SEABUDDY
ON BOATS

Her hull is designed for big lakes, open sounds, and expansive bays. Her interior is especially “yachtesque” with a dance-floor-wide cockpit in a bow rider configuartion. Exceptional water and pier access has been designed-in, not offered as an option. The new R 5 Cobalt is a customer’s boat. Understanding functional luxury requires study of this boat.

The running surface of the new 2013 Cobalt R 5

Cobalt listens to its customers and then it designs a boat to meet their needs. This Cobalt boat has a 21 degree transom deadrise, narrowed strakes, a sharper bow entry angle, and a careful respect to boat balance. Take a ride, experience how a sport boat can perform on your waters.

A driving push for this boat is the cockpit experience for boat owner and guests alike. Take a look for yourself—Cobalt has done something way different here than others have done in the past. The main seating offers many surprises that delight all onboard. The bow cockpit seating is huge and provides a wonderful place to lounge in the sun on the water. Shade is available for the main cockpit. The on-board storage on this boat is outstanding The head is easy to enter and generously big once inside. This runabout defines “ergonomics” for this class of sport boat. Vinyl, leather, hi-tech fiberglass, custom crafted metal, and a touch of wood accent trim sets an ambiance that few can match, even when one compares this new boat model boat to a classic boat from the 1930s.

The new R 5 Cobalt bow rider, factory boat photo

Cobalt’s new R 5 has a LOA of 25’ 8” with a beam of 8’ 6” and a weight of around 4,900 LBS. She is certified by the Coast Guard to carry 14 passengers or 2,250 LBS of passengers and gear. Cobalt offers a selection of engines from 300 to 430 horsepower.

seabuddy thanks Cobalt for its photos.

Using all of her 7,200 horsepower, Monokini  is a fast mega-yacht with her top is 34.5 MPH. This 44-meter yacht uses an aluminum hull and deckhouse with all of her naval architecture and engineering done in-house by Baglietto. The yacht’s styling was done by designer Alberto Mancini.

Monokini, the Baglietto mega yacht is stll in her slings in this factory photo

Baglietto was founded in 1854 in Varazze, Italy near Genoa. The first two memorable boats were the 1906 boat for Pope Leo XIII at 74’ in length (Giuseppina), and the 44’ motorboat for Giacomo Pucini, the composer of Madame Butterfly, in 1911 (Cio—Cio-San). The yard also built airships, seaplanes and naval vessels. One of their planes/pilots held the world’s altitude record at one time.

Both powerboats and sailboats from the yard did well in competition also. The powerboat competition hull shape was developed into an effective anti-submarine naval craft. A Baglietto MAS (Motoscafo Armato Silurante or Italian for: “Torpedo Armed Motorboat”) was the desired craft for several governments and other shipyards were asked to build to the MAS Baglietto plans and specs when the need for more boats exceeded the yard’s capacity.

Wood Baglietto Yacht

By the 1950s, Baglietto directed itself to wood pleasure boat yacht building. First they built planked wooden yachts and then they switched to marine plywood constructed wood yachts, much the same path as fellow Italian boat builder Riva followed. Their production series of yachts were introduced at this time. Four sizes were offered. The smallest was the 37’, followed by the 45’, 65’ and finally the 72’. These boats were sold world-wide and seabuddy understands that one size had a multi-year run of something like 43 units. By 1975 aluminum yacht construction  replaced wood boat building at Balietto.

Factory photo from the late 1950s- early 1960s of their wood yachts

Monokini is the name of the newest Baglietto mega yacht. But, she is not the largest at 144’. That title goes to a mega yacht that measured 190’. Monokini will be at the Monaco boat show, although she is a SOLD boat.

One of several production Baglietto motor yachts

This is an 18’ 10” Wildcat model 1967 Correct Craft. She is a center engine (engine box in the middle of the cockpit), shaft-drive, inboard powerboat. Her power is a 318 Chrysler V-8 that makes 235 horsepower. There is seating for five, two in front of the engine box and three on a bench behind the engine at her stern . Her bottom is essentially a flat bottom with a very gentle arc athwartships across her running surface.

Restored classic 1967 Wildcat model Correct Craft inboard ski boat

This Correct Craft Wildcat is a ski boat. She was displayed with water skis and accessories as if she was ready to go. The owner did a nice job with her presentation at the Tavares classic boat show. Correct Craft, Ski Nautique, and Nautique are names that are imbedded in water skiing history. Correct Craft was founded in 1925 and has been the keystone builder of boats for water skiing competition and water ski shows. Correct Craft “owned” this segment of the industry for years, without competitors. Seabuddy recalls here a personal conversation he had with Al Hegg years back about his Century boats and about how hard a time he had getting his Century water ski boat models legalized for water ski competition.

