I imagine that young folks – remember when we all weighed 125 – vacationing at the family summer cottage on a lake or by the shore raced informally. Some of them built Mini-Max boats, others drug out small prams or dingys and raced “run whatcha brung” fishing motors stripped to the essentials and maybe loosely based on APBA specs. You were hot stuff if you “coned” your lower unit, drilled your drive shaft housing for exhaust relief, tweaked the spark advance or knew enough to massage the ports (almost always over done) . You tried unsuccessfully to run model airplane fuel. Those days Castrol R was easy to find so you could even make it smell right. Sooner or later someone with deeper pockets showed up with a Merc “Quicky” and the rest of the folks were out-classed technically and economically but still had fun. Today’s “Cocktail Class” racers (Google Chesapeake Light Craft) are having the same kind of fun even if the boats are under-powered.
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