My 1967 Belmont Flatbottom story

[JusTrouble]

This is the story of my Dad’s boat – and me growing up. Some of you may have seen the latter part of this story as it developed last year. I was surprised at how many other boaters, sons and daughters are out there who have shared a similar experience, or wish they had. As of last year, I have joined the ranks of those who want to preserve these boats, this sport and pass these memories down to new generations.

Dad’s boat is parked in my garage now; but it isn’t just a boat. I recently re-wrote this story so that I could share it with family, friends and to capture this history for my kid and her family some day. Last weekend at the 2014 Needles Hot Boat Show, I was encouraged to share it here. This is probably longer than any post or thread you have ever read. It wasn’t written to be in a forum and frankly, I’m not interested in editing it. To help with your digestion, I will try to insert the appropriate photos where they belong and submit it in a few parts over a couple days. So if you are interested, here it is:

In September 1965, Dad brought home a big wood boat. I had never seen a boat up close and it looked huge to me sitting on the trailer at almost 9 years old. We didn’t have any big toys or family hobbies and money always seemed to be a concern so I was shocked. Dad announced that we were all going to start water skiing. I had only seen pictures of my crazy Uncle John skiing behind his big Chris Craft so naturally I was very excited with this news.

The neighbors all came over to see it and Dad was very proud. Through those conversations I learned that this was a Belmont Boat and I was amazed that it was made right here in Fresno, out on Belmont Avenue. The owner and builder was apparently Dad’s friend. I was impressed. We made several trips to Millerton Lake that summer. The lake was only about a half-hour away but it was a whole new world for me. I remember feeling sort of swallowed up by the interior of the boat and how hard it was to climb up the little ladder that hooked over the side. I tried really hard to learn to ski but just couldn’t get up. All too soon, that summer was over and I would have to wait for months to try again.

It seems like immediately after getting the Belmont, Dad and I began spending lots of time out at the boat shop. The owner, Smitty Weeks, was several years older than Dad. He showed us all around they shop and we got to see boats being made. There were boats and old car parts everywhere. Smitty also restored old cars, one of which was a Franklin he drove to our house once. Smitty really treated me special and I loved my time out there. After a while, I had the run of the place, unsupervised while Smitty and Dad were talking or working on something. I remember every corner of every shed and all the smells. There was one building that smelled real strong and every time I came home from crawling around on stuff in there Mom had to pull tons of small itchy little fiberglass needles out of my arms, abdomen and thighs. Then, after all day of playing around at the shop, Smitty, Dad and I would ride in Smitty’s old Willy’s Jeep to the hardtop races at Kearney Bowl. Those are fond memories. We went to those races for many years until they closed down that track.

Based on our old photos, I am told that the Belmont was probably built in the late 1950’s, was 17 feet long and powered by a Cadillac with two 4-barrel carbs. The next summer, I finally got up on double skis and couldn’t get enough behind the boat. I remember Dad teaching all of our neighbors and other friends to ski behind it and spending every weekend at the lake.

[HB Vic]

Now that is classic stuff right there, thank you so much for sharing and good to meet you in Needles.

Please continue to share and let us know what's going on with the boat today.

Great stuff, thank you!

[JusTrouble]

Pg 2
Dad loved his boat, but he had a wandering eye for a newer style. He and Mom had been going to the boat drags all over California and he wanted to race. He brought home lots of photos of cool flatbottoms and hydros. He decided he wanted a fiberglass flatbottom hot boat. I had only seen a couple flatbottoms at Millerton Lake. Out on the water, they looked like Dad’s boat would if it was sinking but they were loud and fast. I remember the first one I got to see up close on the launch. It was bad ass!

Dad and I began spending even more time out at the boat shop. I knew something was gong on because he kept having quiet conversations with Smitty. Then he would have quiet conversations at home with Mom. I remember how excited he was when he finally explained to me that he was going to get one of Smitty’s new 19-foot fiberglass flatbottom hulls. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t remember that we had ever owned anything that was new.

In late 1966, Smitty took Dad’s hull out of the new mold. It was pitch black with silver metal flake and looked wicked and fast just sitting upside down on the wood frame out back. Dad remembers that Smitty kept the 1st hull, he got the 3rd and Bud Johnson got the 4th. He can’t remember who got the second or any others.

