Early 70s Cigarette hull strength?
10-01-2018, 02:28 PM
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Early 70s Cigarette hull strength?
Looking at a 1972 27' Cigarette signaturuse hull. Really like the lines of the boat. Are these fairly sturdy hulls? Once restored are they usually strong enough to be trusted in rough water? Just worried about the thing cracking up with people in it, I understand the hull is solid fiberglass, but are these things still seaworthy after 45 years?
10-16-2018, 06:59 AM
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Also interested in replies on this post, and the 28 open is an option in the near future as well. I have a ‘77 Nova that had stringer/transom work, and it handles the chop well with no visible or audible signs of Hull stress. I’ve never pushed it though... I had a ‘99 Donzi 18 that took a serious beating, and came back for more. That would be what I’d be looking for with a 28 cig restore job. Do smaller hulls have more strength?
Last edited by 77Nova; 10-16-2018 at 07:02 AM.
10-16-2018, 08:02 AM
#3
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I have a buddy that a 76' 28ss cig...i helped restore the boat and cut a few holes int he hull 
: that thing is built like a tank! And you can feel it in the ride and when towing! That boat has twin small block chevy's @400hp a side and TRS/Merc drivetrain...... unless someone really did a sloppy job installing something after it left the factory allowing water to seep into lamination's, Or it was severely neglected during its lifetime... i don't think i would have too many concerns about its sea worthiness......of course you should get a survey done by someone that knows how to check the stringer and transom integrity...
: that thing is built like a tank! And you can feel it in the ride and when towing! That boat has twin small block chevy's @400hp a side and TRS/Merc drivetrain...... unless someone really did a sloppy job installing something after it left the factory allowing water to seep into lamination's, Or it was severely neglected during its lifetime... i don't think i would have too many concerns about its sea worthiness......of course you should get a survey done by someone that knows how to check the stringer and transom integrity...
__________________
-Wally
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy horsepower. And I've never seen a sad person hauling a$$!
-Wally
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy horsepower. And I've never seen a sad person hauling a$$!
10-19-2018, 03:25 PM
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Back in the late '70's..... San Francisco Bay waters.....
Every time we returned to our shop, I would crawl inside, reach over to light up the fiberglass toward me, and check the stringers & bulkheads for cracks..... Those boats were pretty stout. ( Arenacraft, Cigarette, Scarab, Cougar Cat )
We had a couple spooky looking transoms on our early boats..... After many 'prototype' rudder set-ups, I would remove the paint off the back and it looked like a shot gun blasted the back with all the bondo/glass patches.
But I remember one boat that was not checked....( not ours).. The boat, borrowed by Rocky Aokei for a Benihana GP( water was too rough for his new catamaran design) that the bow snapped off at a forward bulkhead, ( just ahead of the fuel tanks) in the "Potato Patch" ( under the Golden Gate).... The bow flew over the cockpit.... Boat slammed to a dead stop. Put him in the Hospital.
Yes... have a pro inspect it.
Every time we returned to our shop, I would crawl inside, reach over to light up the fiberglass toward me, and check the stringers & bulkheads for cracks..... Those boats were pretty stout. ( Arenacraft, Cigarette, Scarab, Cougar Cat )
We had a couple spooky looking transoms on our early boats..... After many 'prototype' rudder set-ups, I would remove the paint off the back and it looked like a shot gun blasted the back with all the bondo/glass patches.
But I remember one boat that was not checked....( not ours).. The boat, borrowed by Rocky Aokei for a Benihana GP( water was too rough for his new catamaran design) that the bow snapped off at a forward bulkhead, ( just ahead of the fuel tanks) in the "Potato Patch" ( under the Golden Gate).... The bow flew over the cockpit.... Boat slammed to a dead stop. Put him in the Hospital.
Yes... have a pro inspect it.
Last edited by mountie; 10-19-2018 at 03:28 PM.
10-19-2018, 05:35 PM
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Pre-flight inspection especially suggested for 'air-time' type boaters.
"Yes... have a pro inspect it." mountie
You got that right 'mountie', a pre-flight inspection is the way to go. The full story here by amazing Errol Lanier's wonderful wife Barbara. I guess at the time of the accident the sea was calm while they were taking the borrowed Cobra 38 out for their first test.