Causing Correct Craft to rise to prominence in water skiing was Cypress Gardens, which opened in 1936. Known as the “Water Ski Capital of the World”, Cypress Gardens was home to many of the sport’s landmark firsts as well as over 50 world records. But it was best known for the Cypress Gardens Water Ski Show, which featured Correct Craft ski boats.

Founder W.C. Meloon started using the Correct Craft brand name for his boat building company in 1936. The Ski Nautique name was added in 1961 when they began producing fiberglass water ski boats using a mold they brought from Leo Bentz. Nautique’s boat bottom shapes really went wild starting with the 1989 models where stepped chines, spray relief pockets, along with a variable planning hull dead rise became standard on their ski boats. Just stick your head under an example to fully inspect a modern ski boat bottom shape.

While this classic boat was made in the Orlando, FL plant, Correct Craft’s current manufacturing facility, started in 2005, includes two private lakes used to test their boat designs. In 2009 Correct Craft celebrated a milestone, having built 200,000 boats in its history

Buy now or wait as more are coming!

Only one of these boats comes with a wood hull and wood deck, this 16’ Runabout is from Maine boat builder, Callinectes Boat Works or www.cboatworks.com . However, most of their customers, after a lot of discussion, go with a wood deck-fiberglass hull boat model. Talk about a classic styled, fun runabout! This boat will knock your socks off!

New 16' water-jet powered Classic Styled Maine-built Runabout

She is not a reproduction, she is an original design by Glen Shivel and Scott Lambert featuring a soft-riding, semi-vee bottom shape. This boat is easy to look at, quick to plane and fun.  She runs around a lake like she is a classic Riva Junior or Chris Craft Riviera. If you go with a fiberglass hull and a wood deck selection, she is a light weight (1,100 LBS) and about a $49,000 modern boat.

Nice lines and curves for a 16' two cockpit boat

She is a water-jet boat, an inboard, as classed by the U.S. Coast Guard. Yamaha jet boats are best sellers in 19, 21, and 24’ sizes. Sea Ray, using the same brand engine and water jet drive as this Callinectes Boat Works model has already introduced one for themselves this year.

SHH! Scarab, Chaparral, Four Winns, and Glastron will have theirs by this coming Xmas, 2013! They will have one or two models each by then. These last boat builders intend to use the “inboard jet propusion system” from BRP. It, like an outboard from the fifties, has the engine, controls, fuel and jet pumps, exhaust, electrical, propulsion, and cooling systems as a package. It is an easy and one-stop shopping experience for a boat builder to install. Note, BRP has spent $15 million and added 137 employees at its Evinrude outboard factory to bring this power package to market.

Seabuddy has inspected this boat (the one I looked at had the fiberglass hull choice, which he prefers for this boat) and hopes to do a sea trial once the weather warms up in Kennebunkport, ME.

Rumors suggest that the engine color will change for boats

Magnum Marine started life on 188^th street with the “Maltese Magnum”, a 27’ race boat.

Magnum had replaced Donzi Marine in Don’s daily life and in 1966 he went racing in that boat. He won, so naturally, folks wanted one for themselves and a building was built and a powerboat racing legend was born.

Don Aronow wins 1967 World Championship in Magnum Marine 35 vee drive boat

Don also built a bigger and wider boat, his 35 footer, in 1967. That new boat was intended to be kept in a slip in the water. Up till now, all of Don’s boats were for trailered boats. Initially, these production 35’ cabin cruiser boats came with two gas inboard engines. However, a few were raced without their cabin and fly bridge and with up to four outboards or two inboards.

catalog sheet for the Magnum Marine 16 Marauder

He also made two smaller outboard engine powered boat designs. One was a ski boat, the 16’ Marauder. He made about 20 copies of this deep vee, 50 MPH boat design. Another boat was the Maltese Magnum Missile 16’, which was a tunnel hull boat. This boat was said to go 60 MPH with the same size outboard power as the Marauder. A production run of about 30 of these were made.

Magnum also introduced variations on the 27’ hull now. However, this was done under new company ownership. Don had sold his operating company to Apeco, keeping the building as a rental property. One of these variations was the sport deck model in 1968. The other, a cabin boat named the Sedan, came out the next year. A cabin style boat was needed for some racing classes in Europe. The 27’ Magnum Marine Sedan fit the bill for the best racing class there.

