Lurker comes out of the 'cyber closet'

[Morgan's Cloud]

Hey everyone ...

I've been hanging around for a while getting to know you all (at least the regular posters)and enjoying the debates and technical exchanges.I figured it was about time to get on board and hopefully make a contribution to the Donzi experience from a slightly different perspective.I hope I won't be treated like a red headed stepchild... you know it's very hard to come to all those great events and social gatherings when you're out here in the middle of nowhere !
Boat nut for 34 years.
Donzi nut for 33 years.
Donzi owner for 16 years .

I promise NOT to ask any prop questions either .

Looking forward to making some useful input..
Steve

ps..That El Pescador that olredalert has is to kill for !

[CnV & Family]

Welcome!

-C

[Fish boy]

Welcome Morgan's Cloud, glad you jumped in. I would imagine with 34 years of being a boat nut, and 33 year donzi fan, and 16 years of ownership I am sure you could teach us all a thing or two.

Not a math whiz, but 16 years makes your boat a 1987 or so. Same year as mine. What model do you have?

BTW, I too am in love with oldredalert's El Pescador!!!! What a boat.

[Ranman]

MC,

Welcome to the board! It will be nice to have a new personality on board (no pun) to share their thoughts. Glad you decided to jump in.

Red's El P is a kick-ass boat, and he's in my neck of the woods...cool. :D

[CDMA]

Mc,

Welcome. What boat do you have?

You are welcome at any event even if you can only attend w/o boat. I am sure we can get you a seat in something.

Chris

[Tony]

His profile says he has;

1966 St tropez(personal boat) and 1973 Magnum 25

Cool...and welcome!

[harbormaster]

Hi MC,

Welcome aboard. We hope you have alot of fun.

Thanks for joining us.

Scot

[MOP]

"I hope I won't be treated like a red headed stepchild"

Welcome and you use one of my favorite qoutes! No one picks on Step Children! :D

[oldLenny]

Welcome to this place. I also live in the land of none. These guyz raised me, educated me. I have had opportunities (some acted on) to meet most all of them. It has all been GREAT!!! No regrets...You are in good hands and I hope this group can help you in your day to day boating in regards to DONZI. Best wishes,...Lenny :)

Welcome Aboard !!! :D

[Team Jefe]

MC,

Welcome. I too was a lurker for many months before I jumped in the action. I'm still not as active as many, but I can tell you THIS is the only website I regularly attend. The intranet doesn't hold much of my attention, but the folks in this Donzi Family have been very helpful and generous. All love to the crews around the country, but I gotta tell ya, this SE Texas Donzi Crew is top shelf (and growing steady).

Canada? That's a little north of the Red River, huh? :p

Sweatin' in the heat, and lovin' every second of it!
JEFE

[Morgan's Cloud]

Thanks for the welcome all..
Yeah.. life is strange, when I was a kid and got my first Donzi brochures I just knew that one day I would have a GT 21.At that time the St Tropez was at the bottom of the list.Now look at what I ended up with.
It takes a bit of experience to really shape your boating needs.. not to be confused with boating ' wants'.I found the St tropez in Ft Lauderdale in spring 1987 but it became clear when it arrived here that it would need a bit more than a wax job to be ready to go over.A year and a half restoration ensued and that held up pretty well for the next 16 years.I'm now doing it again.. the big one.Hull/deck/innerliner seperation.I hope to have it flipped upright on friday and start really making a mess.... has anyone else here done this to a St Tropez ? It seems common on the 18's and 22's and I must say ,that does provide a confidence booster !
BTW some of the things that make the Donzi experience a bit different here....
Your Donzi stays overboard for the season(no haulout facilities)The water is reportedly the 2nd saltiest in the world (and I mean it's like acid)and gas is down to only US $5.00 a gal eek!
Look forward to lots more !
s

[Forrest]

Welcome, and be sure to post often. We need someone new around here to out post the 'Poodle! :D

[olredalert]

-------Also want to welcome you to the arena!Thanks too for the kind comments about the El P from everyone.
-------I know I should have this info in my addled old brain,but where is the northernmost tip of the triangle?Bermuda,I guess.Only been once when I was a squirt but what a great and beautiful place.You are lucky!Makes it difficult to get to the DONZI meets though!.......Bill S........ol red!

[Islander]

Hello Morgan's Cloud,

Where are you located that gas is $5.00 a gallon? Ouch!!!

Growing up in Miami Beach, my dad bought a 67 or 68 (he's forgotten the dates) St. Tropez that he ordered from Donzi. I remember as a kid going to the factory with my dad to see the boat being built. The plant manager at the time was Roy Farmer. We had that boat for a good number of years and enjoyed it tremendously. It wasn't super fast, it had a 351 with a v-drive and ran in the low to mid 50's, but it is one of the best and softest riding 19's that I can think of. I wonder how many St. Tropez boats were built and how many are left. I haven't seen any around these parts any more. I'm glad that you'll be restoring yours and wish you many happy years with her.

Best regards,

Manny

[Morgan's Cloud]

Islander.. would'nt it be some hell if I had your dad's old boat ? Actually I think mine was always an I/O. I don't want to do another resto for many years after this one..even going to re-core the cockpit sole and new transom.All because I want to have a useable fwd fuel tank !(It took 2 and half years to do the Magnum)..

olred'.. you must tell me about that El Pescador... how long have you had it?what was it like when you got it?what are its specs?What engines/drives Speeds :D ?? & ? I remember my El Pescador brochure boat (long time ago)was a stunning peach gelcoat.. wow ..

