Top Banana

Neither was done.

harddock

I was always told you plugged a local 24' Cigarette.

KevD815

The banana cuddy is great feature. Its so nice to be able to have a place to get out of the rain or take a nap. My buddy has a Cigarette 24 that you basically have to crawl into the "cuddy" headfirst while the banana has a cutout in the floor and a notch in the dashboard area to let you step in.

On a side note, i dont know how guys race "sit down" boats. Seems like it would be awfully rough on your back in big water.

harddock

Having owned both a 24 banana and a 24 squadron x11 I can say that the 24 deadrise was the same but they were two different boats. The freeboard of the Squadron was nowhere near what it was on the banana. The squad was a sit down flat deck with bulkheads up front there was no cabin space whatsoever. The 24 banana had room have a porta potti and sleep 2 and could handle stand up bolster seating.

KevD815

Which boat did you like better Harddock?

harddock

The Squadron was a fun lake boat but the performance and creature comforts, (cabin, potti, stand up bolsters) of the Banana made it a lot more fun. I had owned a Martini 25.6 and later a 26' Scarab Sport and of the four the Banana was the most fun. I like the twin outboard boats more. You might want to look at Superboat and Sutphen as well.

Top Banana

Here is the website with a lot of information on the boat and the other sizes we made.

www.bananaboatco.com

Don Aronow sold me the 24 Cigarette molds. When it was time for him to start Squadron, he asked me to make a 24 plug out of my mold and add bulkheads so he could make a mold out of it. The freeboard was cut down at the lip and the 24 matched the 27 he made. He also cut the 24 down the middle and put a wing on it with two big Merc outboards and it ran over 100 mph. He used the same idea when he cut a 41 later and made a cat out of it and started USA Racing.

harddock

When I was in the market for my first Banana (Double Trouble) the story I was told, by the guy up here in MA who owned the 24 twin 6 cylinder teak deck70's model that he claimed was used to create the molds for the 24' Banana. He retold the same story when I bought Banana Boat Ltd. This by no means makes the story true but I can't imagine why he would make it up. That was how I got my information. He did mention Charley McCarthy. He must have been confused when he told the story and really meant his boat was from the same molds as the Banana. If I see him I will try to get the story told again and relay I to you.

By the time I acquired a Squadron hull it was bought in Florida through a MA marine dealer friend as a hull and deck with stringers that went up to deck height at the transom. It had USA Racing Team stickers and I don't remember the VIN code but I know it wasn't CRT. Not knowing USA's code we called it the orphan as we didn't know who actually laid up the hull.

I worked for a Wellcraft dealer when after the Ohio accident SeaWorld stopped using the Scarab Sports and through him I bought the Scarab from Wellcraft and the engines from Mercury.


Do you know anything of the 24 called Double Trouble or the one lettered Banana Boat Ltd. I'm not sure of the year but the bolsters were not staggered and the bulkhead aft of the rear seat was narrow compared to earlier models.

Top Banana

I had a good customer out of NY that I built a white twin outboards on the transom 24. We used that boat for the Powerboat Magazine Florida trials that year. He named the boat Double Trouble. It was then sold to a guy in Rhode Island who used it during the 80's. Never saw it after that. Maybe that is the boat you have now?

When you say twin 6 cylinders and a teak deck, if you mean sterndrives, that is probably a Cigarette 24 foot. That is how Don made them back then, no cabin, just a crawl space under the deck.