baronmarine

monza: thanks for posting those pictures. i've been gone the last day and a half plowing snow. now i know were my pictures went. the only one i still have is the wake juming picture. to cool sure brings some good times just glad we live thru them. man i need to get that hot rod out again.last time i had it out sheri hopped in a friends boat said thats the last time she would ride in it. back to the cottage thing pm me lets see if you guys can come up we are going to rent for 2 weeks we can run the 28' for kicks.

tommymonza

well i was gonna start a new thread but since your interested I,ll tell the story behind the 185s.

My older brother a self taught marine architect designed the boat in about 1975.He started building the plug for the hull in my parents garage one summer when we were all gone on a cruising trip up north for the whole summer.Dad came home and saw an upside down boat being built in his garage and was not the happiest father but beared with it for about a year till the plug was ready for a mold to be made off from it.

My dad made my brother move the plug to an old chicken coop where he spent about another year making a deck plug, and hull and deck molds.

The molds got moved to a building on 52nd street in grand rapids and that is where BARON MARINE started.I think the first boat was ran 2 days before thanksgiving on Reeds Lake in GR in 1977.

stay tuned for more

tommymonza

Production began in 1978 with just a few boats being sold in the Grand Rapids area either factory direct or by DRYLAND.We found a dealer in St Clair shores called Blue Lagoon or Deep Lagoon who dealt Donzi and Magnum and thats where most of the Barons ended up.

John Krouse was the owner of the marina and he loved the boat because he could buy them right compared to a Donzi and he felt it was well built boat .I think about 52 boats where built with probaly 45 of them going to Krouse.For some reason 52 sticks in my head but i think it was really maybe only 28 that were built.

My brother did all the design and mold work himself and by himself with no previous experience.I worked for him well i was skipping school to help out with building them once production started,most of the time it was just him that did the building the first year.2nd year he wanted to make a bigger model and decided to skip all the design and plug work and instead made a hull mold off my dads 26 MONZA and had a new deck plug and mold built by a guy who worked for TIARA.

My dad owned a housing construction business and was helping finance the boat company too.We were selling boats but they were a hard sell with interest rates back than of 18 percent,and my dad was having the same problems with selling his houses,so they decided to close the boat business for a little while till the economy gotta a little better.The molds for the 26 were sold to the guy who built them and he built a few under the name MIRAGE out of Hudsonville.He than sold them to CENTURY boats who built a few for a few years than dicontinued production.Dont see too many 26s around and BARON marine only built 1 before closing the doors,the MIRAGES were not near the construction as the BARONS.


Well once my brother closed the doors he had my dad help him get into the housing business once things started picking back up, and realizing theres more money and less hassels in housing than building boats ,he kinda lost interest in the boat business.

tommymonza

The powerplay boys bought the mold off my brother in like 82 and that was the model that started it for them.

The design had a lot of rocker in it and would air out real nicely wich the powerplay boys didn't like so they moved the fuel tank out from under the cockpit and into the bow,wich i never cared for.They also moved the engine room bulhead back about 10 inches to make the cockpit bigger and took the rake out of the windshield.


I m trying to find a lot of old pictures and when i do next week i would like to start a 185 baron powerplay thread ,so if you guys could help out with pics and comments that would be really cool.

thanks.

baronmarine

woogie: looking for one that sleeps 8 ish between port sheldon and grand haven. acording to sheri closer to grand haven.
woogie: i got mine baron from monza back in 85 or 86 they do ride a lot differt then the powerplays do i got some friends that have and had xlt's. man have we beat those boats to death. there are a lot of fun.
monza: nice to see your up.i see your brother dave from time to time he most live by me (flowersmill or somthing ) he needs a new truck. a friend of mine has the old best shot 26' here in grand rapids. complete rebuild stringers / transom all ready for rigging.

tommymonza

Yea i think he does live in flowers mill,don't talk to him to much.Is that best shot white withn an orange sheer stripe ,that was the one we built.

tommymonza

Woogie I,ve got a stack of those old brochures if you would like me to send one pm your adress and i"ll send it out.

Dyno if your intersted in a BARON you should look in Mt clemens ,St Clair shores area.Probaly would be able to pick one up for 3000 or 4000 dollars since they don,t have the noteriaty of the powerplays.

baronmarine

tom: white with orange sides has a surface drive on it. are you coming up this summer?

tommymonza

Probably not,too much crap going on here with some stuff I'm working on, plus anytime off I kinda prefer the KEYS or the BAHAMAS. Don't mean to sound like a snob, but for the money and the time it's just to convenient to go there instead of risking the weather up there.

Is that 26 for sale? I just got back from dinner with some good news so I might have an idea up my sleeve.

baronmarine

the 26' baron is not. 26' monza is ( plum crazy )