Dad wanted to build the new boat himself and is still very proud that he did so today. He has always been a hands on, do it yourselfer and very conscious of his responsibilities. I suspect it was a challenge that excited him but was also a way to justify to himself the expenses for a new toy while having four kids at home to raise.

While the hull was upside down out back at the shop, Dad began working on it with Smitty’s supervision and tools. Dad drilled all of the holes and mounted the underwater hardware: a 10-degree strut, two skags and the cavitation plate. Meanwhile, another friend, Ed Wills, built Dad his Mr. Ed trailer. They flipped the boat over onto the trailer and Dad brought it home to his 1-1/2 car garage. I helped him scoot the trailer around trying to figure out how to fit it into the garage. It just barely fit in there sideways which took some effort with the tandem axles.

I know Dad was a frustrated racer and wanted to build a boat like Smitty’s with numbers on the side, zoomies or big headers hanging out over the transom coming off of a blown hemi, but this was a compromise. The only “hot rod” he could afford, justify and use with the whole family, was going to be a dutiful, dependable ski boat. That was his focus as he chose the parts to use and chose his interior design.

I believe that Dad got or ordered most of the other parts he needed from Smitty. As they began to arrive Dad and our neighbor Wayne, began assembling the boat. They would get home from work and go out to the garage every night and all weekend. Wayne was very industrious and talented. He was known in the neighborhood for all of the amazing things he built in his garage. This is a guy who wanted a cab-over camper for his pickup so he made one from scratch in his garage and it was better than anything you could buy. He had every tool imaginable and he had cans and cans full of assorted nuts, bolts, washers and pieces of metal he brought home from where ever he found them. A look inside the boat will show evidence of this. Keep in mind – neither of these guys had ever built a boat before.

Again, based on photos, they began by drilling a lot more holes in the nearly-virgin hull. They mounted the steering, deck tachometer and the ignition switch. Dad likes the clean simple look so there are no other holes in the dash. Then they plumbed the dual fiberglass fuel tanks. As a family ski boat with a stock motor, he decided he didn’t need an adjustable cavitation plate so he saved some money with a fixed set up and drilled all of the holes to mount the turnbuckles to the transom. On the trailer, they installed all of the lighting and electrical and Dad built padded vinyl trailer steps and fender pads that looked pretty rich. He loved the clean look of the trailer and didn’t want to put the license plate on it so he mounted it on a fold up hide-away frame that we often forgot to pull down.

[JusTrouble]

So this is Smitty Weeks, owner of Belmont Boats, in his race boat #269 - I dont remember if this was his #1 hull or if it was a later one - he had several

Then there is Bud Johnson and his #4 hull - Mr Runner - which he sank by the dam at Millerton a short time later
He immediately replaced it with Mr Runner 2

[JusTrouble]

Here is another later photo of Bud Johnson with Mr Runner 2

A couple photos of Smitty Weeks' son, Lynn Weeks, when he was racing the 269 Belmont
It cracks me up how Smitty wrote on the boat "Owner - Smitty Weeks" to keep Lynn in check
Lynn is a few years older than me and I was jealous as hell of him - he got to live next to the shop and race the boats
Later took over the business until health issues left him unable to continue
I used to follow him around and drive him nuts!
He became very good at making fiberglass slot racer bodies and he also learned how to rewind those electric motors somehow to hop them up
He was a known threat at the indoor track in a little shop behind the Triple J Market at Cedar and Ashlan in Fresno
Dad recently reminded me that Lynn bought an old funeral hurst from one of the funeral homes near the shop. He turned it into his TOW RIG for the race boat
What a sight at the races - I sure wish I had photos of that
Dad went with Lynn on one of his many runs down to Long Beach to pick up Holman-Moody race motors for the boats
He fixed the casket rails so he could mount 3 of the motors in a row back there
Dad said they sure got a lot of looks out on the road
What a crack up

And a couple examples of what it was like out back at the Belmont Boat shop where I spent a lot of time

[JusTrouble]

Shop Pics

I'm guessing that is the hurst behind the blue boat, over by the fence, before it got painted up
I handt noticed that before now

[JusTrouble]

To maximize space for seating, skis, vests, ropes, coolers, etc., he used simple back-to-back bench seats with a center cover over the driveline and alternator from the motor to the back seat. It comfortably seats 6 adults (or 2 adults and 4 or 5 skinny little kids). To keep the driveline low enough to allow for a rear bench seat, he installed a Hallibrand parallel shaft gearbox (V-drive). I’m not sure if he was aware of just how miserably loud the straight-cut gears in this box are or if he chose that particular unit to save money. As with most v-drive boats, there is no reverse gear: it is either in gear (forward) or out of gear, requiring exceptional spatial awareness and good aim maneuvering around other boats, docks, skiers, rocks, trailers, etc. Smitty’s setup here was to use a 2-piece driveline out of old Studebakers for this application. The alternator is bolted to the inside of a stringer with the v-belt simply spinning on the rear driveline tube.

