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oldLenny
07-11-2000, 03:01 PM
Excuse my posting trials as I am "new" to the registry and just getting the hang of this. Yes, you're right.Right by the San Juans. A place we visit on a regular basis(nearly every weekend) by boat. Roche Harbour is a lot of fun, (on San Juan)but has a bad dockside restuarant but pretty girls and good beer. It also involves crossing the Haro Strait which can be a lot of fun. As for Donzi's, there are none...Well none by your standards. There is currently an x-18 for sale on the side of a country road, has been repainted many,many times and has a Merc drive that looks like it has been moored in the salt for most of its' life. White hull, blue stripe. There is a beautiful new classic 18 on a nice tandem trailer, white with blue, but I have never seen it in the water. Looks great beside the fellows house though. We had a dealer a couple of years ago in Kelowna on the "mainland" but that has since closed. The one in Seattle has also stopped bringing in DONZI'S. As for the water up here, yeah it gets rough, absolutely perfect for ramping and air time. If it is not we can just follow one of the 30 odd B.C. Ferries at 475 feet long and take off on ground swells. We went skiing/tubing last weekend in the ocean in a harbour on one of the gulf islands (canadian side). This is fine until you get cold and then you deteriorate quite quickly. I guess if you don't end up in the water this would not be so much of a problem but my days of having cut-offs and a T-shirt on, with a one ski beach start, cigarette in mouth,and dry shore stop appear to be a distant memory... Currently I am looking for a 21 LXR. I need tube/ski/children stuff/ storage/glovebox,ice cooler, and have two small girls that have a need to be in a bowrider staring over the edge. I need 65mph somehow...We have many "schools" of our version of dolphins and if you go about 30mph beside the pods they will all come and swim beside you. They will break the surface with their dorsals and soak everyone and you can touch them (dorsals) at this speed. Also cool is to see them in the bow wake of the freighters that go by in a steady stream. They don't swim but acually seem "caught" in the pressure of the wave and it pushes them forward. There are many lakes here but most of them would be eaten up in a 30 seconds in a Donzi at full throttle, not to mention the idiots in your way that have the money to buy a boat and not the faintest idea in operating it. I do all my boating in the ocean. The other side of the strait, Georgia Strait, Vancouver, B.C. area, (you were crossing the Juan de Fuca Strait on the ferry to Port Angeles)has more "high end" boats with its much larger population and influx of money. There are larger hi-po boats on that side of the water to be sure. 30 plus footers and many Dot Com entrepeneurs. We see a lot of Formulas, Cobalts, the odd Chapparal Villian, Scarabs ( a couple of these are for going up whale watching up the left coast,Juan de Fuca Strait, of Vancouver Island), and a couple of Pachangas. The ocean here is not as bad as it seemed when you were here. The left side of the island is basically unprotected and is just open Pacific all the way to Japan. That allows for some large water to make its way across. The other side of the island (it's 306 miles long)is the Georgia Strait, much nicer, quite protected and not open to the ocean in such a way. An 18 mile crossing( about 8 unprotected) of that takes you to downtown Vancouver. Many, many, many great dockside pubs and eatery's and unbelievable scenery. As for a gathering up here for Donzi owners, it would be quite small for sure, but I am doing my best to increase the population of these.Does anyone have a truck that can pull their boat and bring one more? I see there is an Lxr in Ontario for sale for 22k US. Price is right but timing is off. (Remember, your dollar costs me $1.50 Canadian,and we have 2 taxes, 7% and 7%. Hence a new 18 Classic will set me back $57,000.00 CAN. That is with stock 350 power, 250 hp and no "goodies". I don't want to think of what the Scorpion package costs. 380 hp stock sounds nice tho in a spinning 350.I will buy in off season (Nov,Dec) and most probably fly down South to inspect,purchase, fly home and then bring the motorhome down, (put a hitch on it first)have a "Disneyworld Vacation" (maybe there will be a Donzi theme park by then,)and pull one of these babies back. If some time in the future I can entertain anyone down there up here on one of your "journey's" please feel free to let me know. We have a cottage on a Island about 3000' from the Ferry terminal (not the Juan de Fuca side, but Gulf Island side)Piers Island if anyone has a chart of the area, c/w mooring buoys etc.( I won't leave a boat at a dock with Ferries going by (large wake)and guys in aluminum boats, no bumpers, tie-ing up to you) The boat would have to live in the SALT WATER for a couple of days tho....cheers

Forrest
07-12-2000, 09:44 AM
Lenny, what a post! I feel like I'm there. Guys, find Lenny a Donzi at a price where he doesn't have to give up his first born for. That tax up the in Canada is a killer. Also, take a good look at that X-18. Donzi didn't make very many of those (71 total? is that right? help me out Tony. . .) and if you can get it cheap enough (really cheap), it may make a good long term project for someone.

The ocean side of the island sounds really neat. When I was up there in '96, the Coast Guard Auxiliary attempting a record speed run in a rigid-hull inflatable with twin V-6 outboards around Vancouver island. The boat was named, "Spirit of Sooke". These guys really looked like they knew what they were doing and as I understand it, there were some serious swells on the Pacific side the had to deal with. Quite a contrast from the Coast Guard Auxiliary around here where they ride around on pontoon boats with 40hp outboards, give a few waves, and go home when it gets dark.

Anyway, keep up the good posts . . . they do get read.

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Forrest

oldLenny
07-12-2000, 01:41 PM
That race is every year and it is the fastest time around Vancouver Island, starting at the harbour (inner one, where you caught the coho ferry to port angeles)and ending at the harbour. It is about a 700 statute mile trip. Comprised of rigid hulls, ocean V's and Whalers. 20-30 swells would be common on the northern west coast. Mind you they are a long ways apart. There is also a (i believe still) bi-annual race from the northern west coast of U.S. to Alaska. I remember when that was won by Ronald Regans' brother...this would be a very ugly trip on water. keep your eyes open for a "project, long term" boat. 16 classic or 18 would be nice, original gel coat, 70's or newer, crappy trailer, shot engine etc, hull straight and undamaged. I have done lots of fibreglass work in my past with some success and fresh paint and a restoration project (asides from aquiring a 21LXR) would be a blast. Have just stared putting siding on my new shop, 14' hx 36'w x 36'l and have nothing to put in it other than a beer fridge as yet.Must be cheap. Parts up here would be extinct/non-existent so posts here would be regular and UPS shares would definately go up. Keep in touch.