SEABUDDY
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Archive for the ‘classic fiberglass boats’ Category

Scarab Panther

This a sister-ship to the one I had that went 74 mph back in the 1980s. Same color, same details, except for the cockpit cover stripe. The one I had made for me was powered by the first set of twin Mercury Marine Magnum Bravo engines and drives shipped west of the Mississippi River. This seabuddy photo image was taken in Alexandria Bay, NY in the 1,000 Islands area of the USA.

I was an ex-Wellcraft boat dealer that had sold and had owned many Scarab boats and wanted to try the better balance that the Bravo 454 package offered over a TRS 454 big block set-up in the 30 foot race hull. Plus, I could get Gus Anastasi at Wellcraft to make one up using lots of Kevlar to lighten and strengthen the hull.

With a 454 Bravo power package the weight of the engine and drive sat farther back within the boat and that weight shift made for a better and faster boat with a given amount of power. Also, the Magnum Mercury Marine back then offered a easy way to get the good heads and 4 bolt main bearings in a stock Mercruiser package.  There was no need to go to Merc Racing to get the better engine.

With 1.5 to 1 gears in the Mercury Marine Bravo outdrive, the boat ran best with 25” pitch props. It ran about the same top speed, but had a softer hole shot with 27” props. A set of 23” pitch props were real peppy coming out-of-the-hole, but did not get the same 74 MPH top speed.

I tried several minor changes to play with the top speed, but nothing added as much to the boat’s top speed performance as the right props did. I did, know, however, that true straight-back exhausts (not a switchable exhaust) would really more the top speed number by 3-5 MPH, but I did not want all the noise.

This is my favorite size and powered Scarab, the 30 foot inboard outboard Scarab. I had a 34’ Scarab, a 38’ Scarab,  a 40’ Scarab, and a 30’ outboard powered Scarab (which I really did not like at high speed). Yup, I like this boat.

This Donzi 22' is running free on very little hull and trim tab surfaces

Donzi Marine power boats has made go-fast runabouts since its founding by Don Arronow. He was a building contractor that made some money and “retired” from the North East to south Florida at the early age of 32. Don, “The King of Thunderboat Row” got restless and started boat building and racing boats first built by others but quickly decided to build his own brand of high-performance boats and add to his boats allure by winning races all over the world.

In 1964 he made the 16’ that became the Sweet 16 footer. Arronow sold Donzi Marine power boats in May of 1965. He did stay involved with the company even after he no longer owned it. In 1966 Donzi brought to the marine marketplace their 18’ hull. Then in 1967, they brought out a 14’ with multiple deck designs. They even made a few examples of a 10’ Donzi dingy and a 24’ Donzi Spitfire model along the way to the late 1970s.

It was in 1978 that they made a 22 foot performance boat; first as a Criterion model name that offered three different decks. One was a long fore deck – single bench seat – full width windscreen model, another was a bow rider with a walk-thru to the bow seats, and the last with a no-walk-thru to a separate forward cockpit with a two person rumble seat inside it. These did not sell as well as the company thought they should, so they made a new model in 1981 using the existing hull with a far more traditional single larger cockpit. That boat was called the Classic 22’. It is this model that seabuddy is discussing in this post.

Get a boat with a 454, 496, or 502 engine. They only weight about 160 lbs. more than a small block package and have way more punch. Get an engine with the cam that makes less power at 3,000 rpms but more power over 4,000 rpms. These engines are rated to be propped in the 4,600 – 5,000 rpms and can benefit (in a fast boat like a Donzi 22 Classic) to run wide open even at even higher rpms. If yours is strong enough to turn a 27” propeller up to 5,200 – 5,250 rpms, you have a boat capable of being GPS verified as a 76 – 79 mph Hi-Po boat.

These photos are from Donzi. Note, Don Arronow also made Formula, U. S. A. Racing Team, Squadron XII, Magnum, Cigarette, and at least the mold for the original 41’ Apache offshore racer power boats. Don Arronow was shot dead on Northeast 188^th street in Miami, FL when he was 59.

