What would Don Aronow do today?
 

Michael Aronow and I spent some time over this past weekend attending the Second Annual Don Aronow Memorial Around Long Island Race.

We were waiting for the boats to come around to the finish line and we started a very interesting discussion.

What would Don do today if he were alive??

We were not talking about the Don that would be 80 something years old, but the Don who broke on the scene in 1962 as a Thirty something. Loving this new sport that he found and jumping right in it.

He had Howard Abbey build him a wooden 30 footer that he named Claudia after his daughter. He finished 4th in the 1962 Miami Nassau race.

The next year, 1963 he was back with a 27 foot Formula named Claudia II, built by his own Formula Marine Co. He finished 3rd in the Miami Nassau that year.

So, on to the first race boat he built and named The Cigarette a 23 footer. Then the Donzi 28's with a win with 007 of the Miami Nassau race and then even with the success of that, he cut it down and made a lighter, better version with 008.

Magnum, Cary, Cigarette, Squadron XII, Aronow SES, Unlimited project, etc etc.

What do you think he would be doing now, as a racer and a designer and builder??

1 Cigarette 1
 

Kudos to Outerlimits for a great win, but Im sorry to say they would have been chasing a Cigarette if Don was still around......Just my .02 :eek:

If he continued building/designing boats I think the boat he built today would have less bling, less multiple logos, less stuff but it wouldn't be spartan.
Wonder if/when he would buy into a step hull ?

He'd focused on bigger boats/yachts that are fast and Cats.... Surface drives, Diesels and giving Fabio Buzzi fits on Fabios hometurf even ;)

He'd definitely been into step bottomed boats,, hell they were around in WW2 on Torpedo and PT boats already so nothing new to him there.
FYI Less than 2 miles from me we have a step bottomed Torpedo boat on display...

What would a 30 year-old Don do in 2011? An interesting thing to ponder.

He would immediately capture and lead the industry in the same manner as before. With his fierce business sense, I'm sure he would have started and sold off several companies in his usual fashion.

I don't doubt that he would have quickly grown bored with the current direction that offshore racing has taken, and start his own racing organization that would be more inline with the principles of the old days.

I agree that Don's boats wouldn't be gaudy and out of hand in their styling like most every boat being built today tends to be.

He would also see that current marine technology is going in circles, and would start an R&D firm to resume its innovation.

To be sure, things would be a lot different.

Charlie!.. Don't now what Don would do. I met him a few times back in the early to mid 80's. Just in passing and racing on the Michigan a few times. Can't say that I actually knew him. We were running a 26'+- Donzi with the curved keel, 500bulldog and OMC Cobra. OMC gave us gas money.
But I can tell you or anyone else, (I guess I don't have to tell YOU. :) )... Don, nor any of the true ole' time racers ever raced for some BS "goodie bag" or "T" shirts.
I doubt Don's boats would have flat screen TV's that never gets turn on anyway.
BTW, we have to seriously talk about that hull, I wrote you about.
P

See I disagree.. I think he would return to old school... it is great to see the 43 OL win.. but what about a 24' with a 300 ob... lets see if that guy can make it around the island..... the boats today are fantastic... I think we need an old school boat run... and charlie.. I am trying to work some numbers.. I will have an answer for you soon... I was looking at the NBBA website.. .I cannot imagine the older boats making the run in the time they did.

My guess is find a field where he can be financially successful adjusted for these days and times and then...

Do whatever he wanted like it seemed he did back then...

By now he would have started, sold and resold 196 boat companies!