any help, just let us know and someone will be there.  I'm sure Patch suggested Gibbon's Creek as a place to try it out.  :smile30:

It would have been late 70's to early 80's. I know the guy was from Breckenridge. They kept the best campsite at the state park booked all the time. He knew the ranger at the park pretty well and seemed to be able to do what he wanted. The boat was black with orange and yellow stripes. It was a classic beauty. I never saw it after the early 80's. I had my family then and lost contact with all of that stuff for 30 + years. I went back to PK in about 1985 with a TX 19 Youngblood and the ranger (different ranger) was not nice to me. I guess the new ranger was not fast boat friendly. I sold the Youngblood the next week and have not had a fast boat until this one.

My wife and I have a lake house on a beautiful little lake in north Texas (Lake Bonham) and the old soreheads that live there around us bitch and moan about everything. I put my boat in the water there right after I bought it just to see if it would run and the police showed up in 5 minutes to run me off (and I live there). It is a shame because it is a great little lake that has good water a lot of days with nobody on it. Great for waterskiing but the old timers hate anything that makes any noise. I got a notification from the city a couple of months ago with the city lake bylaws and someone had added "No race boats" to the bylaws. It was not on the bylaws until I ran mine one day for 15 minutes. I love how a couple of cranky old people can get anything they want.

Once I get the bugs worked out of it and learn to drive it, they are just going to have to live with it every now and then, ha! I figure they can turn their hearing aids off for a few minutes.

Yeah, Both Patch and Brian Hughes told me Gibbons was a good place to go. My wife and I went out there last winter to meet the guy who runs it and he was nice to me. He apparently was a boat racer in his earlier life.

It also has plenty of room to get my BIG race trailer in and out of it. That will be my biggest challenge at some places. My race trailer has a living quarter in it and it is LONG. I have to have a little room to turn it around and such.

I look forward to meeting you all.

Dean

yes Sir, that would be Johnny Patterson.  He and his family and his brothers family had key campsite state park.  He had son named Sidney and Sidney drove the Cole a lot around 1980. Johnny and his brother also did the water ski shows in area.  They were at PK every weekend.  At that time Johnny worked for Ford dealership and went into used car business for himself. Another friend in Breckenridge told me he and Earline (wife) moved to Granbury but not been able to run him down. 

He and park rangers were buds and he could call his own shots pretty much.  We got written up for racing out of the cove at state park, Johnny got us out of ticket.

PK got nasty now has decibel meters and hot boats are taboo.  The crowd at Bailey's if you were old enough to remember are all gone.  Place is dead now only few old fisherman there now.

No longer a place you want to take hot rod boats.  Here I a picture from late 70's of friends Hondo with 426 Hemi..... I will look I have numerous PK pictures from mid 70's to early 80's.  Taken at Possum Hollow camp.

It is a small world!!!! That is definitely him. I remember he worked for the Ford dealership.

We were from Odessa and only got to go to PK once or twice a year. We mostly hung out at our local lake (Colorado City). There were some pretty good running boats from Odessa. When I got my Youngblood, I did pretty well at that lake. I never got to pair up with the black Cole with my Youngblood but I would have given him a fair fight!!!

My brother has never gotten to do anything hot rod since he got married 35 years ago but he has always stayed interested in my hobbies. As a ceremonial thing, he is going to be with me to help out when I run mine the first time. When I invited him, he seemed excited to come help me. It is like he warped back 35 years. He came to the house a couple of weeks ago and I started the beast up so he could hear it. He was blown away and got even more excited. I know it is something he would have loved to do but probably never will. He is a little more practical than I am!!!!

I am having a great time building my dream boat and meeting you guys. It is going to be scary and fun at the same time running it for the first time with the new power plant.

Oh boy.......... gets even deeper........

I worked Odessa for many years in auto parts business.  I stayed at 12 Oaks Motel when It was new.  Married the daytime manager from Odessa.  Hung out at Incredibles on Grant at night. ha 

I imagine you know Delmar McAfee also?

Wife still has family in Odessa.  I lived in Abilene many years then working for the Corporations ended up in DFW.

