Larry Has Spoken! Kinda!
Larry? Larry? Wake up Larry, its a collect call from Jersey!
On Saturday, Woody Gal, Larry’s Cousin, Jimmy and our new pal Dan went up to Lake Hopatcong and Katz’s Marina despite a winter dusting to officially talk with Larry and make some choices for Pumpkin. Jimmy, Woody Gal and I sat down at the table in the showroom surrounded by the two On Golden Pond Boats and had a chat with Larry.
Jimmy, Seth and Woody gal looking through Pumpkins history book.
As Woody Gal said, “right now Larry is having a blast watching all this sillyness” Larry the feelings mutual. So we started asking questions about carpet samples, vinyl colors and other design details. Should it be Orange, have that two tone thing on the sides? Paint ideas, engine etc… It’s shocking, Larry agrees with all of us on all subjects.. So here goes, a break down of what the New Pumpkin will have. Thanks Larry.
No Orange interior, we’re going white, with Orange piping.
Paint: Larry, we want to add some metal flake to the orange? Answer YES!
Carpet: Larry You want grey boat carpet? Answer NO!
Carpet : Larry are you OK with Orange Shag. Answer. YES
Engine: Larry we want to soup up the 454.. I mean really soup it up, kick Alex’s ass soup up, you OK with that? Answer YES
Two tone: Larry, can we kill the white on the side of the boat and back? Answer YES
Interior. Can we change the seats, they are rotten? Answer YES
it was a yes to all the big questions
Interior Color: White, with matching orange piping? Answer YES
Have You met Elvis? Answer No. How about Anna Nicole Smith? Yes! Larry, she likes old men... Answer . I know..
Will You be there at Lake Dora in two months.? ANSWER 100% YES!
Is Alex’s little blue smurf jet boat toast? Answer, Yes!
Sorry Alex, Oh brother..Larry was speaking through our fingers on this one! I swear Alex! Its all Larry.
That was the fun of the day, actually just a couple hours and back home through a bit of a snow storm. 10 hrs of driving for a brief conversation with an old chum. Worth every second..
good to see you have your pumpkin on, but no boat pics?
Great fun! Pumpkin will be bad a$$ cool when she is done. Don’t think Larry told the truth about Elvis tho?
Can’t wait to see Pumpkin in Tavares!
Hope I can get a ride!
Did you say she was going to be auctioned there?
Will there be much of a return from a suped up 454? If the jet and hull can’t make use of the power you will end up burning a lot more fuel for little or no gain. Or more likely, you will be driving around at half throttle wishing you had finer control over power.
Remember, the guy you are allowing to make these decisions isn’t going to be paying the gas bill anymore. He is going to be laughing at the guy paying the gas bill!
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Pulled out the old Ouija board here on frozen Lake Hopatcong this weekend and it said only a select few will get a ride in Tavares. Then when the the hoop-la dies down, katz will own the boat.
I have some International Orange paint left over from the CC Barrel stern we finished last Fall. Send it your way?
Can’t wait to see it finished. I agree with Jim on the power ratio to the pump. Something to look at.
Counting down the days until Pumpkin makes her appearance in Tavares. How do I get on the short list for a ride??
I agree. A SBC would be lighter, more versitile better on fuel and still push enough “squirt” to make Pumpkin fly. Probably cheaper to rebuild too…. no shortage of options.
As for the aesthetics, it looks like Larry has made (influenced) the choices he wanted and they are true to the iconic stature of the boat….”make it so”.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The boat came with a 454 so I would vote to keep the big block. I just wouldn’t bother trying to make it burn fuel any faster than the stock motor since I doubt anyone ever said the boat was underpowered.
That said, an SBC with aluminum heads and manifolds built to match the torque curve to the pump would likely be a better way to increase performance if that was the desire. Larry is clearly looking to get the maximum laughs at the expense of the new owner so his desires are a bit different.
Well here in Chicagoland, where we are all waiting for SPRING we see signs the project will be done for Tavares. For once, pictures of Seth without his hands in his pockets!!
There is hope.
What will be the true cost be for this restoration? True dollars for time and materials etc…
I have to agree with John Kadimik that once the Tavares show is over Seth will own another boat to stick next the Golden Pond boats in his showroom.
