I acually think Aquino is a great name for a boat. It's got Aqua right in the name. We all know Reggie "Fountain". But if you didn't know what a Fountain was, would you relate it to a boat? Or a Cigarrette? Or even Skater?. Anyhow, Education is great, but it doesn't gurantee success. I have plenty of friends with degrees on their walls, driving 10 year old cars and living in apartments. When they were going to school I was going to the river. Good luck with you dreams. It seems to me that many of your generation lack those dreams an expect to be "taken care of". Sorry, my opinion....Mike

This thread brings up an interesting point. Are boats like the 22 Donzi, in point of fact, the prototypical performance boats of the future in a downsized post Obama economy?

How many of your 40+ foot mega power vee and cat owners could see themselves in a 20-28 foot performance hull with modest big or small block power? Should we begin to look at the smaller hulls for upgraded technology, much like today's rice burner's versus the old Muscle cars?

I know we had more fun, learned more skills, and generally fast boated on a much smaller platform in the old days......

Thoughts?

T2x

I think it looked better before all the work.

No thank you I gave at the office...

Does that mean you still own and watch a B&W TV

I like your thinking kid. For starters starting a business in a downturn economy is not all bad. It is much easier to start in a booming economy and there is a good chance when it slows down and it will you will be out of business. By starting your business now it is more work but it will teach you how to be streamlined and stay light on your feet. This is a lesson that they can't teach you in Bschool. I say follow your dream and at first keep it small w/ little to no overhead. Go for it and don't max out your cc cards to do it. Real life experiance is much more valuable than what you learn in the classroom.

I say prepare a business plan figure out a budget and present it to a few people that you may know in the business world as well as the boating world.

Josh

Well I would have to agree with everyone who posted here. Being 17 is great but hink of what lind of life you would have testoring boats. I started in the Marine industry when I was 15 only 'cause my ole man worked for a drive company that built outdrives and then it progressed from there. Next is was buying and saling boats out of our backyard. Then after mom passed on thats when dear old Dad told ud kids about buying a marine business. Waht he did'n tell me was I would be sale bait and tackel too. So thats how I got started in the bizz. After moving to Fl, my second job was working for Donzi Marine and learning the ends and outs of boat building. My main fortay was rigging which included enginges, drives, electrical, mounting hardware to the deck. Putting the deck and hull together the the remainder of the boat and water testing. That went on from '77 to '86 off and on again at Donzi Marine. Once hooked you never leave the business. But after 32 years here I am still working on boat. Been from one end of the spectrum clear to the ohter end and now doing custom rigging on high performace boats. As for wanting to restore a Donzi Classic as they call them (THE REAL DONZI) THERE REALLY IS'NT MUCH TO THE THEM. The main cost to restore is the enginge package, uph, gauge package, and hardware. Not much to it but something nice to have a blast from the past. Here is a 22 2+3 that was modifed with a pro Charger and later rebuiling the transom. Good Luck with endevor. Warren.. http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/l...96/CATCH%2022/

Agreed... I'm glad to see you have a dream, when the dream dies you die.

I am a buisness owner that never attended college and feel that was a major mistake and a strike against me that I never went to college for buisness & finance . This is a major part of running a successful buisness. Take this time while the economy is bad and wait it out. Go to school learn buisness & finance and work for Marine industry companies part-time , weekends & summers for some on the job training till you graduate.

Good luck

my 22 classic
 

he must be a simple man or maybe dosn't even have a tv...would be nice to see what he has ? maybe he will post what he thinks is cool

I started my business when in school. While all my buddies were partying every weekend I drove home and worked out of my brothers auto body shop. I then got out of school and the economy was brutal. I tried to work for other people but it was not for me. The good news was that I had the ground work laid for me to go into business for myself. I rented a small place for cheap money and started "Audio Innovations". At first I installed car stereo systems. Then fallowing a car accident I could not do car systems any more with the bad back. So I moved into home systems. I have carved out a decent place in the market for myself and things have been good for a while. I will say that you can give up a lot in the way of personal life, relationships are very hard to maintain/start, but in the end it can work out well once you find balance. Keep your costs down, you don't need a big flashy store front to get it to work.