Jo Carol Too (wood)

Jo-Carol Too JS-1

Owner: Bob Perri

Year Built:

Hull Design:

Power:

Resided In:

(Photo provided by Julian Rucki, information provided by Jim Rucki)

Bob Perri's original wooden Jo Carol Too after a mold was taken off of her. Perri and company painted the boat red and white stripes because all the faring compound that was added to the boat to cover the rivets made it look ugly. The bottom of the boat was still gray which was the releasing agent from the mold.

The following weekend, they raced the boat and the boat separated at the waterline and sunk. The hull was recovered, filled the engine with oil and the sides of the boat sat in Perri's front yard. In the meantime the weekend races were quickly approaching and Perri was trying to get money together to get a new deck for his fiberglass boat. Running out of time, he cut the deck off remains of the Jo Carol Too (the one in the front yard) and put it on the new fiberglass boat that was made from the mold. They cleaned out the oil from the old engine, installed it in the new boat and ran 5 m.p.h. faster than the old boat.

Chris Ziegler and George Hiro had the second and thirds molds. Hiro also had another mold (a third one) which Perri did not know about. Hiro passed one on to Bud Bender....see the family tree.

As told by Rich Ardolino 10/03

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of being given rides in the first Jo-Carol Too on the Shrewsbury river in Long Branch, NJ. Uncle Dan sat me on his lap and let me steer while he worked the throttle. In those days (early 50s) he kept the skiff in the water at a local marina for pleasure use and raced it on weekends. I remember going snapper fishing and crabbing in the 1st Jo-Carol Too and cousin Carol used it to take her friends watersking.

The boat was named after Dan's wife Josephine and when his daughter Carol heard what he was going to name it she said,"Hey, what about me!" and the name was changed to Jo-Carol Too. Incidently, Aunt Jo is still living and my wife and I take her to dinner every week. She wouldn't want me to reveal her age but lets just say its over 90.

My vague recollection is that the first wood Jo-Carol Too was a Seaman design but I'm not sure if "Pappy" Seaman actually built it. It may have been built by Otto Becker. I'll ask cousin Carol and Bob Perri if they can elaborate and let you know. As I recall there were 3 wood Jo-Carol Toos. I don't know who built the 2nd boat but I do know the third was built by "Pop" Russell in Rumson, NJ. 1965 was the first race season for that 3rd Jo-Carol Too, which jumped the mile straightaway record from 59 to 65 mph and also set a new closed course 5 mile record and won every race that season. In fact, it only lost one heat that year when it "wing dinged" at a race in Millville, NJ and the riding mechanic (Dan's son Ralph) was thrown clear of the boat. He swam back, climbed in and they were able to catch up and pass the second place boat (being driven by Bob Verga, don't remember the boat name) at the finish but were disqualified because of Ralph being thrown clear. After racing a few seasons the 3rd boat was getting beat up so Uncle Dan had George Wolcott build a new wood skiff but in the first (unofficial, not APBA sanctioned) race at Ocean City, NJ it proved to be overbuilt and not as fast as the older boat. That is when Bob and Chris Ziegler used the Russell hull to make a mold and the rest is history.