Could we get a bio fromsome folks like Top banana? I would love to know more about you folks. The stories are great but I only know your oso name
thanks

actually just check out his website for Banana and HORBA lots of good stuff there


http://www.bananaboatco.com/

http://www.historicraceboats.com/




oh and if you want to check out some real "back in the day" offshore racing get on horba and get a copy of Run Sunward, its the very roots of the sport. I watch it every so often it never gets old. Look for a boat named Spooky if ya wanna see how hard core these guys were :cool:

No PFD'S and no bridge slow downs. Speeding in those days was great. No wake zones.
Half those guys are probably getting out of jail right about now. So 80'S.

Ben's struggling to see daylight too...

Hey Stemmy

Here is a great story that Charlie wrote about his start in offshore and his relationship with Don Aronow.

The Horba site that Charlie put together is an awesome collection of history also

http://www.bananaboatco.com/articles...me-2007-08.pdf

Here on OSO search posts by Charlie ,Brownie, 7xchamp ,Phil , T2x and a few others if you want some great stories . You have to kind of hunt around on the threads but every once in a while one jogs a memory in these legends and they reel off a good one..

Lately I was thinking if we could put a story tales thread from the past I would work on searching all the great ones told in the past and copy and paste them.

Don't forget T2x... here is a start http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...ory+of+the+vee

Don't forget your polyester shirt!

Jeff

good point, I wanna look my best cuz I think I may fill out an application while I'm there . . . . :D

What a great shot! In the one photo there is a magnum star fire, 1of 34 I believe and that boat currently carries the same paint and resides in Ontario Canada. The other great picture is of the bubble deck cigarette which is one of two. That one looks to painted orange which makes it the famous bounty hunter, now over seas. That boat had a lot of "one off" stuff on it, first set of #5 extent ion boxes, one of the first sets of #5's, Latham shifters and throttles etc.

-----Hands down the best looking boat in the poker run video,,,,BAM!!!........Bill S

What model boat is "BAM"? , great lines.

Ben Kramer's " business" card, what a great piece of memorabilia.

The icon that is the Cigarette 36' wide body!

So we had this race from Chicago to Michigan City and back in '81. I entered one of the first Shadow Cats and it was perhaps the roughest racing water I had ever seen.... The Bam cigarette was the start/flag boat...and had some new fangled transmissions...anyway after the start of the first wave of boats....it sunk....we didn't but my partner/wheelman, Don Lostumbo, broke an ankle half way through the race. The turn boat was a 58'Hatteras. The seas were so big that you couldn't see that boat until you were maybe 75 yards away from it..

The end.

T2x

Not quite your age but still going to ask my doc about this study I read about this morning. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...ry-5849490.php

Rough
 

Boy, do I remember that race. Probably the roughest race I was ever in. While turning on that Hatteras, we hit a hole and couldn't see the Hat for the life of me. Thank God I had some knowledge of what Hats looked like, because there wasn't much to see.

Cig,
That's my Magnum Starfire, hull #388, that was outside Toronto for most of its life. Now fully restored and living on Long Island. I spoke to you I think a few years back before I bought it. It was also a catalog boat from 1979.

- Marshall

a more recent picture.

Someone here posted this picture from a visit to 188th st. in 1979. I couldn't believe it.

your boat is absolutely beautiful ! post a few more pictures if you would please. i believe there are only 6,7or 8 starfires left in the states! there was 34 total and half went to uk, nice job on the resto!

If you're interested there is a complete chronology of the restoration on donzi.net "talk about other boats"

Wow, that is a jaw dropper for sure!

Rich if i ever find my old Woodenboat with the article about your Conquest cats I would like to repost it here. I will leave the other writings in that Article out in respect for the Lavins

looks like woodenboat has their issues archived I would love to read that

http://www.woodenboat.com/search-bac...nboat-magazine

looks like its issue #73 nov/dec of 86

Have you seen that article Dave?

I received your email and the pic ty. But I can't get the file to open maybe to large or yahoo just suks

I have a ton of the older Woodenboats only rag I used to read other than good clean stuff like Hustler lol

I was out in Seattle back in 98 and stopped by the wooden boat shop on Lake Union and they had 1000s of old copies from the early years up stairs I sat down for the afternoon until they closed and then they said i could buy them for 50 cents a copy . I have a ton of the old ones. Don;t buy them to much these days unless there is something interesting in them. Some great old reading though. Gotta dig up the Riva article too very informative. You get Professional Boatbuilder?

I saw it when it came out in 86 and seem to remember buying the issue, back then anything offshore related in any boat magazine was like a once a year occurance so I was usually quick to snap up what little there was and I was alway a JJ fan. I ordered the digital issue just now and it appears to still be available in print.

I sent that Cig pic file to a few others that were aable to open it, I can try to send it again.

pmed you my new Gmail my yahoo is phucked for some reason

got it, also got the digi copy of Woodenboat I'll send ya a copy of that to

Thank Ya Thank Ya varmush

,,,,,,,,

That's a strong 3rd post. What year was that pic? 47 Apache, what a monster.

Looking back at the shots in post #30, I didn't realize Tommy Adams operated out of Ft. Apache. Is this correct? The story goes he took a Magnum 27 plug and made the hull of what would become the Midnight Express 32 super sport. Goode bought it after Tommy was killed, had a deck designed, and built 10-12 according to him. Interested in this history because I am restoring a ME 32'ss converted to outboards.

I would also love to know who the guy in the blue collared shirt is in the Magnum shot, I've talked with Harold at Magnum but he doesn't know anyone who was there in 79' with any direct knowledge of my boat build. Its a really arcane detail but my boat has 5 gas tanks which no one remembers building (even Mrs.Theodoli) and they all have original FMT tags from 1978. There were 2 boats used in the 79' catalog shots and none of the pictures show the 5 fuel fills my boat has.

https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/...e9&oe=54AFB84A
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...86a9f7ddee711b

The dealer, thats the one I remember seeing at everglades, there were several generations

:party-smiley-004:

Ralph Martin took delivery of that 47 in the early 90s. I kept my boat there. INXS and Little Ceasars were maintained there.

Those 47 Apache Powerboats are simply awesome!

What is that all red version of the Dealer? . Looks like a Top Gun. I remember seeing the all white 38 Flat deck Dealer about 1987 That all red looks sharp .

What year did Everglades burn to the ground?

The boat in post #3 is Flyin Falcon, it is a 41, not a 47.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]531867[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]531868[/ATTACH]

Yes, Tommy Adams leased part of Cigarette back in 79. We were tourists and went to 188th St to check it out. We had a guided tour around Magnum, Signature and part of Cigarette. I remember spending a long time at Magnum because my father had owned one of the race 28's. We had never seen the Starfire boats and your boat was just being launched for a test run. I do remember that we all fell in love with your boat, it looked and sounded amazing, still does by the way!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]531869[/ATTACH]

I do not know who was on your boat when we took the photos, sorry.

After leaving Magnum we went down the road to see if we could get into Cigarette. No one was available to take us on a tour around Cigarette but the guys at Signature were very accomodating, not sure if it was Tommy himself that took us around but who ever it was, they also took us around parts of the Cigarette factory and sorted us out with loads of Cigarette apparel, which was very cool!

My understanding of the Signature is that the hull was taken from a Magnum 27 sport and a new deck was put on it........as you have seen in my previous post, the 38 was there as well at the back of the unit where Signature were working from.