Skip owns the one and only mold for the 18, hull and deck. He made a new deck mold with the different bulkhead area in the late 90's I believe. Tom built an 18 for Badgerland which they ran twin 115's on for a year or two until Tom started building 20's and marketing them via Pete and Skis-N-Stuff. Tom built an 18 which he brought up to Nationals which had the new pylon area with a Honda 90 on it. I believe this was around Nationals 1997. This may be the boat that Brint Burrill has now with a different motor on it. Those boats may have had the prefix FPD. Skip then started building boats on his own and for Pete after Tom and Pete went their seperate ways. Dynegreg got his boat from Pete at Nationals in? 2000? That one was definitely built by Skip if my memory serves me right.
It was in 1999. I bought a 1973 earlier in the spring and was in the process just like Mark is now. I had the trailer finished first, and then ran into Pete at Nats. It was sitting on his Eagle trailer, in which I already had my Hydrodyne original completely refabbed. We made a trade at the local boat landing in Burlington, WI. I got a nice new shell, and someone got my nightmare 1973. It couldn't have worked better. Right time, right place. I kept all of the original 1973 parts (pylon, tilt wheel, etc.). THe next spring of 2000 is when I got it rigged with the Opti, and used it since. I was told only 5 were made when I purchased it. I know Rami Amir has one of the others on Lake Mary in Twin Lakes, WI. There's my story. Greg
Guys, Now I'm totally confused. Jim has been on this site telling people to see Tom Miller for one of the "new 18's". If Skip owns the only molds, how is Tom Miller building these new boats? (Pete from Dyna Ski also told me that Skip has the molds.) What gives?????
So if both Tom's and Skip's boats are from the same exact mold, then why are we separating these boats on this web site as if they are two different models? We are making this out to be as if the Tom Miller boats are different from Riverside Composite's when they are from the same "mother". It's kind of like saying one identical twin is not realted to his twin brother. Greg
They are two seperate manufacturers like Ford and Mercury. Just because the shape is the same does not mean the boats are the same. Each is free to use any inner structure that he pleases. jim
Why must we go through this every couple of weeks? I have put up different areas for each boat becuase they are built by different people. I can duplicate a Picture but I can't tell people it is the original. I can buy a DVD player from company X and it works just as well as company Ys it even looks the same, but it still is not built by the same company so is there for not the same product. Daniel <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_arrow.gif" border="0" alt="party" title="party" />