Another boat model was the Magnum 28’. This performance boat had a higher, rounded deck line primarily for more room in the cabin. It is a model without side cabin windows nor any deckhouse sides. It should have been a good seller but it was discontinued in 1979 after a six year production run.

It was in 1976 that Apeco sold Magnum Marine to Filippo Theodoli and his wife, Katrin.

They brought out the infamous Magnum 53′ in 1977. She was a two staterooms, wide-beamed, high performance yacht. This model re-directed Magnum Marine into a different kind of a boat company. New boat models were now powered by diesel engines. These new models were to be very high-style yachts that were eminently seaworthy in moderate seas with each having a good turn of speed.

first 53' Magnum Marine

Seabuddy thanks Magnum Marine for their photos and the last one shown here is his favorite shot of this brand.

Factory photo of a 44 footer running fast in rough seas

Wood Rivas seem to seabuddy to reflect Italian passion, smart boat building, and a vision about what a good boat should be. They reflect timeless design, imaginative colors, and top shelf material choices. They are also expensive boats. Usually they ask and bring more money than other production boats. There was one paper of one for sale for $149,500 from a very well respected broker. That one boat-for-sale listing was for a 22’ wooden runabout boat. She was said to have a 220 horsepower 327 Chevy/Crusader/Riva engine. It was an example of the most desirable model of the Riva Ariston series. It was also offered as a well-maintained craft.

Is it worth it? Who knows? Boats are not basics like potatoes. No pleasure boat is. My boat is my hobby. And I do not have the coin in my jeans for a top shelf boat that is a classic wood Riva power boat.

Factory photo of Riva boats

A Riva is also a work of art in many aspects. Look at the hardware. Inspect the windshield. The grace in the shape of the control handles. Look at the fitment of wood if the engine room is open. Study the use of plywood and timber wood through-out the boat. A Riva boat can take one’s breath away if one really looks at it closely and in detail. A Riva looks like a handcrafted, one-off boat, but it is a production boat. A limited production boat that stands close inspect up to the standard of a custom boat is a show stopper.

Riva wood boat with the cockpit seating laid into a sun bed

And, by the way, boating is seabuddy’s passion. I am looking forward to a nice summer on the water. Look for more info and photos from this RIVA book… and seabuddy thanks them for their photos.

Riva Hull under construction in its building jig at the factory

Sometimes it is the second boat design that makes a boat building company. Don Aronow had a craving for a new design for an offshore racer. He had sold his prior design and company (Formula and its 233 boat model) on 188^th Street. He was ready for step two of his plan. Don now made a new company and a new fiberglass boat. The company became Donzi Marine and the boat was a 28 foot deep vee offshore race boat. Don had Walt Walters design that boat, make its running surface a winner, and draw up the plans that caused it to be built.

Don Aronow driving his 28' race boat 008

He and his buddies made and raced several of these fiberglass boats. The most powerful had over 1,100 horsepower in its two Ford engines. That high level of power had to use vee drives at that time. No stern drive (I/O) could stay together, either for pleasure use or racing boat use.

Boat racers were larger-than-life heroes to worship, and they all seemed to come from two addresses: NE 188th Street in North Miami, FL. and Bertram’s Miami address near the airport. Don Aronow’s “Thunderboat Row” started to grow in stature and began to pull ahead of Dick Bertram’s efforts in time. But, not yet. The 28’ while successful, did not strike gold with pleasure boat buyers. Those “Damned Donzis” were heard on the race course, but not in the boat showrooms. It took a lake and bay boat that was nimble and easy to jump in and take off in for a fast ride to make Donzi. Now it was 1964 and that nimble boat really made Donzi Marine.

Jim Wynne with his Wyn Mill II race boat

The Ski Sporter, or Donzi Sweet 16, made Donzi Boats into a company. That model boat was based on a shorten version of Jim Wynne’s winning race boat, the Wyn-Mill II. Wyn Mill II was Jim’s racer as designed by Walt Walters with input from Jim and perhaps others. Walt drew up the plans and it is his name that is on them. A friend recently shared a sheet of those boat building plans with seabuddy. In the past, seabuddy incorrectly said that Jim Wynne designed this racer. These facts, as it was helpfully explained to seabuddy, were incorrect. Jim had input, he was there, but Walt’s name is on the drawings that the boat was built from. He is the designer of record.

(As an aside, the free exchange of facts and the making of boating friends that today’s internet gives seabuddy continues to amaze him.)

