Norville was a great guy and always had a smile and a hello for you even if he had no idea who you were........ He was not a young man during the "Dealer" years and his eyesight may not have been the best as a result, but he always made his boats available for the race sites and publicity.
One year at New Orleans in the early 90's we were out doing some television piece for ESPN or Speedvision...I can't remember which. Anyway, Norville, was running one of the "Dealer"s (Maybe an Apache?) at full throttle around Lake Pontchartrain with an assortment of media/PR types, cameramen and a couple of degenerate racing announcers on board. I was standing behind the forward bolster and helping the producer understand what "Starboard" meant or some such, when, out of the corner of my eye I see this odd line on the surface of the water dead ahead..... My mind raced and my eyes squinted until in a burst of energy..I dove over the bolster, chopped the throttles back and turned the wheel hard left simultaneously (obviously not a step bottom hull). As we settled to a slow crawl we were about 8 feet abreast of a concrete sea wall that was sticking up maybe 3 inches above the flat water surface. It was some kind of protective wall next to the airport...We had been running about 90 aiming straight for this insidious little creation, which would have torn us apart.
I'm not sure if Norville ever fully comprehended what happened as he happily nosed away and took off at full throttle....never giving the incident any thought at all.
You can't make this stuff up.
T2x