Rhonda Babe II

[DaveD]

One on here too.
http://aussieskiboats.blogspot.com.au/2 ... kiffs.html

[Greg]

This enrty list in the Len Owen was sent to me by Graeme Morley. It shows the owner/driver of Rhonda Babe II as well as that of a few other well known boats of the time.

morley.jpg (280.07 KiB) Viewed 6491 times

[assassin2]

thanks for that info will print and put in my album

[Reklaw]

Hi Greg. Thanks for posting that info on the Len Owen Unlimited.
Would you know if this is from the 1970 program? Also, is BPBC Bendigo PBC?
Cheers
Bob

[Greg]

It says the 1968/69 champion was Mooneyes, so I can only assume Bob.

It is Bendigo.

[Wildwoody1]

This Event was run on Sunday 30th November 1969 at Lake Learmonth via Ballarat Victoria.

Wildwoody1

[Reklaw]

Most of the effort over the past couple of weeks (we general only work on RB2 one day a week) has been on the trailer. Dave ordered new mudguards for it before Christmas, they've just recently turned up. Just have the guards, brakes, final paint job and a few other bits to do and the trailer will be finished.



This week there's been more progress on the 1st layer of the deck. Dave finished that off today.





Now starting to do some stuff on the engine. Dave dragged a couple of AFB Carters out of the vault. They're 600 cfm aftermarket performance carbs. Should look good on top of the new Edelbrock low rise dual quad air gap manifold now on order. Carbs are a bit grotty inside, so pulling them apart to check on metering rod and jet sizes and give them a good clean out. Of course, the gaskets break when you separate the top from the bottom, so will have to start chasing up AFB gaskets. Not sure about the marks on the near side bowl, think I'll have to check it for leaks.

[Apache1946]

Trying not to change the thread, but firstly a very good job Dave on the restoration of Rhonda Babe 2. As for the length of the fore deck it is because this boat is a lot longer than a traditional Lewis Skiff. The original Arthur Baker Rhonda Babe 1 was built to be as far as possible the same dimensions as the famous Hi Fi. Unfortunately Arthur was influenced by the set up in his Hydro "Mystic Miss" and chose to put a step up gear box into the skiff. This resulted in an engine installation that put the center of gravity further fwd and higher than the normal skiffs Lewis were building at the time, hence Arthur had a very wild and almost uncontrollable ride. A similar effect was also experienced with a few more boats, whose owner's who changed out their 327 chevy for the more powerful and bigger 350 engine realized they needed more RPM not bigger props as this extra prop torque unsettled the boat so they went a similar route to Rhonda Babe 1 with step up gear boxes. The real answer to the boat handling was a longer boat with the same proportions of center of gravity to length as the smaller skiffs.

[Apache1946]

Now for some more information. " Mooneyes" as mentioned previously if memory serves me well Bill Warner raced a skiff called Apache Chief in the late 50s and early 60s. During the 1961 or 1962 Manning River Aquatic festival Championships (memory lapse here) the boat broke in half. Bill afterwards bought from Allan Boucher the Lewis (skiff about) called "Apache" which he renamed Mooneyes and raced for many years. Allan Boucher then bought the famous champion Hi Fi skiff from Spencer Miller.

Lewis Brothers built three basic models at the Taren Point boat shop, traditional water ski models, racing skiffs and what was called a "skiffabout". This was a runabout deck layout placed on a skiff hull but lengthened about 18". Ironically the first skiffabout was for Jimmy Smith and called "FF Sure". Most of the Lewis skiffs built during the hey day of powerboat racing were in the 14-15 ft. length range ideally suited to the then available power plants of the 283 and 327 Chevys' and the 289 Fords.

[Reklaw]

Dave's been busy on the boat this week, while i've been slacking. The new skin is on the tuck, the pic shows the cav plate just sitting in place. The deck should be complete by the end of this week.
Bob