[puppetshow]

My dad just told me today ( claims he has told me before but I don't remember)

that the Miss Pepsi boat was built by my Grandfather and a few other's in the garage of house that I currently live in

It is now in a museum on Belle Isle.
so I'm thinking road trip- I want to go see it- he said there is a blurb about my grandfather in the museum.

I guess my uncle has some pictures of it being built.

Pretty cool!!

 

[edeenorog]

That's kewl. The kids will love having that to tell their friends.

 

[surfergirlck]

hey! i'm up for a roadtrip!

i've never been to belle isle!

 

[puppetshow]

the conversation started because there is an article in the Voice today about the Offshore races coming to Algonac next year.......so my Dad starting telling me the stories about the Miss Pepsi-
I'm going to get some of those pictures from my uncle-

I guess the boat was built in the garage and they had to knock out a wall to get it out!

 

[INSTIGATOR]

That's pretty kewl! I did a little searching & found there were TWO Miss Pepsi's. The first was built in 1948 by Clell Perry & won the Gold Cup in its first race, then was destroyed when it was dropped in 1949. Then, they built a new one.

Here is the best artical I could find: MISS PEPSI

 

[fatcat660]

Its a cool boat, been to that museum a dozen times or so. Belle Isle Is so cool it is sad to see it decaying.

 

[INSTIGATOR]

The plot thickens!
Here is a story about Clell Perry building Hydroplanes in Algonac, but no mention of Miss Pepsi: Clell Perry

 

[puppetshow]

The first one is correct- it is the one in the museum.

Clell Perry is the designer and my grandfather (Edward Sikorski) and the Dawson brother's were the builder's.

 

[INSTIGATOR]

QUOTE(puppetshow @ Oct 15 2003, 02:52 PM)The first one is correct- it is the one in the museum.

Clell Perry is the designer and my grandfather (Edward Sikorski) and the Dawson brother's were the builder's.
Actually, it is the DOSSIN brothers. More specifically Walter Dossin. Here is their story: Dossin Legacy
I stumbled accross the Dossin Museum website: Great Lakes Maritime Museum

 

[puppetshow]

opps- spelled it wrong

my dad just gave me a picture of my grandfather sitting on top of the boat in the garage-

it's old...don't know what it will look like if I scan it-

I knew that my grandfather built boats- he worked for Chris Craft and there was always Chris Craft stuff all over the garage. He actually started to build a Chris Craft wood boat kit and after he died my Dad finished it and sold it.

 

[puppetshow]

After reading the article about the Dossin's....it makes me mad that they don't meantion at all anything about my grandfather- just that it was built in Algonac-

so now we have to go to the museum and look!

thanks for all of the info Steve!

 

[INSTIGATOR]

Miss Pepsi

 

[INSTIGATOR]

BUT WAIT, there's MORE!!

SO-LONG was RENAMED MISS PEPS V by the Dossin brothers of Detroit

The Peps, originally So Long jr, was a three-pointer, built in 1939 by the Ventnor Boat Works

SO LONG

 

[puppetshow]

I e-mailed a few of the historian's on these web site's looking for more information.

I want to go to the museum and see the boat-

 

[Goose]

QUOTE(surfergirlck @ Oct 15 2003, 02:21 PM)hey! i'm up for a roadtrip!

i've never been to belle isle!
Hey, sounds good, lets do it on a Friday or Saturday, get there just after dark so we can see the island in all it's glory!!!!! There usually is a huge bash happening on the island at that time. EASTSIDE!!!!

 

[ThreeCrabs]

How cool, Puppetshow! I'm in for a road trip! Haven't been to Belle Isle in quiet some time.

 

[shayner1]

My grandpa worked on the same boat! His name was wellington drexler!

 

[Brian1234]

BUT WAIT, there's MORE!!

SO-LONG was RENAMED MISS PEPS V by the Dossin brothers of Detroit

The Peps, originally So Long jr, was a three-pointer, built in 1939 by the Ventnor Boat Works

SO LONG

An interesting tidbit about the Peps V is that it was before commercial promotion was allowed, so they named it Peps V where the P had a lonnnng bottom that came up near the "s" to kind of look like an "i" at the end. The V was for the 5 cent price.

Chuck Thompson, the driver of the Miss Pepsi at the Dossin, was fatally injured while driving Joe Schoenith's SMIRNOFF in the 1966 Gold Cup at Detroit., but Chuck Jr. is still around.

 

[Brian1234]

my dad just gave me a picture of my grandfather sitting on top of the boat in the garage-

Looking forward to seeing that!

Oops, just realized that post was >10 years ago.

 

[Brian1234]

Detroit Dossin Brothers Win the 1947 Gold Cup

By The Ghost Of Hydroplane Past

World-War II wrought profound changes in APBA Gold Cup competition, and the Unlimited's were back for the first time since 1921. More and more boats used sponsons rather than 'stepped' displacement hulls to skim over the water, and the powerplants of choice were the Allison and Rolls-Royce Merlin engines originally designed for use in WWII fighter aircraft.

The 1947 Gold Cup Champion was Miss Peps V, a pre-war 3-point hull, owned by the Dossin brothers of Detroit and driven by the 1996 Hall-Of-Fame inductee Danny Foster. Miss Peps V was the first Gold Cup winner to use a V-12 Allison.

Run on the extremely rough water of Jamaica Bay, NY, Foster outran the likes of Albin Fallon in Miss Great Lakes, Guy Lombardo in Tempo VI and Dan Arena in Notre Dame to win at an average speed of 56.8 MPH.

Although sponsored by Pepsi-Cola, the Dossin boat couldn't carry the full name into competition because of a ban on commercial sponsorships. As the cost of campaigning a modern 'Gold Cupper' continued to spiral upward, corporate sponsorship would soon be a welcome and necessary part of racing life.