I have been asked to update people on the progress with my restoration project: A raceboat built for Don Aronow, one of the 1967 World Championship winning 28ft Magnum hulls and an ancestor of the Cigarette boats. For those who don't know the boat's history, a brief update:

Don started-up a number of famous Miami boatbuilding concerns, including Formula, Donzi and Magnum Marine followed by Cigarette Racing. Don raced five or six of the Magnums, both in the USA and around the world: this one was the single Mercruiser inboard / vee drive-powered one called Maltese Magnum II. Others (some in the States, others based in Europe) were powered by three Mercury outboards, single inboard with outdrive leg and a twin Mercruiser with shafts that was later sold to Vincenzo Balestrieri, winning the '68 World Championship as Magnum Tornado. MMII won the Dauphin D'or and placed 2nd in the Naples race to clinch the '67 World Championship for Aronow.

MMII was sold to the UK's John Kennerley in 1968 and put up a good performance, further out to sea from Surfury and Magnum Tornado, in the very rough C-T-C of that year, before having to retire.
For the 1969 Round Britain she was equipped with a further Mercuiser V8 (in tandem via a Cassell gearbox) and Re-named Maltese Magnum Twin. The fastest boat in the race, she won three of the first five stages before fog and rudder cavitation forced her retirement. A third place in the same year's C-T-C was some consolation...
In 1974 an experimental gas turbine was tried (not altogether successfully) when she was sponsored by Black & White Whiskey. What happened to her after that is not known (by me, anyway!) and any info would be appreciated... Suffice to say, she eventually turned-up at a boatyard in Cowes... then i did!

Phew! Sorry, that was a bit long-winded (let's face it.. I seem to produce a lot of THAT these days...)

I'll try and keep it "short and snappy" from here on...

Here's a few more pictures to be getting-on-with...

Photos courtesy of MB&Y, Graham Stevens and Michael Aronow (via Black Tornado).

So Ian what are the plans for Power?

And keep the updates coming

Power depends on wallet size / lottery win / resorting to general crime / blackmail / kidnap, fraud etc. ...or / sponsorship / joint ownership / partnerships etc.

Nearly pounced on a pair of Mercruisers a few months ago, but I'm really not at the engineering stage yet. If I suddenly come into some serious money I'll employ a boatbuilder / marine engineer with a flawless reputation who knows what he's doing...! In the meantime, i have a huge learning curve and need to be patient!! However, I have to say that I've already had a tremendous amount of help and interest in the boat. My eternal thanks to all who have helped thus far...you know who you are.... I'm making a list of everyone who has helped / advised / encouraged / been involved and it's already considerable. More of that later...

With a project like this, with an important and valuable history, the need to research and consider each step is vital: It's gotta be done carefully or not at all... That's why there are quite a few periods of "not-at-all"!

So much for keeping it "short and snappy"!! I mucked-up the "time-line" or should I say the historic order of events, by posting some of the pictures above... If this is going to be of any interest, I'd better stick to the story....

Magnum hull as found by Adam Younger...

Fairly sure of the boat's identity once the dark green gel coat and blanked-off forward exhaust ports were studied...

Sold as seen! Delivered to home a few weeks later...

The high-pressure hose revealed the race no. 910 from the days as "Black & White Whiskey" from 1974. Later paint-stripping revealed the number again:

Going to be great to see it comimg back to life.

Just wish I had managed to find the previous owner (to Leeway) as the deck was all there and complete. Then Leeway cut bought the boat and cut-off the deck.

Anyway - all the best with the restoration.

Adam

Thanks Adam ! ...if I had a quid for the number of times I've wished the deck hadn't been hacked-off... (and I was pretty hacked-off when I saw it...) then she'd be in a boatyard now, being restored by someone who really knows what they're doing! But every cloud...

In some ways it's been a good thing, to have to take-it slow and steady. For a start, it made me decide to strip the paint, instead of sanding. This has revealed a great deal more info than i could ever have dreamed possible...

I next found traces of the race no. 033 from 1971, when she was acquired by John Tussaud and painted, but in the same dark green (why? ..there must have been a good reason for this.. i.e. the gel coat was faded / damaged or just poor). Underneath this new top-coat was / is the rather nasty bright green undercoat that has become a bit of feature in all my pictures...

I think the Propulser picture is a Beken one, via Graham Stevens: my thanks to you both and hope you don't mind...