I did not, I was in Miami vacationing and figured I spend a day at the show, I picked items I wanted to see and left. I did see the mega yachts so I could see how the extreme $ folks boat. Have fun

Cigarette Jet Ski at MIBS
 

I want to add some context in regards to the Cigarette jet ski on display. I was at the show yesterday and reviewed it in person, up close. I'm not sure what stories exactly Alex or anyone from Cigarette was telling people, but the facts on this jet ski do not match what everyone is discussing here.

The jet ski on display in their booth was the hull/engine portion of a Bellasi Burrasca.

You can see what their completed product looks like here... https://www.belassi.com

They had attempted to cover up every Belassi logo on the ski with Cigarette vinyl stickers. They also duct-taped over the VIN number. It was clever, and they did a pretty good job, but if you know anything at all about jet skis; it was easy to see what you were looking at.

Belassi jet skis are not USCG approved, and therefor cannot be imported into the US. They do not market to the US market. This is the reason why it was not a complete unit. Also, if it was a complete unit, it obviously wouldn't look anything at all like the "Cigarette designed" jet ski they kept showing in their advertising. That was probably the weirdest part, was that all of their advertising and even the TV playing directly in-front of the ski kept showing their Cigarette designed jet ski, which the hull, pump, exhaust, etc looked literally nothing like the jet ski that was right in front of your eyes.

Cigarette had not done any "work" on this ski, beyond having it imported into the US. There really was no one to talk to or ask about this, as everyone in the booth was either just salesman or selling clothing at the time I was there, so I don't really know what the plan is with this project going forward. Are they just going to try to get the Belassi Burrasca approved for US sale and put Cigarette stickers all over it and sell them? Did they just buy a Belassi to reverse engineer it and see how a jet ski is made? Did they just want to display something for the show, but in reality the project has been shelved? Time will tell.

It was definitely a bold move in my opinion to bring half, of another company's product, to the show and cover it in Cigarette stickers.

Designing and manufacturing a PWC from the ground up is incredibly complicated. It is an enormous task, that few have ever successfully accomplished. Even major corporations like Honda and Polaris have found it to be so difficult they've given up and stopped trying after a few years of constant failure.

To produce them, even in small quantities, is an even bigger task. There is a reason only 3 companies successfully make them, and even those 3 major corporations continue to have issues year-after-year, no matter how much they spend on R&D, manufacturing, hull design, etc.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...89579df231.jpg
Belassi Burrasca on display
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...68fc73df0b.jpg
Cigarette stickers shown on the reverse bucket, rear shroud, and the black duct-tape over the VIN plate.

That defies belief. The least they could’ve done is made up a story that they were buying Belassi and then the deal falls over.

Simply shocked, I tell you.

Wow, the post about them using another company's PWC is hilarious. I hope that goes viral.

Mercury Sonic sure knows his jet skis!

Bringing a 1/2 model of an Italian jet ski to the show and adding CRT stickers is kind of like bringing a used/borrowed Doug Wright catamaran and putting CRT stickers on it? :D

I can imagine the dealers excitement on having to stock/repair/warranty those fine Italian skis............parts will be fun too! I'm picturing engineering manuals in Italian, specialty tools etc. Followed by an irate client that blew 100K on a pair of skis on a trailer that don't run as promised.

Mmmmmmmm Cig stickers on someone else's product. Never heard that before. :party-smiley-004:

Just sad really. Is there any R&D left at Ciggy?

I agree, but weren't they at least 99% about to buy Doug Wright and merge it with Cig?

If I remember right there was a letter of intent to do so at the time then the deal fell out afterwards.