Here the trim tabs hold more of the hull in the water

Note the Ski Sporter name on the trailer for this Donzi Marine 16'

Jim Wynne first showed his (or Charlie Strang’s) new out drive with a Volvo engine at the New York Boat Show in January of 1959. This was the beginning of the modern stern drive. One of the first boats that Jim used to promote that stern drive was a wood 18 foot boat made by Woody Woodson. Wynne had success on the race course with that boat. Seeking a lighter boat to go with his small Volvo engine and now Volvo-Penta Aquamatic I/O he designed a 17’ boat in wood that he called the Wyn-Mill II. That boat but used a deep vee hull with a low profile and therefore was lighter than the Woodson made boat. He won eight marathon racing records with his new boat powered by an out-drive over the next few years. Most of the boats that he beat used far more horsepower than what Wynne had in his Volvo engine and Volvo stern drive powered 17’ boat. Jim by now worked for Don Aronow and he was a boat builder. One of his companies wanted a small sport boat to zip around and they thought that by using the Wyn-Mill II as a starting point for a new boat with a 110 Hp. Volvo gas engine and its Aquamatic drive. They did not splash it, as the final production boat had differences like were the strakes were located and they also shortened it to a 16’ 71/2” long with a 7’ beam and 24 degree deep vee hull bottom fiberglass boat. These Donzi boats were designed to be small, light, and a fun ride. This boat was originally called the Ski Sporter Donzi and later the Donzi Sweet 16. With the Volvo engine and out drive its top speed was in the 41 to 43 MPH range. Both Jim and Don were racers, however, and when Volvo did not come up with their own small block V-8, they got Volvo and Holman Moody Marine to match up one with their 16’ boats. For background, John Holman liked boats as his hobby while Ralph Moody was into airplanes. They got Dinny Phipps to run the H-M marine business out of Miami, FL. He led the marine engine program with a 300 cubic inch six cylinder engine and 289, 302, 351,427, and 460 cubic inch V-8 engines and perhaps other engines as special orders. These motors often made more power than the Aquamatic Volvo drive could handle, however, and they offered vee drive and inboard versions as well as the I/Os to cover all the bases. Holman Moody also became a US distributor for the Volvo stern drive. Seabuddy photos.

Classic fiberglass Donzi Marine boat cockpit

This is a high powered classic fiberglass Hydrostream performance outboard powered boat. These hulls have been seen over 100 MPH at top speed even with lesser horsepower Mercury Marine outboards. Speeds of 107 MPH have been reported.

How did the Hydrostream boats go so fast? It was the bottom and hull design. Owner and designer of Hydrostream performance boats, Howard Pipkorn was an innovative boat designer concerning what went on between a boat hull and the water and the air it operated within.

He first used a vee-bottom boat design with a pad to get more of the boat out of the water at speed with his first designs. These hulls fly high on the water. More of the boat is in the air than in the water. Only the last bit of hull is in the water at wide open throttle and speeds. Say about a foot or a foot and a half.

Stability and control is the problem with a pad v-bottom hull design. The surface of the boat that is in the water is that short last aft foot of boat hull and it is only a narrow width of a piece of the center pad that the boat must be balanced on as one boats over the waves, chop, and boat wakes.

Next, Howard then added some sponsons to add in stability. This added to the ability to drive a Hydrostream boat more easily as the hull used the two sponsons and the center vee of the hull as the three points to balance the boat upon while running at wide open throttle. With more wetted surface in the water at speed this hull shape is not as fast, but outboard motor manufactures kept making bigger and more powerful engines.

As the quest for more speed progressed, Pipkorn decided to raise the bottom surface of the sponson location such that the sponsons were not level with the center pad. They were above it. Near high speed they are in contact with the water along with the center pad, but at wide open throttle and speed the hull rides with only the center pad touching the water. That made for a faster boat that is sort of controllable at most sane speeds and yet have the maximum speed possible with a given engine power when an experienced driver is behind the steering wheel. This is the Hydrostream Vegas XT hull shape.

Other Hydrostream performance boat model names are Vandal, Vixen, Viper, Ventura, Verado, Vector, Viking, Viking, V-King, AE-21, HST, Vantage, Venus, Voyager, and Vulture among others. Let me say “sorry” if I did not list your favorite.

This boat was a futuristic new boat design back in the early 1980s

These wild looking designs were sold to the boating public back in the early 1980s. They reflect the imagination and design execution talent of a southern Californian boat designer. Art was an independent boat builder and racer going back to the 1960s. He made race and pleasure boat versions of his race boat designs first in in his boat building plant in Garden Grove and then Anaheim, CA.

Early Carlson High Performance Boat Company were the 18’ inboard, C-100 outboard, Carlson Challenger outboard, 141/2’ Carlson Contender, Cyclone, Charger, and CT-15. The most popular model was the Challenger as a 16’ boat with a 6’ 9” beam and it weighted about 750 lbs. without an engine. A far smaller model was the C-100 at a 12’ 10” length and a 5’ 6” beam and a weight of around 350 lbs.