I am not sure how to respond to all this talk of ownership but I will try. Seth, Tommy, Dave, Woody gal and I have never from day one been concerned with the cost of restoration or end value. There is a ton of donation time going into this to make it fun. It’s about the story, the fact that these plastic boats are cool and can and should be saved, the fun that Larry represented, and the fact that not all stuff in this hobby should be about making money. This boats restoration is a example of the Woody Boater community coming together to just have fun. Whom ever winds up with the boat is just more of the story. And most of all, kicking Alex’s little smurfs ass! That is the priceless stuff.
Always keeping it fresh! The Oujia was funny.
Do you notice how Lake Bomoseen keeps popping up in your travels…..So that begs the question? When you coming to visit?!?
Two of the transoms on that wall in the cover photos are boating pals! Katz is amazing place……that Chris Craft Hydroplane Speedster they have is one of my dream boats.
Matt,
Go easy on Alex and his XK…..I’m not sure how he’ll handle another devastating defeat with it, especially deep in the middle of winter…..you know how fragile he is.
Not to be crude, but you wrote “Alex’s ass soup.”
Really?
Owners of ahem, ELECTRIC blue, correctly restored XK-18s, that still feature their original, unmolested, 340-hour, Corvette-derived 350 V-8s, along with their original, PATRIOTIC, red, white, and blue shag, still containing original early 70’s remnants of illicit substances, would never write such language. Especially owners of said boats named after iconic 70’s blacksploitation flics.
Your boat is named after a cultivar of squash. It’s a vegetable, dammit. Even the word pumpkin pathetic. It’s derived from Greek, and means “large mellon.” (Speaking of, are you going to shave the shag off yours before Dora? Or do Mayer and I need to stage an intervention?)
Stop being such a jack-o-lantern. I relish carving you up in my wake.
Chunk you!
Chunkin pumpkin, Alex go shoveling some snow, get the anger out, baby. Your WXYK relic is toast, you need a paint job, some new seats and a new impeller just to save face and continue your rants. Sniff the WhiteOut, shag it.
Btw, A nice Arabian is for sale in Ohio, take a trip, relax, your day in oujia land will come once you get a really cool boat, shag me baby.
Squash! Squash! As in squash your little smerf hot tub.. We shall see. If you are chicken in FLA, I will bring it up to Hessel.
Take it easy on him Matt, god knows what this weather is doing to his new dock. Next year he might need to plank over his blue smurf to use as a floating dock for his better wooden boats.
It’ll have to be Hessel. I’ll see if I can round up a spare map for you showing where the Nazi’s left those naval mines…
The U22 boat mines! HA.. Call the fuel tankers in the area cause were gonna need them
Letting loose at folks just ain’t a good idea. People are like nuts and bolts: they don’t work well loose; there’s too much play, and when there’s too much play connections come apart.
That’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a little duct tape.
Or a jam nut.
I thought this was a Pumpkin day…or I could have shown some XK love!
Here is the smurf! Enjoy some XK love..
More Smurf!
From Wiki: “Orange is the exact opposite of its complementary colour, blue, THE COLOR OF CALM AND REFLECTION (emphasis mine). Mythological paintings traditionally showed Bacchus (known in Greek mythology as Dionysus), the god of wine, ritual madness and ecstasy, dressed in orange.”
So at Dora, we’ll be looking for the guy dressed like a Buddhist monk, high on ecstasy.
Matt on the St. John’s River Cruise.
You will be praying to Budda for sure Smurf boy..
Stop bickering and shake hands now will you!
Great Allstate Halloween costume! 🙂 …See how nicely Troy set up the transition back to Pumpkin?
I would not bother with the big block – instead, I’d go with a nicely tuned, high rpm small block. Lighter, equivalent power and in the end, better for cruising and almost certainly faster. Weight is the enemy.
I think this round goes to the smurf. now go outside and get some air
I’m having trouble imagining Garfield Wood and his Harmsworth Trophy competitors trash talking each other so crudely. They would have done it with much more grace and style! You guys need to step your games up a few notches.
Also, given the color schemes of the boats in the conversation, it sounds like a battle between Michigan and Syracuse. I’m betting on the Wolverines in an upset over the Orangemen in the finals.
Quick, someone find Green and White boat.
The problem with making more power is not only the increase in the amount of gas (and jet boats are not economical) you will need to increase the compression to get much more power. The increase in compression (say over 9 to 1) you will need 92 octain. Octain boaster is of almost no help for regular.
Jet boats are soooooo much fun though. Have fun!
Tears…I have tears running down my cheeks. Love you guys!