TOPIC: Roy Roger's Yellow Jacket

Photo of Roy Rogers installing marathon tanks in his Yellow Jacket..

I don't see a windshield. I wonder how his hat stayed on? I understand this boat still is around somewhere.

robert-lorigan,

"Back in the day", "COOL GUYS" took the windshields OFF, to make the boat LOOK sleeker.= None of the boats of my mispent youth ever had a windshield.

yours, satx

does anyone know what the brand of trailer this is? i have TWO of them and don't know who the heck made them!

I think someone may have restored one in the last couple years. You may want to check out the trailer forum. I don't know.

Load King Trailers by E. L. Caldwell & Sons of Corpus Christi, Texas was at least manufacturer of these types of trailers. Sometimes known as artillery-style or gun-carriage trailers. Replacement wheels have been hard to find, I seem to recall log-splitter wheels were similar, bearing in the rims?

Thank you Andy! Great info!....and yes the rims are pretty unique I was wondering what how I could replace them and with what.....i found both of trailers in Texas.....one had a Rexcraft regent and the other had a victor Lebaron on it....

That is a Husky trailer

The Husky was the original trailer offered by Yellow Jacket as part of the Yellow Jacket package by dealers. The Husky was innovative in its use of independent coil spring suspension, designed to smooth the ride for the very light Yellow Jacket boats. The trailers also have very high ground clearance.

I have one under my Glass YJ and one under my wood YJ. Sorry to say the wood YJ's trailer is history. It was used on the Texas Gulf Coast too many years

If I remember the tag reads MFG Dallas Texas

You can get tires and hub as a unit at Northern Tools, or just the tire at Northern Tools, Walmart (herein TX Academy Sports) and many places on Line.

This must be when Roy Rogers and his partner at Yellow Jacket were preparing for theit trip up the Mighty Missippii.

1964mfg wrote:

This must be when Roy Rogers and his partner at Yellow Jacket were preparing for theit trip up the Mighty Missippii.

I think that was the boat he raced (or started...the race was fogged out)to Catalina Island.

Roy and Mac Mcderby took a group of Yellow Jacket boats down the Red river from Denison, TX into the Mississippi and on down to New Orleans.

The boat the he used for that trip was named "little Miss Yellow Jacket II"

www.happytrailsforever.com/roy-entrepreneur.html

historywithheart.com/yellowjacketstories.html#Dalton

groups.yahoo.com/group/yellowjacketboats/

This boat is the race boat Mac built for Roy to race in The Catalina Island race. Roy won it and the next year Mac went back with his boat that he had Mercury put counter rotating engines. It was faster than Roys. I know, I have the props from the boat and the trophy Mac won, he gavethem to me. May start a project to build a replica of that boat. Need to locate a 56 or 57 14' Mahogany hull. The race boats were 15' long.

piccyr wrote:

This boat is the race boat Mac built for Roy to race in The Catalina Island race. Roy won it and the next year Mac went back with his boat that he had Mercury put counter rotating engines. It was faster than Roys. I know, I have the props from the boat and the trophy Mac won, he gavethem to me. May start a project to build a replica of that boat. Need to locate a 56 or 57 14' Mahogany hull. The race boats were 15' long.

There is one (really 3) going up for auction this summer in North Texas

www.fiberglassics.com/fiberglassics-forums/home/main-forum/huge-boat-and-motor-auction-dec-1-2

What motors did he run? A prototype of the Mark 75 or 78. You could put the prop on and run the motor in reverse rotation....any other motor it may be a bit hard on the sifter.

The motors on Roy's V2 looks to be Mark 55