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tamburello
08-04-2003, 03:08 PM
I drove out to a wedding in Rochester, New York and spotted what looked, at first glance, to be a vintage Cigarette. I turned the car around and upon further examination found it was an 1982 Midnight Express 32 with twin 500s and Arnesons for sale.

Does anybody know about these boats? Are they decent or junk?

- Jeff

BUIZILLA
08-04-2003, 04:28 PM
You wanna know how strong they are...

They were THE #1 choice for dope smugglers in the late 70's, and all through the 80's... when you ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY had to be somewhere, you went to BG and bought an ME package. The Fed's even bought boats from them to chase the smugglers. One coughacquaintencecough of mine had one with *FIVE* 200 Merc's, and another longer version with triple 540 Mercruisers. Standard *extended* fuel capacity was 900 gallons. If one of the 5 engines took a crap on a *voyage*, they simply unbolted it in mid-ocean, and let it fall in the water... and kept going. Simple business expense.

Without a doubt,the Rock of Gibraltor of boats. I'd like to see a pic of it.

J

MOP
08-04-2003, 07:32 PM
Is this the same Midnight Express that was built by Cheoy Lee? The sleek one that looked like 20's era boats.

BUIZILLA
08-04-2003, 08:52 PM
No MOP, these were ALL built in OpaLocka, Fla.

J

Team Hula Girl
08-04-2003, 10:49 PM
Jeff, I'm not sure what the relation is to the current line of Midnight express boats but here is website with some info. http://midnightexpress.cc/

Here is a link to an article that Power and Motoryacht did a while back.

http://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/features/0601uscustoms/

I have seen a number of these boats in South Florida and the Bahamas and they are sharp. I had one outrun me near Sebastian Inlet last year. It had twin Yanmar diesels with surface drives. I was doing about 65 MPH. I ran into the owner later that day at a watering hole by the name of Capt Hirams and he definitely had quite a few people gawking at him and asking questions.

John

mattyboy
08-05-2003, 06:59 AM
didn't they also make a plug or knock off of the 21 challenger,what's now the 21 legend from superboats


Matty

Voodoocanoe
08-05-2003, 09:41 AM
I think they option out nice with the 4ft bow hatch and the dual waterline stripe eek! :D

florida gator
08-05-2003, 01:09 PM
Good enough for the US Customs.

Cuda
08-05-2003, 03:54 PM
We were working in Ocala a couple months ago at a truck stop, when this US Customs 39 foot Minight Express stopped in. I asked the guy how fast it would go and he told me "we tell everyone 65".
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jgriffcustoms.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jgriffcustoms2.jpg

Cuda
08-05-2003, 03:57 PM
They also had a Customs Beak Boat.
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jgriffcustoms3.jpg

Voodoocanoe
08-06-2003, 07:08 AM
Judging by the nasty Email I received regarding my comment above I guess somebody failed to see my attempt at humor, So I'll spell it out for everybody to avoid further misunderstanding.
4ft bow hatch makes for fast loading and unloading
of contraband. Dual waterline stripes was a trick used by smugglers to fool the good guys because the top "waterline" stripe would make a loaded down boat to appear not to be sitting lower in the water. Hope this clears thing up. :rolleyes:

florida gator
08-06-2003, 09:19 AM
Cuda, were they from Clearwater? I saw what looked like the same boat fueling at Petes Pier in Crystal River and they were out of Clearwater.

Cuda
08-06-2003, 10:33 AM
Yep, they said they were based out of Clearwater and were coming back from somewhere in the panhandle, around St Marks I believe. It's funny that I've never seen them on the water around here.

tamburello
08-06-2003, 04:16 PM
The Midnight Express that I saw didn't have the two waterline stripes but it was built for speed in '82.

It is listed for sale for $29,900. The boat looks solid but the gel needs rehab and the bottom paint needs to go. I don't know how rough the engines are and the Arnesons rubber boots were both rotten.

It would be a fun project boat.

http://www.donzi.net/photos/jd-midnightexpress.jpg

Voodoocanoe
08-07-2003, 07:20 AM
MadPoodle:

Voodoocanoe:
Judging by the nasty Email I received regarding my comment above I guess somebody failed to see my attempt at humor, So I'll spell it out for everybody to avoid further misunderstanding.
Hope this clears thing up. :rolleyes: Toooo funny. Some of us recognized the humor there, just didnt want to admit why we recognized it eek!

T,
Those hulls became Signature after Midnight Exp was put out of business.. Funny thing, lots of familiar faces in the Signature factory :rolleyes: Thanks Scott, Aparently the nasty Email author with a nonreturnable Email address thought I was bashing Midnight Express :rolleyes:
Now about that owner of Signature and that nasty little incident on I-95 eek! eek!

BUIZILLA
08-07-2003, 08:38 AM
Now about that owner of Signature and that nasty little incident on I-95 eek! eek! eek! :confused:

Bigbroadjumper
08-07-2003, 01:49 PM
That sure looks like a Magnum hull???

Gearhead99
08-10-2003, 06:17 PM
Wasn't Midnight Express one of the boat builders that was convicted of drug smuggling and part of his sentence was he had to build some pursuit boats for the government???