Here is the hull number and production date. No. 1726 <-4 - 43 ->with a script FORD between the 43 and 1726. It is followed by the inspectors stamp on the right below the right arrow.
I discovered the remains of another Lynx at Swan Reach, Victoria, and between these two and another found in SA by Tony L. there were enough parts to assemble one and most of another. Rick Sh. in SA now has those other parts and has the chassis partly assembled although the hull is still in two major parts. This hull is No.1814.
One for Mike C. What does the tack sign on the rear mudguard of the Swan Reach one represent it looks like No.51.?
In May 2005, Jill and I visited the Lynx and boat owner, Charlie McCallum, in the Omeo Hospital where he was a resident. Charlie was glad to see me and said that as soon as he got out of hospital we would pull the rear wall off the shed and extract the boat. Unfortunately for all of us, Charlie died a few weeks later and his whole estate had to be sold. I rang John Ross, his executor, some weeks later and asked when the Clearing Sale would be as I was interested in the boat for the engine. He said that he knew about me having the Ford Lynx and asked if I had anything in writing from Charlie. I answered “No” and that I would have to take my chances at the auction. John said he was pleased with that attitude as he had had many phone calls from people saying that Charlie had promised the boat to them but no-one had it in writing. John said that some were quite insistent to the point of being rude.
The Auction was on 5th December 2005 at Benambra and a large crowd attended. One chap asked me what I was there for and when I told him the boat or the engine, he said so was he. He asked what I thought it would go for so I told him an amount of about ½ of what was my limit. The executor, John Ross then gave me permission to locate any Lynx parts and put them all on one pallet. There were many small bits spread across the whole sale area as they did not know what was Lynx and what wasn’t. That pallet load cost me $20.00 for about 200 small bits.
Then it was the boat’s turn. There were 6 or more people bidding on the boat by phone including one from New Zealand. The auctioneer started with his selling spiel about the history of the boat and it’s successes from 1947. He started at $9,000.00 then dropped it to Eight. Seven, Six and Five thousand with no response. He then said $2,000.00 and still no bid so he asked for a start. I said $200.00. “Well that’s a start”, he said and off it went. In $20.00 increases, until it got to $560.00 when the mobile phone system dropped out and the six people handling the phone bids called out for a halt. After about 2 ½ minutes which seemed like 5 hours to me, the auctioneer said that we had to continue and the bloke who had asked me earlier what I thought it would go for said “Go for it Rick, I know how much you will go to and that is too much for me.” The boat was knocked down to me for $580.00. (Thank you Charlie for pulling the phone plugs up there and Ian for not running me up.)
I removed the boat to a local’s yard as the tyres had rotted off the wheels and I returned two days later to pick it up.
This photo of the boat was taken 26 days later at the 2006 Glenmaggie New Years Day regatta where we put the boat on display. Unknown to me was that there were 7 photos of the boat racing at Glenmaggie on the Club room walls. One old chap came up and told me that he remembered setting the propeller to the required pitch for the Ford V8 engine back in 1958.
Regards Rick.