By 1969, Carlson merged his boat company into a division of the Glastron boats and they called the boating result Glastron/Carlson. By 1980, Glastron/Carlson made a boat that was named by Powerboat magazine its “Boat of the Year”. That was the Scimitar, pictured here. These boats were 23’ inboard outboard boats powered by small block Chevy engines from Mercury Marine Mercruiser using their Alpha outdrive.

This was a boat that was a ½” over 23 feet in length with a just over 91” beam. They say the boats were light weight, about 1,850 lbs., and fast as the top speed was in the 55-60 mph range. Some say that they got as high as 62-63 mph with their boat with the standard 260 Horsepower rated Mercury Marine power package. One wonders what the shallow or semi vee hull would do with a “Hot Rod” version of a Chevy engine. The Glastron Carlson Scimitar was sold from 1980 to 1984. About 300 boats were produced for the US and another 200 or so were sold outside the country.

This is a 1982 Glastron Carlson with standard Hard top

note the really nice refinish work on this classic fiberglass Bertram 20

looking at the stern of the Bertram 20 classic fiberglass boat photo

Remember the 20 foot version of the classic fiberglass Bertram? It came in several versions, including a boat model called the Moppie, the Bahia Mar, and the Baron, among others. These 20’ boats tended to weight in at around 2,300 LBS. Here seabuddy talks about and shows boat photos of a center console 20’ 6” model.

Bertram started with a wood prototype 30 footer in 1959. That boat was turned upside down to use as a form to make a mold and became the classic fiberglass Bertram 31 in 1960. She was introduced at the New York Boat Show in 1961. That boat model started the Bertram Yacht boat building business.

In 1962 Bertram made their second length in a production boat model. It was the 25 footer. By 1963, this boat builder then made a 38’ sport fishing boat.  It was 1964 when they introduced their 20 foot boat series. By 1965, reports say that they made one of these a day in their Miami boat building plant.

I have seen restored and updated 20’ Bertram boats that are powered by a stern drive V-8 and also by outboards. The one in the photos has been repowered with a V-6 Mercruiser and has an Mercury Marine Alpha out drive.

There was a Dick Bertram. Dick founded and originally owned Bertram Yachts. He passed away at age 84 on 4/28/2000. He successfully raced sail boats and then power boats. In 1956 he won a famous offshore race in a 34’ wood Chris Craft powered by twin 215 Hp. Cadillac Crusader engines. While Doodles II won, it was pretty much destroyed as a usable boat by the beating it took in the race. Dick again won the same Miami to Nassau race in 1958 in a 35’ wood Enterprise brand boat. He won the 1960 race in the wood prototype Bertram. In 1961 he won again, this time in a fiberglass Bertram 31’.

More on Bertrams here

http://www.wortoncreek.com/

another photo shot the Restored classic fiberglass Bertram 20

WOW! classic wood / fiberglass helm station on Bertram 20

The classic fiberglass Maltese Magnum sport boat

Don Aronow started Magnum boats in 1966 on NE 188^th street in North Miami, FL in with his 27’ race boat he named Maltese Magnum. That boat made history. But, he was already a boat builder as he had started Donzi Marine and Formula boats first.

The whole offshore racing thing had been around since 1960, when Dick Bertram had a wood open boat built that was 30 feet long. He named that his boat Moppie, the same as his wife’s nickname. That boat went 52 MPH, won at boat racing, and became the Bertram 31.

The 27 foot Maltese Magnum race boat morphed into the Magnum 27 sport boat. Another deck and cabin arrangement was also then offered on the same hull which was called the 27’ cabin boat. That model has a deckhouse with windows. It was first put into boat production in 1969.

A 28 foot Magnum with a rounded, higher deck for a roomier cabin without a deckhouse was offered until 1979. It is seabuddy’s understanding that 28’ Magnum boats were made for seven years.

All three models were raced, with the 27 foot sedan cabin model mostly used in Europe where racing rules called for such a cabin and deckhouse.  The sport model was the one that I sea trialed and almost bought. That one had twin small blocks and just did not go fast enough to get my juices running.

Most 27’ and 28’ magnum boats were twin engine boats, but a few single engine, big block boats are out there. The next most popular model was a 35 foot that was a wider than able to be trailered without a permit beam boat.

