former Banana owner-boating again?

[tooslow]

hey guys.its nice to see how far you have brought the Banana forum. I cant beleive you found Charlie and he is starting to build boats again-very cool. My name is Mike.Dave ? from R.I has my old 1988 with bridgeports. Since i sold the Banana ive had a honda cbr 954rr, then a mustang with a homemade twin turbo setup ( 530 hp 640 ft/lbs at rear wheels-yikes) then another cbr 954rr. Im ready for boating again. Have to get myself off the streets-boats are more fun.Looking for a 24-30 ft single bigblock/bravo setup. Want to be boating next year

[Dregsz]

Call Charlie and place an order.
Get the Gen III

[Air Dog]

hey guys.its nice to see how far you have brought the Banana forum. I cant beleive you found Charlie and he is starting to build boats again-very cool. My name is Mike.Dave ? from R.I has my old 1988 with bridgeports. Since i sold the Banana ive had a honda cbr 954rr, then a mustang with a homemade twin turbo setup ( 530 hp 640 ft/lbs at rear wheels-yikes) then another cbr 954rr. Im ready for boating again. Have to get myself off the streets-boats are more fun.Looking for a 24-30 ft single bigblock/bravo setup. Want to be boating next year

Hello Mike,

Great to have you back. I can remember when you and I were the only people on OSO that had Banana Boats.

Things sure have changed a lot since then.

My brother "Heat Buzz" still regrets not buying your boat that day we came to your house.

Are you going to buy another Banana Boat?

Chris

[Dregsz]

were the only people on OSO that had Banana Boats.

Things sure have changed a lot since then.
Chris

Yep now there are 3 banana owners, 1 wannabe owner and Charlie and TB
God bless us all
=)

I just did some quick math.
Out of 41 owner's forums there are only 18 forums with more posts putting us mid pack on content.
We have 99 threads

This is an interesting forum in that the original builders are actively involved in the nostalgia and current info and are part of the "membership, so its verticle and horizontal participation.

Just making observations....

[Air Dog]

Funny...

I meant the information regarding where the boats came from.

We didn't even know the relationship to Cigarette in 2003. All we knew was that they looked a like.

Plus I had no idea how much my boat weighed, how much fuel it carried, etc...

It's nice to have found the source for information.

[Dregsz]

I think having Charlie and TB around OSO with all the old who's who stories and Photos has elevated the position of Banana in the OSO comunity counsciousness.

It used to be down in the weeds with the small builders like Monza and Corsa and Excaliber, (before Wellcraft)

Now it's somewhat known (to insiders anyway) as the red headed stepchild of Cigarette.

Even being the stepchild of Cigarette is more provenence then nearly any boat builder could dream of.

Sorry guys, I'm in one of those devilish moods today.


The shocking thing is the boats have survived, there is a small collectors comunity, they are being restored.

I saw a post the other day from a 17 yo kid dreaming about a 24 Banana w 300x on nwoffshore.com, started a huge thread about it, (I was in the middle of a flame war in that thread but came out unscathed but smelling like buttered popcorn).
That 24 was well known on the South Puget Sound offshore crowd.
I put up pics of Chris's boat.

I remembered Banana from when I was a kid growing up in North Miami Beach, near Thunderboat Alley.
I had offshore fever my whole young life.

If you like classic offshore styling, a stand up driving position and outboard power, lots of it. There aren't many choices out there, new or old.

It's funny, I got back into offshore boats about a year ago when I started trolling boat trader just to see what scarab sports were selling for.

There was another smaller boat company that interested me years ago, it was a no frills boat called, I think after all this time, a Dolphin 19, kind of a mini offshore, CC, OB

After a youth spent oiling my dad's natural teak on a 36 trawler
I like boats that have outboards, no teak or foo foo trim, nothing that breaks or falls off, a fuel guage and battery, throttle and wheel.
Take it out, ride it hard, hose it off, put it away wet.
Now adays I can make accomodation for water pressure guages and some nose cones and a jack plate.

Thanks for putting up w me today

[Dregsz]

I also remember from back in the day, all the wacky Banana Names.
Who could forget
Top Banana. Hell's Banana and Banana Split?

It had to be one of the best marketing coups in offshore history

Any pics of Hell's Banana in Race paint?
It wasn't always white was it?

What were some of the other "Banana" names that weren't in the year and number thread?

[G Man]

Seems like most 24 's had OB power. Is that accurate. What was the ratio I/O v.s. OB

[Air Dog]

It seems like up until 1979, more than half were I/O's.

After that I only know of a few Banana's that had the I/O set-up.

Seems like most post 1980 boats were twin Merc outboards.

Mine was the first single outboard Banana I had ever seen.