Hey .. another great thing about being here ,and I don't think anyone can underplay the significance of it, is that 'BROWNIE' is here too :cool:

[boldts]

MC,

Welcome to the Registry! This website has changed my life immensely. I also had no idea what a St.Topas looked like so I took a look at the model list here. Sure hope I get to see one in person sometime.

Being the Pres. of the Midwest Donzi Club formed 3 years ago, I've had the opportunity to see many of the Donzi models at our annual gathering. This year, I got to drive a 27' Maltese Magnum. It was a real thrill for me! Until last year, I had never seen a 20' Cigarette. I had also never been in a Criterion or any other Donzi running in the 80 MPH speed range. Life is GREAT! :D

Hope to have the opportunity to meet you some day. You won't find a better group of boat owners anywhere. These guys may come down on you hard when you ask a lame question, but if you don't ask, you sure don't learn! I look forward to learning from you also. Just please be easy on me. :)

[Morgan's Cloud]

Hey boldts.. Are'nt those 'vintage boats' the best ?

In the early 70's I spent time zooming around Miami/Ft Lauderdale in a Maltese 28 with 2 Merc Tempests/TRS.I'd never seen so many real go fast boats in my life. Only one boat ever went past us !Those memories are permanently etched in my brain !..Kinda like my boat ride with Don Aronow where I kissed the dock when we got back !
Hope to have a lot of fun and good exchanges here :)

[smoothie]

:D Dont stop with the kissing of the dock,tell us more about the ride,like what boat,how fast,what did Don say when you kissed the dock...etc.glad to have you a board!!!

[McGary911]

MC, Welcome to the board. I just bought my first Donzi, and wouldn't have done nearly as well if it werent for the knowledge i've gained on this board over the last 3 years.

Sounds like you have a few tales of your own to tell wink ....and let's see a pic of your boat if you have one

[Morgan's Cloud]

Learning how to post pictures is the next thing I have to do ..maybe I can promise a boat ride to one of our IT people in exchange for help !

The wild Aronow boat ride story is like this ...
Back in '75, I think it was, I went to my first Miami Boat Show.I wanted to do a side visit to Donzi and Cigarette and made the arrangements well in advance.I went to Donzi first,where I was met by John Chisholm I got a very courteous tour of the small plant..drooling everywhere was hard to conceal.Only a few boats on the shop floor,very hand built operation,stunning gelcoat colours...I had to have one.Believe me,ever since the term 'eye candy' has become popular in the last few years I know it really was invented to describe these little gems.

Then over the street to Cigarette to be met by the man himself wink He immediately reminded me of my dad.. self made,rough,take no crap attitude but with a heck of a sense of humour that would come out when you least expected it.Often described since then as 'larger than life' is quite accurate.After a tour of the shop and tons of questions we went out to the launching dock at the back of the shop.Sitting in the water was a stunning canary yellow 28SS with a problem.Don looked at me and said (actually more like barked)'Wanna go for a ride kid?'.Unbeknownst to him I had been on a 28SS before and almost declined,but I agreed seeing I had time.The significance of that ride did'nt become obvious untill many years later.
With another shop tech. on board we roared out of the canal at near full speed..exciting stuff!Over the engine noise I screamed at him what was wrong with the boat..His reply,'It has a slight problem were having trouble nailing down'.The problem soon became obvious.If you placed your head below the level of the windshield you were overcome by gas fumes... so strong were they that your eyes would involuntarily close eek! At this point I was no longer concerned with the wild driving but was praying that the boat was'nt going to explode with us all on it! Believe me,I was SCARED !
Any way ..we made it back to the dock,Don jumped off and left the tying up to myself and the tech.
When neither of them were looking I kissed the dock .
Back inside his trophy laden office over a cup of coffee Don looked at me and barked 'So whaddaya think kid ?'
I said,'Mr Aronow,one day I am going to own one of your boats !'.He smiled broadly and laughed.
What a great memory..and I kept my promise too because I now have 2 of his boats !
What a pity he's not around anymore.
Hope that did'nt bore you ... lots more where that came from .
S

[boldts]

What a great story! I think maybe we should add a forum for stories like this. It looks like we have at least 2 great story tellers on board with Brownie and now MC. (You wouldn't happen to be John Crouse would you?) Just a guess.

I met Brownie at the 2001 Donzi owners gathering in Sarasota. As I backed my then owned 1969 H/M 18' Classic into the dock. This large man looked down at me and just said the words "Nice boat, built when they were built right." I had no idea who this man was and really didn't understand the comment as my Classic was rather ruff having not been restored, but all original except for the new Bilt-Rite interior. I thought surely a newer model was the Donzi to have. Later at a dinner, here was this very same man telling stories of race days with Mr. Aronow and showing us his news paper clipping photo albums. I will always remember that evening, although I'm sorry to say, many of the stories have faded from memory.

Brownie, please entice us with a few of your stories to go along with Mr. MC's.

[Morgan's Cloud]

Thanks Scott,
That's what makes forums like this so much fun !
Can't wait to talk to 'Brownie'.. Have one for him too !

NO.. I'm not John Crouse.. although I do have an autographed copy of SEARACE :cool: