Originally Posted by GSA123

RR,
Thank you...
Yes I have heard of Tullio. I didn't make the connection when you asked. We are not related that I know of.
I was big into the offshore in the 80s and early 90s One of the first to have a boat like this on Long Island. My 85 was the 5th 12 Meter Fountain out of the mold.

I met Dennis when I started to try to figure out how to do 70 MPH all day long without breaking anything. Dennis was into simple, normally aspirated, big cubic inches, low compression motors that would make huge torque, run all day on pump fuel and Arneson drives. All about the prop making the boat go forward instead of lifting the boat, hence modifying the bottom and change the pad to include rocker effect. Incredible combination.

Today that is accomplished in part by the step bottoms but the the rock solid ride of the deep V and pad combined with Arnesons can drive through anything.

I have pictures somewhere of when we introduced Dennis's big motors and complete drive train at the Boston High Performance Boat show. I will try to find them and will post them.

At that show Mercury and everyone else learned what was up when it came to making reliable power and unbreakable drive train. I tried to convince Dennis to go into mass production at the time but he was making so much money building custom motors and rigging boats for wealthy clients at the time and he felt that there was no way to quality control mass production. He was probably making 40 or 50 pairs of motors per year at the time.

Dennis had a point to prove when he left Hustler. Paul Fiore owned Hustler, Scott Shafiroff Drag Race Engines and High Performance Pump Gas Crate Engines engine builder and from what I hear Dennis 7 Times National Nascar Drag Champion were the first guys to ever get a Deep V over 100 MPH. They did that with KAMA Drives.

Dennis felt that he did not get enough credit for his effort and left Hustler. He approached Reggie, upgraded the KAMA Drives to Arnesons and the first 100+ Ferrara Arneson 12 Meter was born, Instantly Reggie got to easily go 20 MPH faster or more in his own boat.

What followed were the next two 1987 Ferrara 12 Meters with Arnesons complete with Ferrara 100 PLUS Graphics out of the factory with Matching Upholstery.

After those two, the deal was that Dennis was to order a special 12 Meter hull to include my own custom design elements, to be rigged with Monster Motors and Arneson drives. I had traded my 85 12 Meter Executioner with 600 HP Motors and TRS Drives, a Brand New Pair of Anesons in the box and a pair of Dennis's biggest motors at the time for the new boat. It never happened, Dennis never got the hull ordered from Reggie and after a long story I wound up taking Dennis's personal boat.

Within a year or two Mercury and everyone else was building big motors and the rest is history. Mercury was so invested into the shape of out drives that they did everything possible to make their shape perform like a surface drive. They are still fighting the beauty and simplicity of the Arneson ASD8s and Dropbox transition from motor to shaft.

Soon after Dennis had difficulty providing personalized service to each and every client he had up and down the coast, in the Caribbean and who knows where else.

In my opinion Dennis was a genius when it came to mechanical engineering but missed the opportunity to cash in on the wave of business that followed because he was not willing to relinquish his secrets to a large production facility and make the transition from Drag Racer, Transmission Expert and Engine Builder to large scale Business Manager.

I tried to convince Dennis to make the switch but with so many people throwing money at him at the time it was hard to get him to focus on the end game.

It has been amazing to watch the Offshore Evolution, ever increasing need for speed, many great innovations, designs, colors and attention to details by all of the folks in the game.

Nice to make your acquaintance... Evidently you know a little something about something when it comes to boats! ;-)

Greg

Originally Posted by Surfacedriven