smokeybandit
New member
Not much to say about this one. Great rough water boat, and great bunch of guys. Was shocked when I heard Kenny died.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7vurWhdgFE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7vurWhdgFE
Headlines
K&K Ghost
- Thread starter smokeybandit
- Start date
Dude! Sweet!
Charter Member
Nice video. Thanks for posting all these on youtube. Great stuff!
Ryan Beckley
Charter Member / Competitor
Those brothers were bad dudes & were rarely beaten especially in rough water.
MOBILEMERCMAN
Founding Member / Competitor
They ruled.. In the rough not a chance of beating them..Joker S 13 did beat them in Bay City once. The old man was ****ed. They pulled the boat and drove straight off the race site.
MOBILEMERCMAN
Founding Member / Competitor
They ran hard. The boat looked kind of like a 21 superboat bottom with a big notch then the brackets. It went pretty near 80 mph. Strung out looks flighty.
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
Ken Kalibat Senior (my ex boss, when I was 18..... and a very good friend) passed away about 10 years ago from Leukemia..... a sad and sudden loss. (It went undiagnosed until it was far too late). Ken Kalibat Junior is alive and well as is the rest of the family.
The Kalibat legacy is a great one in racing, but their primary status is defined as a "class act".
T2x
smokeybandit
New member
Those guys loved racing just to race. Ken was a big dude and the boys were even bigger. But they were the nicest crew to be around.Never needed flash or hype. They proved it all on the race course. Rich, was it 84 or 85 that Ken Sr. threw you in the drink at Key West?
Ryan Beckley
Charter Member / Competitor
Is this still there business? http://www.kandkoutboard.com/
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
It wasn't Key West...it was Patchogue.... I don't remember the year.
Ken Sr. was bigger than either of his sons, close to 300 lbs and maybe 6'5', he was the strongest guy I ever met. Ken was also fearless. He confronted two of the larger than life guys in the sport during his career.
1. He made a comment to Aronow to quit complaining about something or other at the drivers' meeting for the '65 Around Long Island Marathon (Ken was standing in the back of the room at Guy Lombardo's East Point House Restaurant in Freeport, L.I.... Don was seated up front). The words escalated quickly and Aronow stood up and raced toward Ken with his fists clenched. As he got closer and Ken kept getting bigger...it suddenly became "hold me back....hold me back!"...and Aronow never swung. In fact he waited for a large group to "pull him back".
2. In the 1968 or '69 Havasu race, Big Don Pruett, known for his temper and ability with his fists, in his triple engine 23' Jones tunnel,drove on top of Ken's 21' dual Glastron-Molinari and they wound up floating that way in a turn. Both men were all right but Pruett was screaming at Ken and both men jumped out of their respective cockpits. The screaming continued, but for the only time I ever saw, Pruett never swung a punch.....All this was going on while the boats, crisscrossed one on top of the other,.............slowly sank.
Like I said...Ken was a big man and he backed down from no one.
T2x
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
yep..........
It has grown nicely over the years and was always very well run, both operationally and financially.
Ryan Beckley
Charter Member / Competitor
Are the brothers till running it? I see one of there son's posting on S&F from time to time.....
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
They ran the boat like a motorcross cycle. In truth the boat needed some ballast, but those two could dance that thing like that for hours and, in so doing, lure the other racers into situations that took all of the starch out of the competition.
T2x
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
Yes, Jeff and Ken still run the business along with their mom, Joan.
MOBILEMERCMAN
Founding Member / Competitor
Here is a pic from '86 showing the three of them. They were the ones to beat.
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
Ken SR. in the yellow shirt, and the boys, in those funky driving suits, sitting on the deck.
