Roger Hinsdale
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The Molinari (#60) was purchased by OMC in the late 70's just as they were downsizing.
John Hervat painted the boat for Phil O'berry. At the time, John was just losing his job at OMC and struck a deal
with Jack Leek to paint the boat at OMC for Phil before he left. The O'berry's raced the boat with drivers Rudy Foot
and finally Randy Gore. The boat was only raced for a few years and then retired. It bounced around for many years and I bought
it from Brian Pitt who lives near Rochester NY. Brian also has two Molinari's. The boat was always raced with a Johnson RS.
The transom indicates that no other motors were ever on the boat. I found / bought a Johnson RS from Freddie Webb.
Freddie also had a Wilbur Weeks built 160cu.in. Crossflow that I will run most of the time to preserve the very rare RS block.
The WW motor is well ported and has Wilbur's dual spark plug heads. The RS gearcase is NOS, and
came from Pete Nydahl. The hull has a 3' gash in the left sponson where it hit a dock or
other boat but suffered no internal damage. Other than that, the boat will be stripped and
refinished with the same paint scheme. Will start that work as soon as I finish the garage construction.
Roger Hinsdale
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27Jun08