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I first met Ted in the early 1960’s at Ted Quinn Marine on Laird Drive, Leaside. Ted’s shop was a small section of his brother Tom crankshaft repair business. Ted was in his early 30’s. Ted got involved with OPC Racing and sponsored two Allison boats . Dick Miller his mechanic raced one and Ted the other. In 1966 Ted returned from racing in the states with an additional boat, a new 16 foot Checkmate . It was the first Checkmate I believe in Canada. I purchased and raced that boat. Ted became the Canadian Distributor for Checkmate. That was the beginning of a long relationship.

If I remember correctly there were a few 16 Checkmates running in the very early 70's;
- Tom Lee from Windsor ran a 16 with a 125/135 Merc in FJ (National Champion 1971)
- Jim DelGreco from Toronto ran a 16 with a 1000BP in UI (I think he also was National Champion 1971)
- Then there were a few guys from Quebec that also ran UI with OMC 115's (Hermel Lavoie and ???)

In 1972 and again in 1973 more 16's showed up but they were 16 Kennedy flips of the Checkmate.

Were you out there in 71, 72 or 73 ?? If you were then we probably know each other.

We just missed each other. I sold my race equipment in 1970 . Got married in 1971. From 1971 to 1974 my focus was saving a down payment for a house. I was still following the racing but wasn’t active again until 1992 when my son was 14 and raced in Sport C.

The best running UU class Checkmate was Savard’s 19 footer with twin Speedmaster inline Mercury motors. Seacord raced a 19 Checkmate with twin Chrysler 135 stackers.

Jim D raced both a 16 foot Checkmate and a 15 foot Checkmate. He ran both a 1000BP and a 140 mercury.

Dick Miller at Quinn’s raced a 16 foot Checkmate 1250BP after racing the Allison.

John Beer from the Prop Shop raced the first Quinn tunnel a Jones tunnel in U class with a merc stacker.

Mark R started his racing career with a 13 foot MX13 Checkmate first powered by a mercury 650 and then by a mercury 650XS.

Jake at Kennedy Boats was the person that loved boat racing. They splashed several Checkmate copies plus the Delta. The 16 Checkmate copy was called the Marlin.

Excellent recall !!!

First race I ever went to was the Nationals at Cherry Beach 1971. That was the race that Andre Savard went over top of Spencer Dunn who was driving a yellow Switzer Wing. Tom Wood was driving Lorne Pinel's WASP.

If you raced in 1969 & 1970 you probably raced against a good friend of mine Dave Lovell, he ran a 16 foot North Craft (flip of a 16 Glastron) with a Johnson GT115 UI class.

In 1972 I went to many races crewing for Jake Stelter and then in 1973 I crewed for Jake and George Daly (FE 65 a red 14' Kennedy) and then in 1974 George let me run his boat with a lot of help from the Stelters. I ran it with a Merc 650 against the 70 hp OMC's.

John Beer did a lot of prop work for me in 1978 & 1979 when I ran a 14' Seebold with Merc 650XS.

Mark Rotharmel, (who also is a good friend of mine and worked with me on Powerboat Television) actually started off in FG with a 4-cylinder Merc but then went to FE with the 'new' Merc 3-cylinder 650. Pretty sure the Merc 650XS didn't come out until 1975 or 1976. By 1973 Mark was running a tunnel.

The only time I went to Quinn's on Laird Dr., Barry Taylor was there working on the Merc factory team Molinari #177 that he drove in 1971. That was the boat that Mercury had in the Merc display at the 1971 Toronto Boat Show with a Merc 1250 SBP.

You also probably know another good friend of mine from racing; Rob Scythes. Rob did a lot of work on my 19 Cougar that I currently have.

Would be fun to meet up with you sometime. I will be working the Boat Show in a couple of weeks for Crate's Lake Country Boats if you are going to be there.

We are still in the same loop.
Rob S Is a good friend for me as well.

Barry T I met when he raced in FJ with a needle nose hull.

Mark R I met thru his dad Jerry at Quinn’s on Kennedy Road. Mark’s 13 Checkmate “Blue Max” was being rigged.

I think most racers would agree that John Beer was the best prop guy for a racer....that understood what their boat was doing on the race course and where the prop could be improved in that aspect!! John and Rob sponsored our Sport C boat in 1992. The boat stayed at the prop shop. John, Howie and I spent hours in the evenings working on that boat. Rob Scythes reworked the sponsons and tunnel shape as well. Sport C was a new class in Ontario in 1992 and we all had to learn from scratch what worked and what didn’t.

Sooner or later our paths will cross . I still have our 650XS

Was talking with Rob this afternoon. Although we have never met Rob has mentioned you to me several times and I'm sure he has told you about my 19' Cougar that he did a lot of work on.

Rob and John also did a lot of work on my Seebold SE boat back in 1978 & 1979.