The Pink Flamingo in Arizona

After seeing a Facebook post of an 88 Hallett it got me to thinking about the 1988 Eliminator I was lucky enough to own for a few years back in the mid 90’s.  I had bought it from a friend of mine and this boat was probably one of the reasons that kept me in college.  Granted the beer and fun helped plenty also.  But our friend Steve had bought this boat and I loved it the first time I road in it.  After college I first purchased an 18′ Stratos tunnel but it didn’t handle nearly as well as the 20′ Eliminator.  As it just so happened the dealer in Wisconsin where I was storing it at called in March and had taken a customer up to the shed to get his boat and he saw my Stratos and wanted to buy it.  Since you seldom make money selling a used boat I let it go and started shopping around.  Much to my amazement I called Steve to ask his advice on another boat and he said if I was serious he would sell me his.  The price was reasonable, the bank didn’t even blink to loan me the money on it for that price, and as soon as the ice broke the Eliminator was mine.

It was a 20′ Sport Tunnel I believe is what they called it.  It was a modified V tunnel that rode amazing for it’s size and turned on a dime.  Not to mention it was also a great ski boat back when I was in shape still.   This particular boat was made at Eliminator in Shawno, Wisconsin instead of California.  The gelcoat on it was a 7 color fade that had 1 minor bubble by the gauges was it for a flaw.  To this day I honestly don’t think I have ever seen a better boat both in looks or in how straight and perfect the lines of the gelcoat were.  I don’t know if it’s true but another Eliminator owner I once ran into said that they guy who did the gelcoat in Shawno turned down huge money to move to California once the Shawno plant closed and he also thought that the guy did far better work than the California plant.

When I decided to quite my Engineering job in Barrington I put the Eliminator up for sale to help fund the programming company that I would start a few years later.  It was the right decision for the time but I still to this day miss that boat.

Another strange turn of events in the story happened probably 10 years later.  I had heard from my friend Steve that he has seen the boat for sale in Colorado.  Since the ski pylon was custom built after the fact it was easy to tell it was our boat.  Anyways I think I was flying back from the Winter in Arizona and had a layover in Denver.  As I’m waiting as the gate for the flight to Chicago I hear someone yell my name.  I look over and here is Steve and his family! They were in Denver on a ski vacation and he actually had stopped to look at the boat while there.  While he said it was still nice it was no where near the mint shape when we both owned it and someone had put a bunch of snaps on it for a cockpit cover which was a shame also.  Steve decided not to buy it and the motor was probably on it’s last leg by that time.

Someone contacted me from Scream and Fly around 2011 and I think and it’s now located in Vegas area.  Lucky bastard.

Also a couple years later another one turned up on Craigslist in Beloit, Wisconsin.  I called Steve and he knew that an almost identical one had been made at the same time.  I almost purchased the one in Beloit which was supposed to be in mint condition still.  The main difference is that ours had multicolor gray o the sides where the sister had the maroon on the side also.  Again I’ll probably regret never driving over from Fox Lake to look at it but at the cost of gas these days I guess it’s a good thing.

The first pictures are of our old one when it was for sale in Colorado I believe and it has the ski pylon.  The other pictures were the sister ship in Beloit.

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