Don Aronow's Banana Boat?
 

I had a post up about this boat a few weeks ago, but took it down as the boat was in storage at the time. My boat is a 1967 Magnum with hull ID MMX 01. Its 27' 6" long with approximately a 6.5' beam. It is a twin engine inboard boat. As you can see in the pictures, the boat is in need of a restoration. From what I've been told, there were 5 of these boats built. Mine is said to be the fourth found. The previous owner of the boat modified the dash and the area around the cockpit, as can be seen it the photos. He also filled in a few of the original fixture mounting holes (original holes marked with black paint) and added the lights in the front. The boat is missing the engines, one transmission and the engine hatches. Other than that it is very complete. A lot of the parts, like the rudders and props look to have very little use, and show no signs of corrosion. Both (Edelbrock) bellhousings are still there and appear to be for Chevy 409s. If you scrape the white paint off the hull , the gelcoat underneath is yellow. Don Arownow's #4 Banana boat is not one of the three that have been found. I'd like to know if anyone is familiar with that boat and can help me trace mine to see if it was his. Also, there are a few boats like this from 1966 that are titled as Donzis. With mine being titled as a Magnum, is it possible mine is the first true Magnum titled boat? Does anyone know of an earlier boat titled as a Magnum? If anyone has any information on Don Aronow's #4 boat or early Magnums, please let me know. Also, if you have one of the other boats, please post pictures so I can reference them during the restoration. Pictures of the cockpit and engine compartment are very important as the most work has to be done in these areas. Thanks David

Heres more pictures

A very significant find... Looks like you may have found the 4th...Congratulations! It looks like the Correct trailer too ! I will check it out with the guy who owns "The Other Woman" he lives about a mile down river, a great guy! He takes his to the Antique Boat show every year and has a lot of fun with it...

Ok guy's lets help this guy out ! Do your thing, get the history on these special Mag.'s

Hopefully Brownie will see this.......

very nice boat
 

Well .. the hull number ID suggest this to be a very early Magnum, MMX is for Magnum Marine Experimental.
I think from the ID number it's the first one not the forth one.

Even better, WOW Number 1 !!! Lets go guy's, This guy needs all the history we can find on this RARE Mag.

I sent an email to that email address and Charlie emailed me back saying he remembered seeing one of these boats sitting in the yard at Magnum back in the day, but doesn't remember much about it. He also said he's spreading the word. He said one of the boats was sold to John Mecum, the Texas oil guy and he won the Houston Channel Derby in it.

4d guy found the orig. test driver for his experimental - read it on the Classic Offshore thread - what a great story !!! This has to be one of the biggest finds. 4d guy you are the man!

help!!! I stumbled on to this site by accident. Maybe someone could help me out. I have a very early MAGNUM Offshore boat. I think it is a 28' it is about 9' 6" wide. I bought the boat in 1988. The history was very cloudy. I do know the boat was originally a mercury marine test boat, then served on Lake Winnabago witht he sea scouts. much more then that I do not know. I was told the boat was originally yellow. Please help me figure out just what the heck I have here. My name is Leroy Kornely. I can be reached at [email protected] email me and I will call you back...

Leroy, the original banana's were very narrow, and not 9'6".
if you could email me some pictures i will post them for you.
email: rob(dot)reiter(at)gmail(dot)com.