Ben Kramer to be released!?!?
10-21-2014 | 12:34 PM
#193
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,674
Likes: 250
From: Rhode Island summer, Florida winter
Early in the mid 70's the Cigarette and Magnum 28 and 27 were king of Production, then the 30 foot Sutphen, then the 32 Cobra and the 35 Cigarette were the best to run. By the 80's one needed at least a 33 foot boat to be competitive in the Production classes. The engines were getting more HP by then and could move the heavier boats too.
I built a 34 for myself as a pleasure boat with twin big blocks. Being a smaller size and lighter, I could run with the 38 Scarabs of the day with KAAMA engines. A photo of that boat is on the website with the Coyote deck on it. www.bananaboatco.com
Last edited by Top Banana; 10-21-2014 at 12:37 PM.
10-21-2014 | 12:52 PM
#194
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 2,150
Likes: 15
From: Northport N.Y.
The guy that built White Lightening pulled a mold off a 38'cig made it a 41'. The mold ended up at kryptonite on Long Island. If you look on YouTube White Lightening has short center strakes.
10-21-2014 | 01:14 PM
#195
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 4,788
Likes: 1,376
From: naples,florida
We made the 34 foot size mainly for Production class race boats. They were only allowed to use twin engines with a max 350 cu in small blocks.
Early in the mid 70's the Cigarette and Magnum 28 and 27 were king of Production, then the 30 foot Sutphen, then the 32 Cobra and the 35 Cigarette were the best to run. By the 80's one needed at least a 33 foot boat to be competitive in the Production classes. The engines were getting more HP by then and could move the heavier boats too.
I built a 34 for myself as a pleasure boat with twin big blocks. Being a smaller size and lighter, I could run with the 38 Scarabs of the day with KAAMA engines. A photo of that boat is on the website with the Coyote deck on it. www.bananaboatco.com
Early in the mid 70's the Cigarette and Magnum 28 and 27 were king of Production, then the 30 foot Sutphen, then the 32 Cobra and the 35 Cigarette were the best to run. By the 80's one needed at least a 33 foot boat to be competitive in the Production classes. The engines were getting more HP by then and could move the heavier boats too.
I built a 34 for myself as a pleasure boat with twin big blocks. Being a smaller size and lighter, I could run with the 38 Scarabs of the day with KAAMA engines. A photo of that boat is on the website with the Coyote deck on it. www.bananaboatco.com
10-21-2014 | 06:27 PM
#196
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,674
Likes: 250
From: Rhode Island summer, Florida winter
Wow you were only running small blocks in your 34 ? For some reason I thought that boat was running Open class. Was your 34 Race boat a cored boat or built light if it was how was that achieved back than. What kinda power and drives were you running to achieve what speed?
The 34 footer Gone Bananas was running two 350 small blocks and ranin the Modified Production class. TRS drives.
Kevlar and very careful squeezing of the resin in the glass only boats saved weight.
10-21-2014 | 08:24 PM
#198
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 1,953
Likes: 2
From: rock Island wa
10-21-2014 | 09:36 PM
#199
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From: naples,florida
After An Infamous Period Of Crime And Drugs, `Gunboat Alley' In Aventura Struggles To Return As Boatbuilding Empire.
Mean Street
October 20, 1996|By PAUL SCOTT ABBOTT Special to the Sun-Sentinel
AVENTURA - — Thunderboat Row. Gunboat Alley.
The images conjured by those names and the several variations used to identify Northeast 188th Street between Biscayne Boulevard and the Intracoastal Waterway are fitting for perhaps the most famous - and infamous - stretch of road in this recently incorporated city.
"It was lots of money, macho men, beautiful women, performance boats - what more could you want?" said Katrin Theodoli, president of Magnum Marine at 2900 NE 188th St. "The street has quite some aura about it."
Theodoli, who with her Italian marquis husband Ted bought Magnum in 1976, noted that the street has changed a great deal over the past 20 years.