"THIS FIREMAN’S FAMOUS RESCUE WAS IN WATER
It was a beautiful sunny day on San Francisco Bay, September 14, 1979. Rocky Aoki didn’t know that this was the day that would change his life forever. After winning the Benihana Grand Prix in July and the John Wayne Memorial Offshore Powerboat Race in August, Aoki was in contention to win the APBA National Championship. To be US1 had been his dream for the last five years. It would also give him a chance to go to the World Championship in Venice, Italy. Rocky had sold his deep-V race boat and because the San Francisco race was known to be a rough water race he decided along with his throttleman, Errol Lanier to rent a V-bottom race boat called “Mollewood” from Jerry Dehaneu. The boat was built at company owned by Joel Halpern. Joel had raced his race boat “Beep, Beep” successfully for several years and the boat was known to be reliable. About noon, Rocky, Errol & Jerry decided to take the boat for a test ride.
The water was perfect that day, calm and with very little breeze. As they started out toward the Golden Gate Bridge from the Oakland side of the bay, Lanier decided to open up the throttles and they started climbing up in speed, 50, 70, 80mph. Lanier noticed that the boat didn’t feel right and backed down to 70mph. Suddenly, the boat just shattered, disintegrated. Lanier said, “there wasn’t any big wave, before the lights went out.” “Rocky’s body was ripped, torn, punctured, dislocated, twisted, folded, spindled and mutilated” according to Sport’s Illustrated’s Doug Looney. That day Rocky was kept alive by the presence of two big L’s—Luck and Lanier. Lanier was a Lieutenant for the City of Fort Lauderdale Fire Department, Hazardous Materials Unit with twenty years experience at his full-time job. Lanier was knocked unconscious for a few minutes. When he came to, he found himself thrashing around in the water in a mild state of shock. When his senses returned, he started looking for Rocky, because he knew Rocky couldn’t swim. He spotted Rocky nearby, swam over and found Rocky on his back, eyes rolled back in his head, not breathing. Lanier said, in an interview for the Fort Lauderdale News, “You know, it’s really scary when a guy comes floating by with eyes open like a dead man and he’s a friend of yours.” That is when Lanier’s Fire Department training took over. Lanier said, “It’s automatic, I never had to think about what to do next. I knew what to do and I did it, thanks to the training I’d had.” About that time, the boat floated to where they were in the water and Lanier sat on the outdrives while he began to give Rocky mouth to mouth resuscitation and splashing water in his face.
As Lanier worked on breathing life back into his driver, he began searching out of the corner of his eye for Dehaneu. “He was there in the water flopping around obviously in great pain and calling for help. I could see help was coming, but it was still a long way off and Jerry was pumping out blood, there was blood everywhere and I thought there might be sharks around.”
As Dehaneu began drifting out to sea with the powerful ebb coming from under the Golden Gate, Lanier tried to secure Aoki to the boat’s outdrives with a piece of the rubbing-strake which had torn off with the impact. “But I couldn’t get it secure enough to go after Jerry. I did get it through Rocky’s life jacket, so that if I passed out at least Rocky would have a chance.” By this time, Lanier recalled, the first small boat was almost there. And Dehaneu had drifted at least 50 yards out to sea. Two fishing boats arrived, but Lanier didn’t want to try to try to put Aoki aboard, since hoisting him up that high could have finished him if his internal injuries were as severe as Lanier’s training led him to suspect. “Then a small 14ft. Boston Whaler, with two people aboard, came up. After, they got Rocky aboard. “I told them to keep talking to him all the way, not to let him go back into a deep shock, to keep him awake at all costs,” said Lanier. “I told them to take him to the Coast Guard Station.”About that time a Coast Guard Cutter arrived and picked up Lanier and they then went after Dehenau, And, it was here that Lanier performed his second life-saving operation. “they had bandages aboard the Coast Guard Cutter, but they seemed reluctant to apply pressure because the artery was severed and spurting blood.” So Lanier took over the first aid, applied a pressure pad and succeeding to stop the blood flow enough to bring Dehaneu to the hospital alive. Later, he learned Dehaneu received 22 pints of blood, he had almost bled out.
When Rocky arrived at Letterman Army Hospital, the doctors determined that he had little or no pulse, so they ripped him open and began open heart massage. Then they closed him up and began to work on the rest of his extensive injuries. His liver had been sliced open, it was oozing blood and the doctors had to remove his spleen & gallbladder to get to his liver. They realized his aorta was split and bleeding, so, they had to do a by-pass the next day. They also had to put a steel rod in his leg. Finally after three days, he woke up, it was then that they realized he had a broken hand. When Rocky began to feel a little better, he called Lanier and told him to send the boat to Italy. Lanier said, “Why, Rocky?” “We in third place, we qualify for World’s,” said Rocky. “Rocky you are not able to race the boat,” said Lanier. “We cut hole in cast and I can hold steering wheel, we tie me in boat like we did in the Bahamas.” After he got off the phone, Errol said, “he is crazy.”
