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I think that particular 18 OB hull was built in 72 or 73, not 76... I seem to remember a previous discussion in 'Sota about this now... hmmmm... that the hull was a few years older than the engine year displayed??... can't be positive... hmmm
good save fuzzy..
Thanks Poodle, and my apologies to airide as well. Any more pics? looking at the ones you posted, this looks like a converted 18 I/O to me, not a factory built ob transom. There is a notch cut in the middle to accommodate the motor height, and it looks a lot thinner than the 16 's transom. The finish is also different in terms of trim and it does not have trim tabs (although i am not positive if all the OB's had the trim tabs from the factory). Does anyone know the history other than it was used for the photoshoot? Anyone know where it went afterwards?Quote:
Originally Posted by Madpoodle
it's coming back to me now, Brownie put a post up 3-4 years ago on D.net about this.... check the archives... something about racing in the 188 dead end canal with it against an I/O boat... timeframe would be '71 or '72 hull but used up to 77-78 by OMC, originally rigged for V4's... boat was stationed at the Stuart OMC facility.... Poodle, ask Brownie, he'll remember.... good memory on AirRide, +1 for him... alzheimer's is a bitch...
OK, now you guys got me thinking. If I hypothetically took a 18 testarossa with a ragged out OMC kingcobra package to jack barsh and also took my 16 up there and told him to do an exact copy of the 16 OB transom (beefed up of course) on it to convert the 18 to OB like the factory did. I came a cross a real testy today and now I am thinking how cool it would be as an 18 OB, or is this just stupid to do to a realitively rare boat (omitting the obvious comparison)?
fill the transom in, add some knee's, get a 12" jacker and a 200 Pro XS... :cheers:
That Testa was originally a Merc package...
first props to Airride for bringing this up especially in the face of so many of us who thought we knew what we were talking about.
This thread was moved from a buy and sell thread that went left so it will not disappear and take Greekmafia's for sale thread off course. the posts were moved here.
Jackplate going to screw the balance..
your right poodle, I had one with the windshield back in the day (wish I had not sold it), but this one has a king cobra. it is a 1989 model. For obvious reasons I did not follow donzi as much that year ;) so it is possible it may not really be a test, just a 18 painted all red but no mistake on the power. It is a pretty good deal and I have casually been looking for a 22 to do the conversion with a transom well, but an 18 could be a lot of fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by Madpoodle
the 200 proxs would be awesome, but I have a couple motors in the warehouse that I would probably use first (cheaper). I am looking for the same look and transom usability as the 16 has, not bolting a bracket onto the back. I am familiar enough with pulling the deck and doing the transom work on a donzi OB to remember that I am not in a hurry to do it again. :DLOL besides, Jack Barsh does such amazing work, I know it would be perfect when I got it back from him.Quote:
Originally Posted by BUIZILLA
I'm by no means a expert on Donzi's at all . but there was a Factory Outboard Donzi that looked just like that photo that use to show up out at Markum Park 10 or 12 years ago when I lived down in Ft. Lauderdale . It was in really poor condition ,and the kids didn't seem to know anything about it . They just used it to tow tubes up and down the canal . I knew it was rare ,but never gave it much thought as to being being that rare .Rich Martin 018:eek:
i'm going to respectfully disagree with that... ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Madpoodle
Fish, i've been looking for a winter project... I like the idea.... without the motorwell though... hmmmm :reddevil:
jim, I have some pics of a boat that I saw in marsh harbor a few years ago. I think it was a splash and I could not tell if it was an 18 or 22 (yeah I know, hard to mess that up) but I will try to find them and show you what I am thinking.Quote:
Originally Posted by BUIZILLA
seeing what a lot of the SOB guys do on here, they have jack plates but I am not sure how much it has to do with tweaking the hull design (which is different than the donzi) and how much is getting the lower unit in clean water off the hull. I am sure it would take a lot of trial and error, but I am definitely not ruling out the jackplate idea.
Rich,Quote:
Originally Posted by RNM018
from what I know (and what I am still learning;)) donzi made the 16 ob in the 70's (and there might have been one more a little later than that ;)) there were less than 200 made of these; perhaps poodle, buizilla or Mattyboy who just showed up on the other thread can chime on on this (btw, these three guys know more about donzi's than anyone alive except for maybe brownie).
there was 1 22' from the factory which is discussed on another thread somewhere on here. There is rumored to be a second 22' from the factory, but no proof has ever materialized.
There is the 18 discussed in this thread and as airride pointed out, there may have been a second one of these.
When Arronow owned the company, they did some experimenting. When the chisolm's took over, they made some really cool one-off or just a few off boats and ran the company like a cool, fun, lets see what we can make company that was not very profitable. Since then, it has been a business with subsequent owners and the one off things are very limited although there are a few custom built donzi's in the mix.
Fun and profitable seem to be mutually exclusive in this industry..