Johnson cut the motor yacht hull off at the water line, decked it over to make it water tight, and then installed bolted eye pads for attaching the Sunbird. The convertible Sunbird. The boat was named Sunbird, and it has boat hydraulic steering operated from the driver’s seat of the car. Two 200 HP Yamaha outboards provide the power. Ordinarily they would have accounted for a big part of the building cost. But this is a Stevie Johnson marine architecture/engineering feat, which in the past have been described as spinning someone else’s burn pile into gold. In this case, the engines were owned by someone at Johnson’s Boatyard on Long Island in Casco Bay. They were having some problems with them. Stevie said he “got a deal on the engines.” The owner offered to give them to him if he created a scene with them. Two races into the season and it looks like Stevie has lived up to his end of the bargain, at least if getting the Associated Press to come over to photograph the boat in action qualifies as having caused a scene. They were scheduled to show up on June 30 for a photo op. Plus, he has six more weeks of racing to sweeten the deal. The two Yamahas delivered 49MPH at the Rockland races. Johnson said, “driving a boat from a passenger car is quite a trip the first time you do it” The engine was pulled out of the car. The engine compartment became a storage space for coolers, life jackets, and road maps/charts. Johnson drove/steamed to the races from Long Island. There has to be at least a fisherman or two, who having made it back to their mooring, swore they would finally give up drink after seeing what they thought they saw just below the horizon as Johnson steamed to the races. |