It still is lined with boatbuilders and related facilities, but a shady element of the industry that included drug-runners and mobsters has all but disappeared.
"The boatbuilders are definitely an integral part of the business and industrial part of the city," said Aventura City Manager Eric Soroka. "The street certainly has changed over the years, and we look for it to improve and possibly entice additional boatbuilders into the city."
In the mid 1960s, a wealthy real estate developer turned boatbuilder, Don Aronow, moved to South Florida from New Jersey. He developed a family owned tract on then-desolate 188th Street into the first of several boatyards he subsequently would sell.
"Don Aronow created the street and built practically every boatyard that is on it," said Theodoli, who assumed the reins of Magnum following her husband's death six years ago. "Don Aronow created this street and he died in it - sort of tragic."
Aronow, 59, was gunned down in broad daylight on Feb. 3, 1987, as he left a 188th Street race shop. Court documents support rumors that a rival boatbuilder had ordered a hit, but the man allegedly responsible for Aronow's death never was charged in connection with it. Instead, the man was sentenced to life imprisonment for drug smuggling.
"The druggies would land in there nightly," said John Crouse, a former powerboat race organizer and author of a 646-page book chronicling the history of that sport. "At one time, two-thirds of the people involved in offshore powerboat racing were directly or indirectly involved in drugs. You had guys running around there racing boats without any source of income - or at least not any source that was reportable."
In the 1980s, more than a dozen leaders of powerboat racing were convicted of drug charges and related crimes, and Signature owner-driver Tommy Adams was shot to death on Interstate 95 from a passing car full of drug traffickers.
"Regretfully, it [Adams' murder) did not happen on this street," Theodoli said with a snicker. "Now, the wild days of Thunderboat Row are gone. It's now just boatbuilders - no longer the macho man's reverie."
Magnum, which annually builds about 10 high-performance yachts, each priced at more than $1 million, was bought from Aronow by the Theodolis because Aronow did not see a future for 53-foot-long high-performance vessels. That is nearly twice as long as the racing craft Aronow built under the Formula, Donzi, Cigarette, Squadron XII and USA Racing names, according to Theodoli. Magnum clients include pianist Victor Borge, the king of Spain and various Kuwaiti royalty.
With demand for super-fast powerboats declining, business on 188th Street may be past its heyday. But at least one industry veteran, Bobby Moore, is confident that commerce along the street will rebound. He blamed the depressed powerboat market on laws that require fast boats to operate at idle speeds in many waters, as well as overzealous law enforcement tactics against anyone in a fast-looking boat.
"But I have hope for the street," said Moore, 55, who recently acquired a Mercury outboard franchise to augment the boat sales and service business he operates at 3016 NE 188th St. "I've put a lot of energy into this. I haven't thrown in the towel yet. It's a good location midway between Fort Lauderdale and Miami."
Moore, who began working along the street in the early 1960s under Aronow and offshore racing pioneer Dick Bertram, sometimes is visited by Norris "Knocky" House, 76.
House, who served as Aronow's throttleman for world championship victories in 1967 and 1969, said he does not believe Aronow was involved with the drug trade. He said Aronow, with whom he worked for nearly 20 years, once ordered him to stop building a boat and gave the customers their money back when he learned it was to be used for drug-running.
"He [Arrow] wasn't dirty." House said. "You live with a guy and travel the world with a guy and you know there's things said that just aren't true. A lot of untruths are said, and I don't want to repeat them or I might be dead. "I'll say this: Thunderboat Row is not the same as it was. It just don't seem to have the, uh, glamour it had."
Mean Street
October 20, 1996|By PAUL SCOTT ABBOTT Special to the Sun-Sentinel
AVENTURA - — Thunderboat Row. Gunboat Alley.
The images conjured by those names and the several variations used to identify Northeast 188th Street between Biscayne Boulevard and the Intracoastal Waterway are fitting for perhaps the most famous - and infamous - stretch of road in this recently incorporated city.
