Hill Iles...1979 Vandal with Johnson 140.
(and its custom bass boat cousin)

I've had this boat for over twenty years, off and on.  It started out with an 85 Chrysler, jack plate, hot foot, and trim on the wheel. The boat ran about sixty five mph on a good day.  It handled very well, and with a change of prop, would pull your arms off if you didn't know how to get up on ski's.

I got in a wreck at a race one day and took the right corner out. This boat was set aside and the bass boat version was born using another Vandal hull.  The only difference in this boat and all the rest, is the casting deck was cut out while the glass was still wet (I still have the deck mold). This boat weighed in at 800 Lbs, fully rigged.  After a little running time, I took all the seats out and just left the essentials.  This brought the weight to about 635 Lbs.  It jumped up to about 69 mph, and would turn on a dime.  I ran this set up for years.  The big boats with the 200 hp would wonder why I could kill them out of the hole, and was so hard to catch.

My little brother borrowed this boat one summer, and I never got it back.  He put the seats back in it and hung a 115 mariner on the back. With a little paint it looked pretty good!  I was scouting some lower unit parts one day and found my old wrecked boat.  Two hundred dollars later it was home again.  It sat in the back yard until I just couldn't stand it any more.  The day I started on it, an old friend of mine came by and wanted to buy it.  He said the old gang had got back together, and they were drag racing.  We talked, he bought the boat, we rigged it with his 140 Johnson (after a new transom), I drove, and he spent money as the sponsor.  Not long after we got started, he was diagnosed with cancer.  A short time later, he was laid to rest.  We talked when he first got sick, and I bought the boat back from him.  So this is the third time I have owned this boat.

Last year I took it down again, and changed the color to blue.  The first picture and these last two are what I have now. This is truly an old friend!