That boat’s hull was shortened into a 16’ 71/2” long fiberglass boat. She had the same 7’ beam and 24 degree deep vee hull bottom. These Donzi boats were designed to be small, light, and a fun ride. This boat was originally called the Ski Sporter Donzi and later it was named the Donzi Sweet 16. With its first Volvo engine and out drive set-up its top speed was in the 41 to 43 MPH range. Now one can find Sweet 16s with V-6 and V-8 power. With souped up engines, a strong sterndrive I/O and a special prop, she can deliver more speed than a sane person would enjoy.

Classic fiberglass Donzi Marine boat cockpit

Soon, Aronow found that he also had the skills to gather together a team better than most others to build racing boats. That quickly moved onto selling others his boats, both for pleasure and to race. He soon envisioned that for him, rather than clipping coupons in his old age, he could collect rent once a month from the boat building companies that he invented. Those boating companies became 188^th Street. He was killed doing his landlord activities.

OK, how does seabuddy tie this stuff into a series of articles about some boats he loves? Let me stick a Don Aronow boat company brand in this write-up. Formula Marine was said to be “The Right Formula For Success”. Its boat was the 233 Formula. Available as a single or twin engine boat. She came with an off-shore deep vee shaped boat bottom. She was 23’ 3” long and 8 feet wide. That boat was a winner and MADE the new company viable. Don sold that company with the new company owners renting the building from him and Don started a new company on the same 188^th street.

Restored Don Aronow Formula 233 racing boat

Here is a photo of a 233 raced by Aronow in 1963 (he came in second in the Miami-Key West Race that year in this boat) and first sold it to another racer in early 1964.  It has a single 409 Chevy going into a Mercury Marine outdrive. That engine package was rated at 310 horsepower by Mercury back in 1962-63. It powered the boat to a top speed of just under 65 MPH. Formula Marine Corp. had at the time of sale an address of 2940 Northeast 188^th Street, North Miami Beach, FL.

Don took the Beatles for a boat ride in a Formula 233 racing boat

Formula was sold to Alliance Machine and Foundry in 1964. Another boat builder, Thunderbird, had been brought by them in 1961. Alliance ran these two as sister companies. In 1969, Fuqua Industries acquired both companies.

A part of the Advertising for Formula Marine Boats showing the 233 model

A good, middle-aged fast life involved with good looking women and fun things to do involved fast boats in south Florida in the early 1960s. Don Aronow, “The King of Thunderboat Row “ coming from North New Jersey quickly found out he was a world class offshore race boat driver. Once he got within the waters off south Florida and the Bahamas, he went from fishing from boats to racing in boats. He already knew the building and land development business. Don was a building contractor up north. He had left NJ with money in his jeans from his commercial building activities up there.

So, he started having boats built that he could race… offshore powerboat race. Busting through waves, running wild surf, jumping his racer over huge freighter wakes, and always, always with the gas pedal throttles wide open and boat speed at full speed ahead. Don always thought It was his job to keep the boat going as fast as it could go. He and Gar Wood, (who was from a different generation of boat racing) are the only two Americans honored with world-wide UIM recognition in the history of boat racing. His racing made 188^th Street, North Miami Beach, Fl. and offshore boat racing simply one and the same.

that is Don Aronow sitting on the bow

Don Aronow started racing wood and fiberglass boats made by others when he first left fishing from boats and started out in boat racing. He raced boats hard and they often fell apart doing his blistering racing pace. These early boats were often named Claudia, named after his first wife. He went from a semi-vee boat bottom design (Crystaliner, for one) to a deep vee boat bottom design during this early time frame.

Don Aronow's Fishing Cruiser when he first came to the Miami area

Seabuddy has never seen one quite like this. It is an open trailer and then when necessary, a fully enclosed boat trailer. The enclosure is made up of square tubing framed canvas. The tube frame work and the canvas is easy to take off. Without the cover in place, one has a regular custom grade boat trailer. With the cover in place, this trailer is theft proof and weather proof.

Trailer with canvas in place

The square tubing framework slips into place and then the canvas cover is set up on that frame work by pulling it tight over the metal frame. BTW, the canvas is cut and sewn to fit the rectangular trailer shape, not the boat shape. There is walking around room (working area) next to the boat with the full enclosure up.  The cover is set low so special over-head clearance is allowed for.

Launching the boat is possible the canvas cover and metal frame in place or taken down; either way, the boat goes into and out of the water easily. Displaying the boat is best done with the cover and tube frame work stored away from and off the trailer.

Folks that own a race boat would love this trailer set-up as well as antique and classic boat owners do, which is where seabuddy spotted this example. It was at Tavares, FL, on Lake Dora, near the town of Mount Dora that seabuddy took these photos.

It is a good idea that needs to be shared, IMO.

detail of slots for square tubing near fender