That pic looks like it was taken from the Boston 1988 Hi Performance Boat Show. That was a great show.

Kurt

I saw one in Manchester. The guy was real a different, his looked ok said it was an early 80's that he bought up on winnie and that it was a old race boat. He said that before he bought it had triple 2.4 on it. When it saw it I thought it was an I/O that had been glassed over, and it had a bracket on it with an old merc 200. But he said that outboard notch had been built up. Had no seats in it at all no windshield a big destroyer wheel and a aluminum arch, Said he owned it for 20 yrs. He was a pack rat I think he kept everything he's ever owned so that maybe true, but he also said it did almost 70mph with that one old 200 merc. Thats when I left. He has moved it somewhere across town if I come across it again Ill check the year, and try to get some pics.

Can you put triples on a 24 by 8 ft Banana?

Anyone remember the red 24 Banana on Winni "Shaken not Stirred" ??

It was owned by a wrench from Goodhue Hawkins in the late 80's

In response to post #29. The red boat is not my boat, but a boat that was owned by an exec from Phillip Morris Co. We used the boat in the Miami show one year and then Popular Mechanics wanted to do an article on it. So this photo is of that photo shoot in the waters right off NE 188th st. We set up the shoot to run from the Cigarette plant and the photographer followed us around the intracoastal and ocean for about 1/2 a day.

The color was actually closer to maroon with gold and white stripes in the interior. This was the first boat actually sold to a customer other than family. Notice the bimini top rolled up and stored over the sun cushion in the back. This was a very popular option for our Florida customers.

This boat was last seen in Boston Harbor, so it might be up in the NorthEast somewhere. It had a MerCruiser 280 HP TRS package. It was laid up with high impact resin like we used for the race boats.

This same customer was the guy responsible for having Marlboro talk to me about racing for them offshore in Europe, which led in a roundabout way to meeting Jean Claude Simon the French designer who worked with me in designing the 38 foot race boat.

Someone else asked about 3 outboards on a 24. I would think not as you tend to get beyond the right ratio of balance and horsepoqwer and bottom speed. Anything beyond 80 or so and with the right water conditions it would start to chinewalk on you where you had no choice but to cut back on the throttles.

Charlie Sr.

Charlie is this the same Banana with different decks or two separate boats?

same boat different decks.

The first shot is the somewhat modified old cigarette 24 deck (this is one of the original cig. molds we still have).

The second shot is the new deck put on in early '77

Further info on the decks.

The newest deck is exactly the same deck everyone else has out there. We took the standard banana deck and put a low or sport windshield on it. The console we made run across the entire width of the boat with the driver in the middle now rather than on the left.

Remember that I both drove and throttled the boat in those days.

The bolster was built off the console in front and a flat peice of fiberglass filled in the rear of the cockpit from the bolster to the hatch. The bottom of the cockpit was cut off for weight savings so your feet could go out to the side of the boat itself for stability.

In the Plymouth race one year we had a writer from Motorboating Magazine who wanted to actually ride on an offshore boat during the race. At one point crossing from Provincetown back towards Boston light we tripped on a big wave and the nose punched through the next big wave. The navigator, Ron Morrison, and I knew what was coming and we put our heads down to break the force of the water coming off the windshield with our helmets, we didn't have time to tell the writer and he took it full force in the face.

His name was Don Sharp, and he had a beard and he was wearing goggles. After the boat climbed up again, we looked over and Don had the goggles blown out and pushed down so just his beard was sticking out where the lens used to be. He didn't see much of the race after that as we were also running in heavy rain and fog banks.

He always said afterward that he had the best time in his life that day.
He was a really good guy that loved the sport and the idea that we would race in just about any conditions.

Times were different then, but I'm sure the racers of today would race whenever and wherever they could, so we can't blame the circle courses and calm water on them.

Charlie Sr.

Charlie Jr, Air Dog and myself were talking about how you grew up being out on race boats and trying to go as fast as you can, beating the crap out of them. Dude we are so jealous. All we got to do is cruise around N.E. in a old Chris Craft putt putting along and if we ever got the RPM's over 2500 our old man would start yelling at us to back it down, and say there no need to go that fast. Man we were so deprived.

Ya, I remember those day...

"Hey Dad, can we go faster?" "Listen Captain Gas, this is not a fast boat!"

I think that is why I wanted a Banana Boat so bad.

A Banana is not actually a boat, it is a medcinal instrument of healing childhood repression.