Riggy
Well-known member
Early 70\'s Jet-ski Prototype? Tale.....
Back in 1971 when life had not long changed from being in black and white to full colour, myself and a couple of mates decided we would throw everything we owned into a van and drive to South Africa. Needless to say one or two of us sort of 'needed' to go on a Continental trip for a while, so, after buying an old Austin J4 ex post office van ( remember the ones with the slidy doors?) and spraying it inside and out with powder-blue household emulsion, orft we jolly well went.
Great time driving down through france and Spain (first time any of us had been anywhere 'cept Wales or Scotland) got sunburned at a campsite near Madrid and jollied our way down to good old Gib to re-stock on things, via two ferries being that the border was closed again. Must say at 19 years old and not having had much 'life' experience, first sight of one or two Moroccans in their Jelaba's in Tangiers Port sort of put the wind up me.
Spending the next few months in Gib trying to earn some money for the next leg of the trip proved rather hard for my two mates and after six months of trying they gave up and flew back to Blighty. Me, I found work and survived and had a rioutous time for nearly four years.
One of my first jobs was selling ice-creams on the beach to all the tourists and at night kipping in a beach hut (dunarf bring back great memories) and about halfway through that first magic year I befriended a guy from Bristol called George. Now Goerge had a mate (I think he was possibly from round that area too) who brought out from the UK, three, of what I can only describe as 'marinised motorbikes'. These things were and acted just like motorbikes on the water and boy did they shift. They had bright yellow casings just like motorbike fairings and I think (long time ago ) that they were powered by bog standard motorbike engines. Only problem was, he was having tremendous stability problems and hadn't perfected the casings to make them water-tight, which meant that everytime you wanted to take off, it needed two other people, one on each side, while the rider climbed aboard and throttled away. If one or two people (one being the rider) tried to get it away, it would invariably topple over, flood the engine with sea water and have to be taken ashore and dried out. He had them there for about six months I believe and then shipped them back to the UK never to be seen again.
So....did anyone else have any experience of these 'water-bikes' ? Were they the prototype for Jet-skis? Whover built them really deserved to succeed for his inginuity and pioneering attempts and I would love to find out what the future held for them after being shipped back from Gib.
Back in 1971 when life had not long changed from being in black and white to full colour, myself and a couple of mates decided we would throw everything we owned into a van and drive to South Africa. Needless to say one or two of us sort of 'needed' to go on a Continental trip for a while, so, after buying an old Austin J4 ex post office van ( remember the ones with the slidy doors?) and spraying it inside and out with powder-blue household emulsion, orft we jolly well went.
Great time driving down through france and Spain (first time any of us had been anywhere 'cept Wales or Scotland) got sunburned at a campsite near Madrid and jollied our way down to good old Gib to re-stock on things, via two ferries being that the border was closed again. Must say at 19 years old and not having had much 'life' experience, first sight of one or two Moroccans in their Jelaba's in Tangiers Port sort of put the wind up me.
Spending the next few months in Gib trying to earn some money for the next leg of the trip proved rather hard for my two mates and after six months of trying they gave up and flew back to Blighty. Me, I found work and survived and had a rioutous time for nearly four years.
One of my first jobs was selling ice-creams on the beach to all the tourists and at night kipping in a beach hut (dunarf bring back great memories) and about halfway through that first magic year I befriended a guy from Bristol called George. Now Goerge had a mate (I think he was possibly from round that area too) who brought out from the UK, three, of what I can only describe as 'marinised motorbikes'. These things were and acted just like motorbikes on the water and boy did they shift. They had bright yellow casings just like motorbike fairings and I think (long time ago ) that they were powered by bog standard motorbike engines. Only problem was, he was having tremendous stability problems and hadn't perfected the casings to make them water-tight, which meant that everytime you wanted to take off, it needed two other people, one on each side, while the rider climbed aboard and throttled away. If one or two people (one being the rider) tried to get it away, it would invariably topple over, flood the engine with sea water and have to be taken ashore and dried out. He had them there for about six months I believe and then shipped them back to the UK never to be seen again.
So....did anyone else have any experience of these 'water-bikes' ? Were they the prototype for Jet-skis? Whover built them really deserved to succeed for his inginuity and pioneering attempts and I would love to find out what the future held for them after being shipped back from Gib.
