Bly, thanks for that interesting bit of history. You learn something new everyday, we are planning on driving down to Florida and then to the Bahamas, I have jokingly said we should mount a .50cal to the boat just in case. Never new that it was actually used for that. This boat does ride a little better than my other formula just for the reason you have stated. My friends that have rode in it with us have all complimented on the smoothness of the boat. Looking at some of the old pics it looks like the model that Aronow and the beatles had their picture taken in. Anyhow I am trying to find the Don Arrownow movie. I have heard it was completed but haven't ran across it yet. Here is a link to it.
http://www.donaronowfilm.com/index.swf http://www.donaronowfilm.com/photogallery.html
Also here is a little history fo those interested. I am assuming that the "Aqua Hunter" is what would become the 233, but just guessing.
[quote]
DON ARONOW HISTORY:
-------------------
Don Aronow arguably can be credited with the creation of the performance
powerboat genre, but he had help. Lots of it. First came a New England
designer named Ray Hunt and a 31ft wooden boat called Moppie. While
owner Richard Bertram and navigator Carlton Mitchell hung on, Sam
Griffith drove Moppie for eight hours across the Gulf Stream to win the
Miami-Nassau Race of 1960. Their average speed was only 23mph, and they
broke the existing record by only 32 minutes. But the promoters called
it the toughest ocean race in the world, and in 1960 it lived up to its
name. Bertram and his crew set their new record in 30-knot winds and
seas of 9-10 feet. Moppie was definitely something new.
Few, if any, other boats have had such a profound influence on the
design of power boats as has the Bertram 31. The first boat design to
use a Deep-V hull, it is arguably the most famous modern boat design
ever built, the 31 Bertram has achieved a near cult status, infecting
boaters around the world. Designed by Ray Hunt and built by Richard
Bertram, the 31 was in production for 25 years. Many are still on the
water and in use throughout the world.
But in that race there was another boat also destined to influence all
future performance power boat hulls. The 23ft Aqua Hunter driven by Jim
Wynne arrived in Nassau two hours and 25 minutes after Moppie. She was
another Hunt- design deep-vee, but built of fiberglass and propelled by
the new "inboard outdrives" patented by Wynne and built by Volvo Penta.
At age 33, Don Aronow moved to Florida after prospering as a real estate
developer in New Jersey. In 1962 his first raceboat was designed by Jim
Wynne. In collaboration with designers Walt Walters & Wynne, Aronow
founded the Formula Boat Company and launched the Formula 233 to win the
Miami-Nassau race. The 233 deep-V hull design earned notable victories
on the national offshore racing circuit. In 1963 he launched a 27'
Formula designed by Dick Bertram and Peter Gurke. Formula was purchased
in 1964 by an Ohio-based industrialist who also owned Thunderbird. Both
Formula and Thunderbird models were then produced in a combined
operation
The first DONZI, a 28 foot, deep-vee was designed by Jim Wynne in 1964.
He won Miami-Nassau in 1965 but sold the company in 1966.
He next founded Magnum Marine in Miami, Florida, building two hulls
specifically for the gut-busting offshore circuit. These two designs,
with which he launched Magnum Marine, were the Magnum 27’ and the Magnum
35’; both went on to become World Offshore Champions in Open Class
racing. Aronow sold Magnum Marine to Apeco in 1968.
Aronow named the Cigarettes after a boat fabled for hijacking
rum-runners in the Atlantic during Prohibition. Aronow hijacked the
name for himself and designed versions that could ultimately slice
through choppy seas at speeds over 100 miles an hour. A bona-fide
Cigarette costs from $200,000 to $1 million and can reach speeds of 120
mph
Don Aronow was gunned down at the behest of a rival boat yard owner in
1987
BERTRAM 31 HISTORY:
-------------------
Dedicated to the Bertram Thirty-Ones Around the World...
THE SALTY TALE OF A COLORFUL BEGINNING
The 1960 Miami-Nassau powerboat race was a watershed event - it marked
the birth of Bertram Yacht and the advent of the modern powerboat with
its fiberglass construction, deep-vee design, stern drives and larger
engines. It was also one hell of a bad day to be out there racing, and
it was Bertram's first competition. The seas ran 8 feet, some say 12,
and winds were steady 30 knots, gusting higher.
"What happened on that gusty April day in the Gulf Stream and on across
the clear, rough waters on the Bahama Bank would forever alter
powerboating," reported Soundings magazine (May 1994). "The race was
won by Moppie, a 30-foot wooden prototype designed by C. Raymond Hunt
for Miami yacht broker Richard Bertram and named after Bertram's wife.
With a constant 24-degree deadrise running fore and aft, Moppie ushered
in the era of the modern deep-vee hull. The Ray Hunt design turned out
to have a terrific ability in rough water, and it really set
boatbuilding on its ear."
Moppie set a course record of eight hours flat when she crossed the
finish line two hours ahead of the second-place boat. That she finished
at all was remarkable. Conditions were so poor that the aluminum chairs
used by Bertram and crew crumpled shortly after the starting signal, and
the men found themselves standing on the deck for most of the race.
The only other boat to cross the finish line that day was the one other
vee-hull. Essentially, a 24-foot version of Moppie, it was driven by
MIT engineer Jim Wynne and boating writer Bill McKeown. No one else
came in. The rest of the fleet returned to port or finished the next
day. "It changed the face of yachting forever", said Jim Martenhoff, a
pioneer in rough-and tumble South Florida ocean racing and a former
boating editor for the Miami Herald. "No other single event has had as
great an impact on powerboating as the 1960 Miami-Nassau race."
(Soundings, May 1994)
After the 1960 race, Bertram turned Moppie into a plug, a mold was cast
and the first fiberglass 31 was created. The following year Bertram
again won the Miami-Nassau race, this time in Glass Moppie, the
fiberglass version of the prototype.
Some observers say that originally, Richard Bertram had no intention of
building a company, but that the publicity surrounding the two races
sparked such interest in the new hull form that he just couldn't ignore
the opportunity. As Bertram told Martenhoff, "Jim, there were so damn
many yachtsmen waving checkbooks at me that I had to go into business."
Production of the now-legendary 31' Bertram started in a rented
warehouse in Hialeah. The same hull mold produced a number of race
boats and Bertram dominated the ocean racing circuit, while gaining
valuable knowledge of structural integrity that was applied in
construction of production Bertrams.
Before the molds were finally retired, the company built 1,860 Bertram
31's over 16 years, including 23 special-edition models. The 31 came in
four configurations. The original open Sportfisherman had a lower
steering station and no aft bulkhead. The Fly Bridge Cruiser added a
rear bulkhead. Bertram also offered the 31 as a hardtop and as an
express cruiser, the Bahia Mar.
"The 31 has become a benchmark both in terms of seakeeping ability and
rugged fiberglass construction. It has had a reputation from the start
as a boat that will take you out and bring you back." (Soundings, May
1994).
"They went to rogues and royalty, grizzled marlin captains and
fair-weather sailors. Many of them are still tearing across the
whitecaps..." for customs and border patrol work, search and rescue
missions, and, of course, to ferry anglers to offshore fishing grounds.
The Bertram 31 launched Bertram Yacht, Inc. when it was introduced at
the 1961 New York National Boat Show, essentially as a day boat for
Florida sport fishermen. More than three decades later, it is a
collectible classic, sought-after, even coveted. According to
Soundings, aficionados refer to it as "Bertram Art." The Bertram 31 has
aged well, a tribute to its impeccable blood lines and robust
construction."
[/QOUTE]
1967 formula 233 project 