"It was lots of money, macho men, beautiful women, performance boats - what more could you want?" said Katrin Theodoli, president of Magnum Marine at 2900 NE 188th St. "The street has quite some aura about it."
Theodoli, who with her Italian marquis husband Ted bought Magnum in 1976, noted that the street has changed a great deal over the past 20 years.
It still is lined with boatbuilders and related facilities, but a shady element of the industry that included drug-runners and mobsters has all but disappeared.
"The boatbuilders are definitely an integral part of the business and industrial part of the city," said Aventura City Manager Eric Soroka. "The street certainly has changed over the years, and we look for it to improve and possibly entice additional boatbuilders into the city."
In the mid 1960s, a wealthy real estate developer turned boatbuilder, Don Aronow, moved to South Florida from New Jersey. He developed a family owned tract on then-desolate 188th Street into the first of several boatyards he subsequently would sell.
"Don Aronow created the street and built practically every boatyard that is on it," said Theodoli, who assumed the reins of Magnum following her husband's death six years ago. "Don Aronow created this street and he died in it - sort of tragic."
Aronow, 59, was gunned down in broad daylight on Feb. 3, 1987, as he left a 188th Street race shop. Court documents support rumors that a rival boatbuilder had ordered a hit, but the man allegedly responsible for Aronow's death never was charged in connection with it. Instead, the man was sentenced to life imprisonment for drug smuggling.
"The druggies would land in there nightly," said John Crouse, a former powerboat race organizer and author of a 646-page book chronicling the history of that sport. "At one time, two-thirds of the people involved in offshore powerboat racing were directly or indirectly involved in drugs. You had guys running around there racing boats without any source of income - or at least not any source that was reportable."
In the 1980s, more than a dozen leaders of powerboat racing were convicted of drug charges and related crimes, and Signature owner-driver Tommy Adams was shot to death on Interstate 95 from a passing car full of drug traffickers.
"Regretfully, it [Adams' murder) did not happen on this street," Theodoli said with a snicker. "Now, the wild days of Thunderboat Row are gone. It's now just boatbuilders - no longer the macho man's reverie."
Magnum, which annually builds about 10 high-performance yachts, each priced at more than $1 million, was bought from Aronow by the Theodolis because Aronow did not see a future for 53-foot-long high-performance vessels. That is nearly twice as long as the racing craft Aronow built under the Formula, Donzi, Cigarette, Squadron XII and USA Racing names, according to Theodoli. Magnum clients include pianist Victor Borge, the king of Spain and various Kuwaiti royalty.
With demand for super-fast powerboats declining, business on 188th Street may be past its heyday. But at least one industry veteran, Bobby Moore, is confident that commerce along the street will rebound. He blamed the depressed powerboat market on laws that require fast boats to operate at idle speeds in many waters, as well as overzealous law enforcement tactics against anyone in a fast-looking boat.
"But I have hope for the street," said Moore, 55, who recently acquired a Mercury outboard franchise to augment the boat sales and service business he operates at 3016 NE 188th St. "I've put a lot of energy into this. I haven't thrown in the towel yet. It's a good location midway between Fort Lauderdale and Miami."
Moore, who began working along the street in the early 1960s under Aronow and offshore racing pioneer Dick Bertram, sometimes is visited by Norris "Knocky" House, 76.
House, who served as Aronow's throttleman for world championship victories in 1967 and 1969, said he does not believe Aronow was involved with the drug trade. He said Aronow, with whom he worked for nearly 20 years, once ordered him to stop building a boat and gave the customers their money back when he learned it was to be used for drug-running.
"He [Arrow] wasn't dirty." House said. "You live with a guy and travel the world with a guy and you know there's things said that just aren't true. A lot of untruths are said, and I don't want to repeat them or I might be dead. "I'll say this: Thunderboat Row is not the same as it was. It just don't seem to have the, uh, glamour it had."
Last edited by tommymonza; 10-22-2014 at 04:57 AM.