Lanier sent the boat to Italy. Rocky didn’t make it to Italy, but the boat did, and Lanier raced with a substitute driver, Howard Quam. After everything settled down and Lanier was able to look at and study the “Mollewood” he realized that not only did the boat delaminate, “it didn’t have any stringers in the front of the boat, and, the front of the boat was full of foam. That is why when the accident happened there was foam and stuff everywhere. It looked like a bomb went off.” In 1985 Errol Lanier retired from the Fire Service and was then free to go Offshore Powerboat Racing full time.
In 2008 Hiraoki ‘Rocky’ Aoki founder of the Benihana Restaurant Chain passed away at the age of 69 in New York City. No cause of death was given, however Aoki suffered from diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver as well as hepatitis C that he contracted from blood transfusions as a result of the accident in 1979." Story and photos courtesy of Mrs. Barbara Reed Lanier.
You got that right 'mountie', a pre-flight inspection is the way to go. The full story here by amazing Errol Lanier's wonderful wife Barbara. I guess at the time of the accident the sea was calm while they were taking the borrowed Cobra 38 out for their first test.
"THIS FIREMAN’S FAMOUS RESCUE WAS IN WATER
It was a beautiful sunny day on San Francisco Bay, September 14, 1979. Rocky Aoki didn’t know that this was the day that would change his life forever. After winning the Benihana Grand Prix in July and the John Wayne Memorial Offshore Powerboat Race in August, Aoki was in contention to win the APBA National Championship. To be US1 had been his dream for the last five years. It would also give him a chance to go to the World Championship in Venice, Italy. Rocky had sold his deep-V race boat and because the San Francisco race was known to be a rough water race he decided along with his throttleman, Errol Lanier to rent a V-bottom race boat called “Mollewood” from Jerry Dehaneu. The boat was built at company owned by Joel Halpern. Joel had raced his race boat “Beep, Beep” successfully for several years and the boat was known to be reliable. About noon, Rocky, Errol & Jerry decided to take the boat for a test ride.
The water was perfect that day, calm and with very little breeze. As they started out toward the Golden Gate Bridge from the Oakland side of the bay, Lanier decided to open up the throttles and they started climbing up in speed, 50, 70, 80mph. Lanier noticed that the boat didn’t feel right and backed down to 70mph. Suddenly, the boat just shattered, disintegrated. Lanier said, “there wasn’t any big wave, before the lights went out.” “Rocky’s body was ripped, torn, punctured, dislocated, twisted, folded, spindled and mutilated” according to Sport’s Illustrated’s Doug Looney. That day Rocky was kept alive by the presence of two big L’s—Luck and Lanier. Lanier was a Lieutenant for the City of Fort Lauderdale Fire Department, Hazardous Materials Unit with twenty years experience at his full-time job. Lanier was knocked unconscious for a few minutes. When he came to, he found himself thrashing around in the water in a mild state of shock. When his senses returned, he started looking for Rocky, because he knew Rocky couldn’t swim. He spotted Rocky nearby, swam over and found Rocky on his back, eyes rolled back in his head, not breathing. Lanier said, in an interview for the Fort Lauderdale News, “You know, it’s really scary when a guy comes floating by with eyes open like a dead man and he’s a friend of yours.” That is when Lanier’s Fire Department training took over. Lanier said, “It’s automatic, I never had to think about what to do next. I knew what to do and I did it, thanks to the training I’d had.” About that time, the boat floated to where they were in the water and Lanier sat on the outdrives while he began to give Rocky mouth to mouth resuscitation and splashing water in his face.
As Lanier worked on breathing life back into his driver, he began searching out of the corner of his eye for Dehaneu. “He was there in the water flopping around obviously in great pain and calling for help. I could see help was coming, but it was still a long way off and Jerry was pumping out blood, there was blood everywhere and I thought there might be sharks around.”