Smitty loved to use big Cadillac or Lincoln motors in the bigger boats. I’m not sure what he put in the first flatbottoms but I know they were not Oldsmobile’s. Yet, that is what Dad bought. Dad had an uncle that I don’t remember ever meeting, who owned the Cadillac / Oldsmobile dealership in Fresno. Dad was able to order a brand new 425 cubic inch big block motor from the factory through Uncle Phelan and I remember it showed up in a wood crate. With the low strung driveline setup, they mounted the motor very low in the boat at the front mount and just far enough forward to allow for a long, thin battery to be accessible behind it. According to photos, the first carb on the motor was a Rochester. In 1968, it is the Carter AFB. Dad was very proud of the black wrinkle paint he used on the motor, which is now pretty tired. He also loved the clear, see-thru spark plug wires he made up back then because they matched the metal flake silver trim on the hull.

In a matter of months, everything came together and they registered the boat and trailer in early 1967. Dad, Wayne and probably Smitty made several test trips to get the carb dialed in and all of the bugs out. The flat replaced the older Belmont as our daily ski boat, which Dad sold in July 1967. I remember Dad being disgusted when he heard that the guy who bought the wood boat abused the hell out of it up at Bass Lake until it was junked. There are a lot of us that wish we could get our hands on one of those now!

I remember the first time I finally got to go out for a ride in it after they had it all dialed in. When we got outside the 5-mile zone and he started to speed up, I was slapping his arm trying to tell him something was wrong. There was a terrible noise. It was so loud I didn’t understand how he wasn’t aware of it. He slowed back down and tried to explain to me that is how it is supposed to sound. Bullshit, Smitty’s didn’t sound like that! Ok, so I didn’t score any points with that one and I didn’t get any better at keeping my thoughts to myself for another 40 years or so. I’m still practicing.

For many years, we spent all day every Saturday and Sunday at the lake. Dad, Wayne and I would launch the Belmont and Wayne’s Spiko as soon as the lake’s gates opened at 6 a.m. and head for the cove by the dam. Wayne got the bright yellow, 17-foot Spiko flatbottom with a 413 Chrysler, right before they finished building the Belmont. Mom and Vivian would bring the other 6 kids and all the tables, chairs, stove, food, coolers and picnic stuff and park at the lowest picnic sight table in the cove. We would beach the boats in the cove and all the other neighbors, friends and relatives would start showing up until we had full control of the entire cove and the other 3 tables all the way back up to the road. Both boats were constantly pulling skiers, coming in for more and going back out. They say Dad taught over 100 people how to ski. We skied till it was too rough in the late morning or early afternoon and then we would go out on big tire inner tubes or a round piece of plywood dad painted that I could stand up and spin around on until I got bored. Basically these were just tools the Dad and Wayne used to try to wear me out so I wouldn’t want to ski so long when the water calmed down again late in the afternoon. I remember there were some other late sleeping park visitors complaining that we were always taking up this particular cove and the picnic tables every weekend and that we never seemed to leave. The Rangers told them to get there first if they wanted it. Typically we wouldn’t pack up until some time after dark. I remember this mainly because of the bats. Ya, the flying kind that would swoop down toward your head. There were 100’s of them there every night and Wayne had us all convinced they were vampires and little kids were their favorite to snack on.

Note re photos: The Aug 67 Terri skiing pic shows the old Rochester carb Dad's fancy see-thru spark plug wires
The 8/68 pic of Mom climbing back in the boat show the Carter with Dad's custom made spacer/adaptor
The pics of upholstery/driveline/alternator/battery were taken last year and used to show what I was referring to above

[JusTrouble]

The Millerton Lake weekends

[JusTrouble]

Wayne's Spiko

[HB Vic]

Where was this pic taken??