Donzi in st augustine

[bertsboat]

Anybody here boat in St Augustine FL? I was out last week and crossed path's with a dark blue Donzi. I have even seen a Hornet two around here. Who would that be??
Bert in St augustine.

[2donzi2]

Bert,

The Hornet was mine. I live in Palm Coast and made several trips to St Augustine, but primarily hung out around the Matanzas Inlet. I have since sold that along with the two 18's I had. My hornet went to Maryland, triplehatch to St Petersburg and my 18 now in the process of going to Georgia. A few of my neighbors have Donzis. Blue X18, Yellow 18 and a Red Minx.

[bertsboat]

I have the red Baby and a 20" Riva white and turquoise (fiberglass but looks like a wood one in shape). What do you say to a passing Donzi when your not in yours? "HEY, I HAVE ONE OF THOSE" and their responce in a mind bubble "SURE YOU DO" SO i WAVE AND SAY "nice boat, some day i am going to get one of thise" AND I GO ON HOPEING THAT ONE DAY i WILL SEE THEM AGAIN WHEN i AM IN THE BABY AND THEN i CAN SAY "see i told you!"

YOU GOING TO GET ANOTHER?

DROP ME A LINE IF YOUR IN ST AUGUSTINE AND COME BY.
BERT

[2donzi2]

Bert, have had way to many of these boats, however, my two favorite ones were my Hornet and my 84 22 Classic. My Hornet was completely original down to the 330TRS and was a down right conversation piece. I always got approached with questions about that boat. My 22 was a rocket. Was a big block TRS boat, but motor was built by Dereberry Performance in Pottsboro, TX. I have to say, however Leon built that motor, the combination was right on the money because that boat all out flew. Motor on the dyno produced 482hp and produced it when it needed to. At 45, I have owed some beautiful boats over the last 20 yrs.

[silverghost]

Bert~
Please post a photo of your Riva if you have one.
I once passed on buying an unrestored mahogany Riva Super Tritone for $10. K .
What a mistake !

[SunGator]

Hello Bert,

My wife and I do visit ST. Augustine by car most of the time and by our 1996 Donzi 25ZX (once in a while). Just yesterday (9-10-11) we stopped at Beaches to get a bite to eat in Vilano, and I checked the gas prices at that Gate gas station dock and the owner told me it's at 4.39 a gallon and thats 89 ethonal free with valve-tech additive mixed in with the fuel. The owner also told me that he has a couple of fliers around town that say if you buy up to 50 gallons of fuel, you get 10 cents off per gallon, if its over 50 gallons, you get 20 cents off per gallon so I got a copy of his flier and (if you think this will work?) I will fax or email you the copy so mabey you can use this too, just incase you do not have one. Please let me know as soon as possible because the flier expires at the end of this year.

The pic below is where we came down to Cresent beach at the Matanza inlet and beached for a while. That day we ran from Sisters Creek at the north side of Jacksonville, all the way down to Cresent beach and back, (close to 80miles round trip that day.)

http://i53.tinypic.com/2ykdnhh.jpg

We will sometimes put in right at the A1A bridge in ST. Augustine and then run down to Cresent Beach and spend the day there, but at low tide it gets a little tricky if you are not too familar with that area of the boat ramp.

I have attached 2 more pics so you can see what Sun Gator looks like and if you see us out there, please come on up and say hello.

http://i54.tinypic.com/b3lp8n.jpg
http://i52.tinypic.com/30joaw3.jpg

Also, if we know in advance that we are going to be in your area, we will send a pm and let you know what date and time and where we will be, and if you do come to Jacksonville, feel free to let us know in advance too, and we can meet up. I live in the south end of Jacksonville in the "Mandarin" area.

[bertsboat]

Here is a picture of the Riva if anyone is interested. I have had it for around 15 years. Found it in a trash pile in Miami. It was a tender to a yacht from Italy and got separated sometime in the 70"S. I would guess it was traded for a Donzi back then. Sat on a sea wall in North Miami for 20 years then it was donated to a Church. They sold it to an old man that was going to make it into a fishing boat till I came along and offered him enough money to buy lots of fish. I have a before picture. I will post it as soon as I find it.
It is powered by a fresh water cooled 350 Chevy coupled to a BW 1:1 transmission. Hauls 4 adults well over 50MPS in comfort because of that big entry. Took three years of work to make it look like that. Lives in an air conditioned garage above the Baby 14 on a rack.