As Dehaneu began drifting out to sea with the powerful ebb coming from under the Golden Gate, Lanier tried to secure Aoki to the boat’s outdrives with a piece of the rubbing-strake which had torn off with the impact. “But I couldn’t get it secure enough to go after Jerry. I did get it through Rocky’s life jacket, so that if I passed out at least Rocky would have a chance.” By this time, Lanier recalled, the first small boat was almost there. And Dehaneu had drifted at least 50 yards out to sea. Two fishing boats arrived, but Lanier didn’t want to try to try to put Aoki aboard, since hoisting him up that high could have finished him if his internal injuries were as severe as Lanier’s training led him to suspect. “Then a small 14ft. Boston Whaler, with two people aboard, came up. After, they got Rocky aboard. “I told them to keep talking to him all the way, not to let him go back into a deep shock, to keep him awake at all costs,” said Lanier. “I told them to take him to the Coast Guard Station.”About that time a Coast Guard Cutter arrived and picked up Lanier and they then went after Dehenau, And, it was here that Lanier performed his second life-saving operation. “they had bandages aboard the Coast Guard Cutter, but they seemed reluctant to apply pressure because the artery was severed and spurting blood.” So Lanier took over the first aid, applied a pressure pad and succeeding to stop the blood flow enough to bring Dehaneu to the hospital alive. Later, he learned Dehaneu received 22 pints of blood, he had almost bled out.
When Rocky arrived at Letterman Army Hospital, the doctors determined that he had little or no pulse, so they ripped him open and began open heart massage. Then they closed him up and began to work on the rest of his extensive injuries. His liver had been sliced open, it was oozing blood and the doctors had to remove his spleen & gallbladder to get to his liver. They realized his aorta was split and bleeding, so, they had to do a by-pass the next day. They also had to put a steel rod in his leg. Finally after three days, he woke up, it was then that they realized he had a broken hand. When Rocky began to feel a little better, he called Lanier and told him to send the boat to Italy. Lanier said, “Why, Rocky?” “We in third place, we qualify for World’s,” said Rocky. “Rocky you are not able to race the boat,” said Lanier. “We cut hole in cast and I can hold steering wheel, we tie me in boat like we did in the Bahamas.” After he got off the phone, Errol said, “he is crazy.”
Lanier sent the boat to Italy. Rocky didn’t make it to Italy, but the boat did, and Lanier raced with a substitute driver, Howard Quam. After everything settled down and Lanier was able to look at and study the “Mollewood” he realized that not only did the boat delaminate, “it didn’t have any stringers in the front of the boat, and, the front of the boat was full of foam. That is why when the accident happened there was foam and stuff everywhere. It looked like a bomb went off.” In 1985 Errol Lanier retired from the Fire Service and was then free to go Offshore Powerboat Racing full time.
In 2008 Hiraoki ‘Rocky’ Aoki founder of the Benihana Restaurant Chain passed away at the age of 69 in New York City. No cause of death was given, however Aoki suffered from diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver as well as hepatitis C that he contracted from blood transfusions as a result of the accident in 1979." Story and photos courtesy of Mrs. Barbara Reed Lanier.
Last edited by larslindroth; 10-19-2018 at 05:55 PM.
10-19-2018, 05:45 PM
#6
Registered
Wow..... that brought me back .....
Rocky's Benihana race proceeds was already going as a donation, to the Letterman Hosiptal... before the accident .
( I lived in Dana Point in the late '90's.... did some stuff with good 'ol Dick Simon )
Last edited by mountie; 10-19-2018 at 06:08 PM.
10-19-2018, 09:49 PM
#7
Registered
Dick Simon's sign was still there, as late as a couple months ago, as a memory of what used to be. He's got a yacht brokerage nowadays as you probably know. 
Last edited by larslindroth; 10-19-2018 at 11:14 PM.
10-21-2018, 10:52 AM
#9
Registered
( " The sea was calm....." )........ BUT...... outside the Golden Gate's "Potato Patch", ..calm as the ocean can be, the sea floor is deeper than the Grand Canyon. Always large rollers. I would loose sight of a boat ahead of us, vanishing at the bottom of a roller, as we did a fast 'cruise' toward the Pacific.
I had a great seat watching a race once ( I thought)..... In a big tug boat, sitting just outside of the G.G. bridge..... YUCK......those rollers.... sea sickness...... Won't do that again !!
I had a great seat watching a race once ( I thought)..... In a big tug boat, sitting just outside of the G.G. bridge..... YUCK......those rollers.... sea sickness...... Won't do that again !!
10-21-2018, 11:41 AM
#10
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
California Water
My Dad's previous boat, Great Adventure, a 28' Cigarette SS in the California waters in the late 70's
Last edited by Lucky Strike Jr; 10-21-2018 at 11:44 AM.
