PDA

View Full Version : I met Don Arnow .....my story



Studiomike
09-03-2007, 10:23 PM
first of all, I am a new member and have been checking into the site from time to time but more regularly now.....I am on my 2nd 18 ft 2+3 now but would like to share a story with all of you.... in 1964 I was 14 years old. My dad had introduced me to boating in and around Washington DC and Annapolis area. He had a 16 ft Dorsett Doral wit a 90 HP Johnson OB which he upgraded to 100 Evenrude the next year... it would move that boat maybe 45 mph. I learned to waterski and he let me drive it all the time. He was in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and played the Tuba and they had the summers off so we always went to my grandparents in Sag Harbor Long Island New York. They lived off the Long Island Sound and we spent most the time in the water speedboating around....I knew what most the boats of that decade were and there were some cool ones...Glaspar G3.. a little speedboat the was 13 ft or so that would fly with a 40 HP.... My 16 year old cousin lived in Amityville Long Island had a 14 ft Blue metalflake Glastron Jetflite another cool boat... we also new a guy with an 18 ft MFG with twin 75 Johnsons OB and that boat would just lift up off the water and fly... anyway we would drive into the town if Sag Harbor get some Ice cream... I would pick up the latest issue of Mad Magazine... and then go to the Marina there and look at the fishing boats coming in every evening... there was also a huge yaught there owned by the Dupont Corp that was about 160 ft long and it had two speedboats on the top like dingy's but they were Donzi's... 16 ft ski sports. That was the 1st one I had seen but it wasnt in the water... Somehow my dad knew something about them but not much.... The next day we went back up there but on the water and one of the Donzi's was out running around doing figure "8"s and such... we couldnt catch him he was so fast....eventually he stopped and we aproached him with our boat and the guy was friendy and tolds us he worked for the Duponts and was just testing the Donzi.....I was in awe..... It was green with white stripe....V8 power rolled and pleated seats.... the coolest boat I had ever seen.....he told us they were made in Miami Beach and were the Corvettes of the water.... I was so impressed when he took off and that sound and look of that boat told me that some day I will own a Donzi I was still only 14 or 15 years old..... we drove by the Marina again that night and the Donzis were back on the Yaught but this time there were 2 1964 or 65 Custom painted Corvette convertibles.. They were baby blu and pink metalflake and were also part of the Duponts toy stable..... Its must be nice to be wealthy like them...that week I also saw my 1st Shelby Cobra at the beach in closeby Bridgehampton...It had the top down no carpet windows just a stripped down sportscar that I didn't know much about at the time but we all know now how special Shelby Cobras turned out to be..... So now its a year later I am 16 now it is 1966.... My dads Orchestra was going south to Florida on tour and rather than ride in the busses he would drive the stage hands and get paid from the Symphony to drive them plus had his own car with him.....This time he took me with him so I got a few extra days off from school... and after about 5 nights into the tour we were in Miami Beach so my cool dad said how would you like to go to the Donzi factory and see if there are any boats there we could look at..... I remember to this day the smile I had on my face and the anticipation I had about seeing some Donzi's again... We got the address out of a phonebook drove to 188th st... and there we were...looking at the birthplace of the Donzi's... we parked there and my dad went in to see if we could go inside for some sort of tour and he came back out with a guy who shook my hand and said welcome to the Donzi factory....it was so cool to see how they made the boats... there were about a dozen or so Donzi's in various stages of completion....all different colors.... the smell of fiberglass..... sanders and drills making their shop noices....He pointed to what I think I can remember was an open looking office up in a lofted area and he said that the man up there Mr Don Aronow the founder of the Donzi legacy..... I remember he was at his desk working talking with someone.....so we continued the tour...he then took us out back behind the warehouse and the had 2 or 3 boats tied up on the canal right there.... I was also excited because my dad was asking lots of questions so I thought he was planning on buying one soon back up in Maryland when we get back.. Then we were offered a test ride in one Man how cool was that .... it was the 18 ft 2 + 3...... They man took us out the long canal which we could only go 6 mph...and it seemed like forever before we hit the open water then he told us "Hold ON" and he gunned it I could tell that this boat was almost twice as heavy as our 16ft Doral OB but that V8 power kicked in the nose lifted up and then we were flying down the intercoastal waterway in a brand new Donzi....WOW it doesnt get any better than that....... we hit some large cruisers wake and jumped them and the seats were so strong and soft that it didnt feel like rough water at all so smoothe It was the best ride of any boat you could imagine....it was a short ride but a great one 10 minutes maybe but I was in heaven......so we got back to the warehouse it looked like there was a 21 ft Hornet there in the water too but not as cool looking as the 18 ft 2+3. So as we said our goodbyes and thanked him he offered us some brochures that he had and thats when I met Don Aronow....he came over with the man who took us for the ride and asked us how we liked it.... I never stopped smiling the entire time...we said we loved his boats and would like to buy one.... He smiled back and thanked us and we all shook hands......that was it i wish I could I can remember more of our conversation but he knew what his empire was going to become..... Just like Carrol Shelby knew what he had back in the mid 60's.... I proceeded to become a speedfreak.... Had a 1969 Mach 1 when I was 19....and when I was about 24 I bough a used 1968 I think 351 18 ft Donzi I had a 73 GMC van to tow it and also sported around in a 1967 red Corvette concertible....I kept my Donzi at a friends house in Weems Creek off the Severn River in Annapolis....it was in the water and I would drive the Vette right up to the boat take off with my date and enjoy life to the fullest... I was a musician at the time and worked 6 nights a week so I had my days free to play. Now I am on the 2nd one getting ready to do a restoration.....thats my story hope you enjoyed it .....

