Tune In Tonight To The Big Mecum Classic Boat Auction, And Bring A Barf Bag!
1936 Chris-Craft 21' Utility Angler II Special Built for CC President Jay Smith- this is my favorite boat in the auction. Family built for the Smith Family, Twin Engines. This cool boat has it all.. Even the cool Utility type on the side.. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
Tonight is the night. The big Mecum Auction is ready to go. Boats start getting slammed by the hammer around 6PM, but I would tune in early and make sure, things move around. This is a massive auction. You can tune into Discovery Velocity Channel and watch it live. NOW.. We spoke with Mecum, and the reserves on many of these boats are insanely low. Some at jaw dropping prices.. So.. Imagine its around 8pm and your dream boat goes up to be sold and BAM, it’s gone for a price that makes you want to puke.. It’s happened.. You need to be prepared.. So no franks and beans or spaghetti today.. Your barka Lounger will never be the same. If you have been living under a rock this week and have no idea what we are talking about.. or aboot if you live in Canada, you can click here.
Unfortunately I’ll be on the road this evening but if someone could bid on the Miss America VIII for me I’d appreciate it and I’ll reimburse you when I get back. My limit is about $8,000, I figure in this economy that should do it. If you can get it for less then I’ll also take the Utility in todays blog.
Does somebody know the story behind the customs, “Rumrunner” and “Miss Universe”? Those are two very, very unusual, special boats. If the reserves are low on those, they might just be the steals of the show. Look at “Rumrunner”, for example: Painted, two tiny hard seats, a Liberty engine, and every detail just so.
Rick, unless u have a ride mower, tools, unused set of Suburban tires, and another $500, you don’t stand a chance of winning Miss America IIXX. Perhaps your $ will buy you a Miss XXX of sorts tho…
Alex I just finished reading your interview in the summer Brass Bell and I figure you’re offering the mower and tools and family mini-van as that is the only way to make enough room for another boat. “Honey, hope you don’t mind that I got rid of the dinning room table but I needed more room. And please don’t put flower arrangements in the Miller exhaust stacks.” Or maybe you’re hoping the uncut grass will hide another boat from the wife?
Rabbitt,
From what i’ve been told Rumrunner is what you would have used to go from the coast of NJ out past the 3 mile limit, meet up with Mr. McCoy collect you booze and “run” back. Fast enough, large enough for your cargo yet shallow draft to go where the CG cutters could not.
Miss U was used as a test bed for the liberty engines that were worked on buy the PO.
Regarding the Miller V-16s in Miss America VIII, I just read in Gordon White’s book “Offenhauser” that Harry Miller’s crew, which included Fred Offenhauser as shop foreman, designed and built these engines in TWO months! Quite a feat. They obviously didn’t start from scratch but used some of the existing tooling and componenrts from previous Miller 4, 6 or eight cylinder engine designs. But still……. Can’t imagine that happening today.
Al –
Isn’t the story of the original Liberty V12 designs somewhat the same? Jesse Vincent and one other guy in a hotel room laid down the design in a week, and the first motors were running later in that month?
YEAH BUT…..they didn’t have TV, utube, email, Facebook, twitter etc. to deal with….much simpler lifestyle, just sort of “git ‘er done” attitude.
Still, the Millers have all those extra cylinders….
Tom,
Thanks for your reply. I figured as much. The question I have is who was this boat built for now? It clearly is a unique piece that only someone of some incredible means could afford… on a whim. Does anyone know about the boatbuilder? I just think there’s got to be a great story here.
Can anyone tell me if the boats will be auctioned off all together or periodicity though out the auction?
If you go to the Mecum site (here’s the link) and look at the top of the individual boat listings, it shows when they are scheduled to go across the block.
Right now it appears that the first 8-ish boat lots will start to roll across the block around 6:00-ish PM EST Saturday and the last few lots will be auctioned off on Sunday.
http://www.mecum.com/auctions/consignment_list.cfm?AUCTION_ID=FL0112&lottype=boat
Thanks Texx. Will be in my Bark-o-lounger glued to the tube.
Rick, if u divide the boats between my wife, the 3 kids, and me, it doesnt look so bad. And, when we get another dog, it’ll look even better!
If you get two dogs for every boat, your going to be looking golden!
First boat is lot #222, a Cobra. Its 6:20 EST and they are running behind and are on lot #196.
Another hour or so
And the bid goes on on the Cobra. Didn’t know it was hull #1. 17 more until Ms. America VIII.
Cobra went for $67.5k after the hammer. My source says it was a 7 out of 10.