Why the photo of Filippo Theodoli? Now passed away, he was the third owner of Magnum Marine. His wife still owns the company. He shared his views with me on boat propulsion, specifically the use of surface drives on the water. He was a gentleman and kind enough to make a Magnum Marine boat with surface drives his and my joint platform for that discussion while at speed on the boat in the Miami area.

Photos from Magnum Marine.

This is the classic fiberglass Magnum Marine sedan model boat

The taller round deck 28' Maltese Magnum Marine boat model

Filippo Theodoli, 3rd owner of Magnum Marine boat building company

Jumping a wake in a Custom Craft fiberglass classic boat

Custom Craft Boats were manufactured in Buffalo or Tonawanda, NY and also called themselves Custom Craft Marine and/ or Custom Craft Industries. They were sold under the Munro name in London, Ontario, Canada. Munro almost always sold their boats featuring a low down payment and packaged with an outboard motor and a trailer.

The very first boats were kit boats and the boat builder changed over to fully finished boats with their fiberglass models. Production of the fiberglass boats can be traced back to having been started in the very late 1950s. Production stopped in 1964 with the boats being sold as 1965 models. These classic fiberglass boats made my seabuddy heart pound when they were shown in a boat dealership in New Jersey in the 1960s.

They were designed by company owner Henry Donald Canazzi. H. Donald used several of today’s popular design features far ahead of most of current performance boat builders. The Manta Ray and Delta Ray models featured steps, tunnels, and non-trip chines as well as other ahead-of-the-time type features.

He raced his Custom Craft Boats occasionally and won the Grand Island Regatta and the St. Lawrence Regatta. A Custom Craft T Ray 15 was tested by Mercury Marine many years back with their 65 horsepower outboard engine at 39.2 mph.

Custom Craft boat model choices were numerous, and they were made in several hull lengths from 14 feet to 19 feet, and usually in three trim levels in each of those sizes. The Manta Ray and Delta Ray models shared the same complicated boat bottom design mentioned earlier. A Manta Ray was a 14’ 2” boat with a beam of 68” and weighted about 440 lbs. Other models were Master Delta Ray, Flying Ray, Speed Ray, Star Ray, Sea Ray, Sting Ray, Devil Ray, Tiger Ray, Aqua Ray, T Ray, and Sun Ray.

Please, one more thing. Some folks used gunwale measurement length instead of centerline length in naming a boat model. Many boats can be misidentified by a casual study of older boats. The 14’ 2” Manta Ray measures 15’9” as a gunwale measure. Even major manufactures have used a gunwale measurement as it makes their boat seem bigger.

Delta Ray model from Custom Craft

1975 Hydro Stream fiberglass outboard boat photo

The outboard performance boat scene took a major step forward with Hydro Stream introducing their Viper model. These pleasure boats were built, sold, and raced as well as used for general boating.

They were a part of the model mix that took the small company to the level of building 25 boats a week. They certainly reflect the concave-convex hull and deck treatment that gave all the Hydro Stream boat models strength and stiffness at a light weight.

Light weight is one of the secrets to a Hydro Stream Viper boat speed on the water. Another speed secret was a rather complex hull bottom shape from the company’s boat designer and company owner Howard Pipkorn that took more of the hull out of the water and into the air than his competition. Air is less dense than water, therefore the more the boat “flies” in the air the faster it goes for a given horsepower engine. Most of Howard’s boats used shapes that progressively narrowed the amount of running surface in the water as speed increased and this is seen with the Viper boat design.

At some point, controlling the boat at high speed comes into play. Running a Viper at speed takes a learned and brave boat driver. Seabuddy posts a photo that shows a Viper racing. Take a close look to see how little of the hull and hull bottom is in the water. Without a lot of hull in the water, waves, chop, and boat wakes can impact your high speed run.

As outboards got bigger in weight and horsepower the little Viper was too small and too short to controllably handle the highest Horsepower engines. Then the Coast Guard made a rule about horsepower limits in various sized outboard powered boats, using a formula to arrive at a Horsepower limit for a given boat. Further, they decided two more things with their ruling; 1) The rule only applies to outboards, not boats that have their engine inside the boat hull, not to inboard engine jet drive (like a 10 foot long, 65 horsepower Jet ski), inboards using any shaft drive, an I/O, etc. 2) the rule does not apply to any boat over 20 feet in length.

Sadly, the Hydro Stream Viper is no longer in production.

Older photo of a racing Hydro Stream

This classic fiberglass Hydro team Viper was listed for sale on craigslist