People who extol Aronow's contribution to the sport/performance boat world generally tend to exaggerate his contributions, in my opinion. There was significant development in many areas BA (Before Aronow). Renato (Sonny) Levi had built dozens of offshore boats with great success. For smaller boats, Bob Hammond of Glastron fame was coming on fast. Harry Schoell had already done some good stuff.
There is one area of performance boating that was absolutely untapped. The big fast Diesel runabouts are 100% creations of Don Aronow. His creation of the 49' Cigarette/Cary and the 53' Magnum were so far out of the normal scheme of boats that most of the hardware had yet to be invented!
Most amazing, neither of these boats was actually designed. The 49' Cary was an exact 1.5 times blow-up of the 32' Cary/Cigarette, and the 53' Magnum was the 35' Magnum stretched to 40' with a pencil, and then blown up 1.25 times.
The mobs of big Sea Rays, Baias, and that huge group of boats the world over all owe their birth to Don. Mind you, his part of their creation was like a sailor on shore leave, inseminating a couple of babes and back to sea again, leaving the rearing of the offspring to someone else.
I was lucky enough to be the engineer at both companies, at just the right time. I built the first several of each, and never enjoyed any job more. When I tip my hat to Don Aronow, it for his foresight in this area. I don't think he has ever been given the credit that he deserves. I can't imagine how much Sea Ray would owe him.
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