Now belongs to 76Bonneville. I think its on his project list somewhere.

at least it went to the right guy why would brad give that up no offense are you gonna race it or just restore ok you really gotta race it

trust me....it was a fighting battle with myself when i sold it.

I told myself i would never get rid of it.....but then I bought the liberty (crazy eights) and i knew the raspberry would get sidelined for a LONG time. It would just sit. Ron hit me up about it and asked what I was going to do and under my breath i mentioned maybe I'd sell it. ...then ron said "well, if you decide to sell it, let me know, im very interested"  ....at that point i knew i opened a can of worms within myself. it took me a day or two to convince myself it was the better thing to do.

I dont think it could have gone to a better person. Ron knows and respects the history of the boat and wants to restore it to its original condition when it was a ski boat. If you look at rons other projects and completed boats, you know he pays attention to detail and doesnt 1/2 ass things.

Ron did promise me that if he did ever decide to give up on it and sell it, he would contact me first. 

shhhh just dont tell her   

about racin the rasperry.....i agree, thats the reason i got rid of it....everytime i mentioned the damn thing and said i was going to race it....people cringed. even craig said it tossed him out of it a few times pretty good...thats why he retired it as well....but dont get me wrong....it would make an GREAT lake/ski boat....that steep entry really cuts the chop good.

now i got the liberty and nay-sayers tell me its a dangerous bottom 

now i got the liberty and nay-sayers tell me its a dangerous bottom 

the hornet has the same bottom and every time it spun it was my fault not the boats.

and for the rogers people, i have a video of the 410 boat pitching terry, so dont tell me the rogers is a safer/better bottom.

Now now Ralph lets be nice.  Everyone has their own ideas about what's the "best boat". My self I'm REALY one sided.  Though It NEVER raced in circles I'd put my money on the Liberty's tunnel. Of course it has NOTHING to do with the fact that Bennett & I designed it.  It did have sponsons similar to a Seabold, It had plenty of room and tall gunnels, it was wide,fast, and loved horse power, but I come from a completely different side of the argument. As far as the Raspberry goes, make it a respected river boat with weekday duties in a museum. At Long Beach, park it next to a shovel nosed hydro, a wood flatbottom, and a 1200lb GN boat from the 70's and let the crowd shake their heads in disbelief. I found the Liberty tunnel with an OB on it in an old ad posted on Performanceboats.com just in case you don't know what it was. http://www.performanceboats.com/html/forums/showthread.php?t=859

Well Brad I don't know what an incorrect driver is they have all gone over or around. Good, bad, rookie, veteran. Most made it through fine some got messed up.  I agree that semi V's could be better but even then poop happens.

I was over at my friends house when I split mine open . Turns out him and his friend used to build/rig liberty's and he says to me "Get a Liberty tunnel ."  Tunnel you say  Liberty  Never even knew they built one , kind of cool .

-beerjet-

I would think that any jet boat in that rough water being raced in combined with high speeds, and then trying to make it turn is not a good scenario. The first chance the ass end can get some air under it, that extra 1000 lbs. back there wants to come to the front. As far as the Rogers being safer, I watched my uncle do a couple 180's in the air in a matter of about 10 minites. That was back in about 1974 in a Super Cyclone. Besides if any of these boats were safe, they wouldn't be racing. Safe isn't fast and fast isn't safe.