gcarter
09-04-2007, 06:23 AM
Great story!:)
Thanks.

HOWARD O
09-04-2007, 11:47 AM
That's a great story, thanks for sharing that!

I was also about your age when I became infactuated with Donzi boats, but that was in the '70's. My dad had a boat on the Chesapeake (Sassafras River) and I used to spend a good deal of my summers there. The folks with the really big boats kept them in covered slips. One of them had a 16 and there were many mornings where he'd wake up the marina, starting his Donzi under the covered slips. To me it was the sweetest sound and I would get up out of my bunk and watch him head out and down the river. The Duponts had a rather large spread next to our Marina and they had a dk. green Hornet on a covered lift. I never saw it go out, it just sat there and I kind of felt sorry for the boat. I would take my rowboat up to it and check it out.

Man, those were the days.......I never did have a ride in a Donzi until I had bought my own many years later!

Studiomike
09-04-2007, 11:57 AM
Howard thats cool stuff......it still seems like just a few days ago when we were kids with a dream of owning a Donzi...... some people just dont understand how cool it is or was....

HOWARD O
09-06-2007, 11:56 AM
Howard thats cool stuff......it still seems like just a few days ago when we were kids with a dream of owning a Donzi...... some people just dont understand how cool it is or was....

Kind of makes me wonder how many Donzis the Duponts own though? :confused:

HOWARD O
09-10-2007, 10:48 AM
Sometimes things come full circle!

In my story above, I stated that the boat that really made me lust after was a Hornet. I was wrong, it was a 21 GT.

I am actively searching for either a Hornet or 21 GT to buy and while looking for photos and info on these models here in the registry, I ran across a 21 GT that someone had restored. Great looking boat, happened to be dark green and just like the boat I had lusted after as a kid. Well, after reading some of the posts this guy had written, I realized that he boats on the very same river that I did as a kid in the '70's. I wrote him and told him my story.

You guessed it! His boat is the very same one that was owned by the Duponts.....the very same one I had lusted after when I was a kid some 30 years ago! He even talked to the original owner's grandson who was able to give a history and stories of the boat. He, of course, promised me a ride in it.....which I will take him up on the next time I'm up that way!

Neat story and it's somehow very gratifying to me to know that the boat is still out there being used and enjoyed! :yes: