Back in the day ( late '70's ) that Nova was the cat's ass. I loved 'em then, and to this day when I see a mid-70's Nova ( not many around anymore ) I get that SAME kinda buzz. When they changed the 'lines' on them ( i.e. the windshield ), I lost interest.
. . . sorry about the photo - polished it up the best I could.

hi tom cool pic's man that make me feel old.
tom you should come up for xmas the whethers great ha ha

Thanks for sharing, nice.

Really cool

The 24 came from the Donzi 7 Meter I believe. For awhile, Allmand had the 19's, called them a Super Jumper or something... I would love to find a 19,what a killer boat!!

Boy they sure liked high windshields back in the day.

What you don't see in the photos is the fact that all of the boats that I have in that article are all inboards or vee drives. I considered (still do) the aluminum outdrive to be an instrument of the devil.

I took the 7 meter Donzi raceboat that I bought from Tim and John Chisholm and chopped and channeled it into a 24' 10" x 8' 2 1/2" boat. Dick Cole and I (mostly Dick) drew the 7 meter for Donzi while I was there. We took the foredeck of the 28' Cary to form the deck. We had a great little boat company there, with Billy Wishnick (maybe the nicest guy in the world) backing it. We built 124 24's and 32 19's. The 1970 recession bit us in the ass, and we sold the 24 to Dick Genth at Wellcraft, and the 19' to John Allmand.

We also built the 24' SuperNova raceboat with tandem (one in front, one back, vee drive in the middle, one prop) with a pair of 800 hp Coopman Blown Fords which pretty much ended my racing career in the 1968 Miami Nassau race, when we (with my ridng mechanic and bodyguard Mark "Big Dirty" Raymond) got sideways going about 70 in 5' seas.

The 19' was special, being 4 asses wide with a walkthrough between the front seats. We built that from parts of the 24 and the 28' Cary.

Wow ! Great Pics !

Is page 3 the Gladiator prototype ?

Thanks for posting,


Victor

Brownie thanks for the reply and answers.Know what your saying about the 70s economy, my older brother put his molds in storage and closed shop (tough to qualify a loan at 18%).

Is there any way we could talk you into posting some old pics of the novas and the nova plant?

Rouxsterre I felt the same way about the windshield change,I liked the brownie smooth cary deck over the wellcraft deck better too. There was one for sale on the donzi registry a while back with the holmans and v-drives,It was all there just needed resto.Would have loved to buy it but unfortunately now is not the time for me.