aronow powerboats history?

Jesse James

New member
since the turbine thread was so informative, a friend and I were discussing this last night...

were aronow powerboats ( 39 and 45) founded or in the design stages before dons passing?

if not who spearheaded the project, and who was building the boats in 90

is the 39 aronow a top gun with platform or a dammed 41 apache, or an original?

did magic make any changes to the running surface after getting the 39 tooling?

thanks
 
They claimed that Don designed the original model before his death. Don Aronow did not have anything to do with this company though and it is not considered an Aronow company such as Donzi, Cigarette and Formula. It seems to be more of an attempt to capitalize on Don Aronow's name. I am not an expert on this though.....
 
It didn't actually become Aronow Powerboats until after Don's death....It was USA racing team....The 45 was to be Don's new raceboat upon his return to racing that year or the following!!!

Garbrecht ran Aronow Powerboats until they shut it down in the 90's and the molds were sold to Magic EXCEPT for the 45 mold which had an insert to build a 42 as well as 2 deck molds which Garbrecht kept and sold at a later time.....
 
It didn't actually become Aronow Powerboats until after Don's death....It was USA racing team....The 45 was to be Don's new raceboat upon his return to racing that year or the following!!!

Garbrecht ran Aronow Powerboats until they shut it down in the 90's and the molds were sold to Magic EXCEPT for the 45 mold which had an insert to build a 42 as well as 2 deck molds which Garbrecht kept and sold at a later time.....

Pretty much hits it... Let me add CRC that Gary Garbrecht, the co-founder of Fountain Powerboats and founder of Second Effort doesn't need anyone's name to add credibility to any of his projects.

PS... I should have bought Rick Conti's 42... still kicking my self on that one.
 
Let me add CRC that Gary Garbrecht, the co-founder of Fountain Powerboats and founder of Second Effort doesn't need anyone's name to add credibility to any of his projects.

I don't believe that Gary was one of the founders of Aronow Powerboats. If indeed he was, and he named the company, then why didn't he name it Garbrecht Powerboats? The name "Aronow Powerboats" was a blatant attempt to capitalize on Don Aronow's name. I can't find it but I believe that Don's son, Michael Aronow, has gone on record saying as much.
 
I don't believe that Gary was one of the founders of Aronow Powerboats. If indeed he was, and he named the company, then why didn't he name it Garbrecht Powerboats? The name "Aronow Powerboats" was a blatant attempt to capitalize on Don Aronow's name. I can't find it but I believe that Don's son, Michael Aronow, has gone on record saying as much.

First, I never said that Gary was the founder of Aronow.. He was the co-Founder of Fountain and the founder of Second effort. Gary took Aronow(called USA racing at the time) over and kept it running for a while... A company that was mostly Don's creation... what a better tribute which is what I think you will find, Gary's intent was... As for capitalizing on the Aronow name.... I think it's safe to say that it didn't do much for both Gary's or David's ventures. If you recall, David tried to capitalize on his Dad's name and built a 32' side console open fish, similar to the 28. He borrowed Byngs 32' Midnight Express hull mold and made a new deck plug... hired Jay Buscigleo to market the boats... after investing a ton of money I think they sold 2 boats... Now the molds are with MarK at Apache.
 
First, I never said that Gary was the founder of Aronow.. He was the co-Founder of Fountain and the founder of Second effort. Gary took Aronow(called USA racing at the time) over and kept it running for a while... A company that was mostly Don's creation... what a better tribute which is what I think you will find, Gary's intent was... As for capitalizing on the Aronow name.... I think it's safe to say that it didn't do much for both Gary's or David's ventures. If you recall, David tried to capitalize on his Dad's name and built a 32' side console open fish, similar to the 28. He borrowed Byngs 32' Midnight Express hull mold and made a new deck plug... hired Jay Buscigleo to market the boats... after investing a ton of money I think they sold 2 boats... Now the molds are with MarK at Apache.

OK, it's hard to find info on the history of Aronow Powerboats except for the little bit that has come out here. I have, however, discussed this on other forums and the concensus seems to be that it is not a Don Aronow company. Don had a hand in a lot of projects other than his own companies including McCarthy's Banana Boats. (or something like that!)
 
is the 39 aronow a top gun with platform or a dammed 41 apache, or an original?

did magic make any changes to the running surface after getting the 39 tooling?

thanks

Sooooooooooo, can anybody answer the questions above??? I'm interested in a 1990 deep "V" 37 Aronow (39'w/platform).I'm just guessing that the molds were approved before Don A. passed and G Garbrecht simply passed it from USA racing team to the new Aronow powerboats
 
I'm not interested in fiction. What do you know about Aronow Powerboats? Seriously. (I did become a "fan" of your facebook page)

Ask a question and I might be able to answer it. My personal vehicle has an aronow tag on it so I'm obviously a bigger fan than most. I know that Pantera at one time was going to build the wide body 47. The 42 is the 41 Apache with a small 1" step and large side vents. I almost bought Texas Thunder... a great boat and built almost entirely of carbon G. and Kevlar. I ran a lot of 39' cats... very stable platform but a slug when it came to speed.

Some of the molds ended up at Challenger Offshore...

A member of the Royal family was killed in a 39... what else do you want to know?...
 
Sooooooooooo, can anybody answer the questions above??? I'm interested in a 1990 deep "V" 37 Aronow (39'w/platform).I'm just guessing that the molds were approved before Don A. passed and G Garbrecht simply passed it from USA racing team to the new Aronow powerboats

Which boat? The red one? Great deal if that's the boat. Yes to all you mentioned... The wind break was a collaboration of Don and Alan Brown.
 
here is some info that i have been told...

straighened out top gun bottom with wider strakes, lighter layup 64-67 mph with the 420 trs pkg 750 #3 package was tested by nordskog.... anyone have that old issue of powerboat, also only 6 37/39's made
 
I sold a few of these in the early 90's (we were a dealer for Aronow Powerboats). There is no way the 37' did anywhere near 65 mph with the 420 TRS package. I would say 60 mph max on a good day! It really needed big power to get it going, but they were built like tanks, with a very high level of appointment and finish. Byng Goode was running the production.

The 47' with GM 8V-92 diesels and Arneson drives was really the most impressive of all the boats. It would hit mid 50's with ten people on board! They built a few with 1000 HP MAN diesels that would hit 70 MPH, but they were way over-powered and poorly balanced.

Garbrecht ran the company for a middle-east consortium that bought it from Aronow's widow. They basically shut it down after a few years of slow sales (remember this was the "luxury tax" years).

They didn't build a lot of boats, but if you can get your hands on one they were so well built IMHO that it should be a fairly easy restoration.

Tom
Total Marine
 
The 47 were being rigged for milatary use when I saw them after they moved to Sanford Fl. Very cool stuff.
 
The 47 were being rigged for milatary use when I saw them after they moved to Sanford Fl. Very cool stuff.

aronow47fci.jpg
 
MidOcean, was Mr. Garbrecht a founder of Aronow Powerboats? Here is an ad from the July, 1989 issue of "Boating".
 

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