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Offshore
powerboat racing in the United States was born in and has been based almost
exclusively out of South Florida, specifically, North Miami Beach’s
188th Street (a.k.a. Thunderboat Row). This is where it all began and
where, amongst the construction and racing of some of the most famous
boats ever, there also occurred drug trafficking, money laundering, and
one highly publicized murder. A quarter-mile-long street once redolent
with the smell of curing fiberglass and the sound of big engines, 188th
Street, now part of the city of Aventura, is today a quiet, tree-lined
boulevard with condos, parks, a school, and a recreation center. There’s
no sign of the shady characters and millionaire playboys who used this
street as a personal playgound. So whatever happened to Thunderboat Row?
The
street was developed mainly by the famed powerboat racer Don Aronow, who
was the victim of that much-publicized murder. In fact, his son Michael,
author of Don Aronow: The King of Thunderboat Row, claims his father
created the offshore powerboat industry and that “the world of powerboat
racing belonged to him.” Indeed, Aronow was arguably the most popular,
admired, hated, controversial, and successful personality in offshore
powerboat racing and boatbuilding between 1962 and his mob-style slaying
in 1987. He created six of the best-known powerboat companies in the world,
some of whose boats were highly prized by smugglers for their superb offshore
performance. It was also here that he built a boat for George H. W. Bush,
which the ex-President still owns, and a series of controversial catamarans
for U.S. Customs to combat those very smugglers.
It
all began in 1961. Aronow, then a wealthy 34-year-old retired New Jersey
construction contractor, moved to South Florida with his family in search
of a new challenge, which he found in the emerging sport of powerboat
construction and racing. An astute businessman, he decided to start his
own boat company and so created Formula Marine in 1963 on 188th Street,
then a vacant piece of land along a canal. Formula was but the first in
a series of companies Aronow would create and sell shortly after making
it successful (and often buy back at a profit) over the following 25 years,
turning the street into a thriving industry.
While
he was building boats, he was also racing them, and between 1963 and 1975,
Aronow won two world powerboat racing championships, three U.S. titles,
set numerous speed records, and became known as “the godfather of
the powerboat industry.” His deep-V Cigarettes “became an
industry standard that all boats following were modeled after, even today,”
says Phil Lipschutz, owner of North Miami’s Lip Ship Performance,
the longest continuous exclusive Cigarette dealer. In Michael Aronow’s
book, Gunnar Hansen, former editor of The Yacht, is quoted as saying,
“In one short decade in the early 1960s, Aronow moved from being
a spectator to absolutely dominating powerboat racing. His deep-V designs
transformed the sport and became the prototypes for an entire generation
of hulls. In the process, he made Cigarette, originally the name of one
of his racers, a generic term for all drop-nosed, go-fast muscle boats.”
Next page >
Part 2: “Kramer wanted to be the king of Thunderboat Row...” > Page
1, 2, 3
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