Sam Dunsford must have loved boats because he surrounded himself with boats. Runabouts, Fast boats, Commuter boats, Speedboats. He raced boats. He built one of the greatest boathouses here at Winter Harbor, as a home for his boats.

Dunsford had Michigan designer, John Hacker, create two Gold Cup race boats. This first Scotty, did not turn well due to hull problems and she came in a disappointing second. Her Packard engine was removed to power a second boat, named Scotty Too. Both boats were built in the 1929-1930 period. Today Mark Howard owns Dunsford’s first Scotty, a cigar shaped beauty. Sam Dunsford, the consummate sportsman, stopped mid race in the 1929 Gold Cup, to aid other racers in an accident.

Bill Marriott began coming to Lake Winnipesaukee in the 1930s when he was very young. His family’s cottage was very close to Scotty’s boathouse. Bill saw Sam racing and testing Scotty Too each summer. Bill would occasionally row over to Dunsford’s and look up under the doors at Scotty Too hanging in the hoist.

During one of Scotty Too’s last runs after WWII, Dunsford arranged for teenager Bill Marriott to have a ride that would kindle a fire and love for speed, and for Scotty Too, that still burns today.

After Dunsford’s passing, his caretaker Elmer Folsom, inherited all the boats in the boathouse and eventually sold them off one by one. A legendary early collector here at the Lake, Sam Rogers, purchased both of the Scotties. Sam then sold Scotty Too to Ted Larter of Dunstable, Massachusetts circa 1968, who ran her with a succession of modern V8 engines.

In the early 1980’s a major restoration of Scotty Too was done, much of which was accomplished by vintage raceboat expert Mark Mason, who by that time had restored or owned four 1920’s Gold Cup racers. Mason had found a 1918 Hispano-Suiza H3 engine in a tobacco field in Kentucky, where it had lain outdoors for 45 years. He made the purchase for Ted Larter, who commissioned him to rebuild the engine for the restored Scotty Too. Some people thought the behemoth engine (1127 cubic inches) was too powerful for the hull, but Larter had acquired historic installation drawings for the Hisso and letters between John Hacker and Sam Dunsford showing their plan to power Scotty Too with this exact engine. When Scotty Too again hit the water the Hispano engine was an overwhelming success. She ran across the water like a scalded cat.

Mason moved to Winnipesaukee in 1985 and opened his shop in Laconia, New England Boat & Motor, Inc. Mark and Bill Marriott met in the late 1980’s and began exchanging stories and boat rides. At some point Marriott asked Mark what had become of Sam Dunford’s Scotty Too. Mason was asked to make a bid to purchase her from Ted Larter. That offer was refused, and Larter died in 1994.

A decade later, the Larter’s pulled Scotty Too from a dusty barn and brought her to Mason’s shop in Laconia to be spruced up to run again. She ran on Winnipesaukee, out of Mason’s Hiawatha boathouse cottage for a couple weeks before being scheduled to ship to Larter’s boathouse on Lake George, NY. During this time, early one morning, Mason and owner Alan Larter took Bill Marriot for his second ride in Scotty Too, separated by half a century. Several offers to purchase Scotty Too followed, but the Larter family refused to sell what had become for them, a family treasure.

During 2009 Bill and Mark discussed building a reproduction, with the Larter’s blessings. Later that year a contract was signed with a targeted delivery date of Saturday July 30, 2011, the date of the Meredith Antique Boat Show. Those few that know will confirm that Saturday night the 31st, she was elegantly swinging in the hooks of Bill Marriott’s boathouse.

Mason has built many boats in his Laconia shop, but in recent years he has chosen to subcontract bare hull construction outside his shop. Mason selected Steve White and Brian Larkin of Brooklin Boat Yard, on the Maine coast, to build the bare hull. It was then brought to Laconia for all mechanical work, wiring and enough detail to make a grown man cry. Mason and his crew found a 1918 Hispano-Suiza aircraft engine in Michigan. It was purchased, restored and marine converted. Foundry patterns were located for the exact V-Drive gearbox that has been running in Scotty Too. A complete gearbox was built from scratch for the new boat. The boat you see today is a very close duplicate of the original and even bears the original racing number G-27.

Her name, pronounced the same as the original Scotty Too, spelled with a twist…… Scotty Two.

Written by Mark Mason.