I ran the Sides on Colorado City Lake couple times.  Very windy days too. 

Dry Dock said:

yes Sir, that would be Johnny Patterson.  He and his family and his brothers family had key campsite state park.  He had son named Sidney and Sidney drove the Cole a lot around 1980. Johnny and his brother also did the water ski shows in area.  They were at PK every weekend.  At that time Johnny worked for Ford dealership and went into used car business for himself. Another friend in Breckenridge told me he and Earline (wife) moved to Granbury but not been able to run him down. 

He and park rangers were buds and he could call his own shots pretty much.  We got written up for racing out of the cove at state park, Johnny got us out of ticket.

PK got nasty now has decibel meters and hot boats are taboo.  The crowd at Bailey's if you were old enough to remember are all gone.  Place is dead now only few old fisherman there now.

No longer a place you want to take hot rod boats.  Here I a picture from late 70's of friends Hondo with 426 Hemi..... I will look I have numerous PK pictures from mid 70's to early 80's.  Taken at Possum Hollow camp.

Click to expand...

Looks like a Holman/Moody scoop in that pic!

Welcome aboard I also live in Magnolia

Yes I know Delmer. I  sold my Youngblood to his son Buddy. Buddy rolled it while driving home from Lubbock two weeks after I sold it to him. I was heartbroken! I think he ended up getting another one after that but I never saw it. Buddy had a lot more money to spend on a boat than I did in those days. I had a brand new baby and could not afford anything!!!

There was a guy named Mark Sanford that had some fast boats. He ran a little hot rod shop back in those days.

My oldest brother worked for Bailey Performance Center on Dixie Street and probably gave us all the hot rod bug.

There were some really bad hot rod cars in Odessa. The baddest one was an ugly yellow Nova owned by a guy named Dennis Wilson. That thing was fast! Also guys named Benny Masters, Johnny Lympy, Jerry Byrd, Lupe Mugia, Lester MaGaha (his son Chris is an active NHRA pro stock driver) and a bunch of others. I was just a kid when those guys ruled the streets but my older brother took me everywhere with him so I got to hang around the Big Guys!

I miss some things about small town America in those days. It was a different country.

What was your wife's maiden name? Her family? My family are all either named Harvey or Gregory. My granddad (Herman Gregory) was the preacher at East Side Baptist Church in Odessa forever.

Very nice

Looks like I have a bunch of kids that play with toy boats in the neighborhood!!!!!

Good deal!!! jump.gif

Guys,

Here are the specifics of my engine build:

519 cubic inch Big Block Chevy
Donovan HC 700 BBC Aluminum water cooled block, 11.1 inch deck height
4.00 inch Stroke Lunati Signature Blower Series Crank
MGP Billet 7.7 inch long rods (I went with a long rod combo to reduce rod angularity and piston skirt load with high boost pressure)
4.530 inch CP forged pistons (Custom pistons to achieve 9 to 1 compression with very shallow combustion chambers of the ProFiler heads. Deep dish required which eliminates the squish area of a stock BBC)
ProFiler Hitman raised runner oval port heads with rolled over 12 degree valve angle. (makes an extremely small 60cc combustion chamber compared to 220cc on a stock BBC) 2.4 inch titanium intake valves, 1.94 inch titanium exhaust valves.
Jesel Pro Shaft rocker arms
Jesse Cam Belt Drive
Comp Cams custom blower cam grind around .840 inch lift on both intake and exhaust
Comp Cams spings (350 lbs closed, 900+ lbs open)
Indy Competition blower manifold
Moroso 4 stage dry sump pump
Peterson 3 gallon dry sump tank
M&M custom fabricated dry sump pan (pickups have to be at opposite end of pan sections because the engine sits backwards in a V-Drive boat.
Kuhl 14-71 blower
Enderle Big and Ugly tall injector hat
MSD ProMag 44 magneto
MSD Power Grid timing controller (lets me have individual cylinder timing control using a Windows PC interface)
Aerospace components flying magnet crankshaft trigger
VP C116 Race fuel (gasoline)