Not all Cigarettes are hazardous to your health

by Bob Wonders on 15 Oct 2010 That most legendary of high-performance marques, the Cigarette Racing Team, is situated in Florida, just a few kilometres south of Fort Lauderdale and the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

Consequently, Cigarette regards the show as virtually being 'home ground' and as such the company will be going in with its throttles wide open. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is set for its five-day spectacular from October 28 through November 1. This marks the 51st edition of the show, widely regarded as the world’s largest in-water boating exhibition.

The Cigarettes produced by the legendary company may not be hazardous to one’s health, but I’m sure the same could mot said of the bank balance; the company does not list the retail prices of its boat, simply because every craft produced is virtually custom-built.

Safe to say that to become the owner of a boat sought after by Kings, Sheiks, Presidents, movie stars and Potentates prepare to spend anything from USD$450,000 to USD$1 million-plus. Apart from its name, which has almost mystical properties, what makes Cigarette boats the ‘must have’ for the performance oriented boating enthusiast? Image no doubt comes into play.

Sure, anyone at the wheel of a Cigarette really 'looks the part', but there’s more to it than that. Paint jobs that could only be termed ‘spectacular’ in every way, helms and upholstery designs to die for and the best engines the equally legendary Mercury Marine can produce all help in forming the desirability of the Cigarette breed.

The company today, now occupying new premises north of its old stamping ground, at the unusually-named Opa-locka, still in North Miami, but a few kilometres North West of its original site. Cigarette Racing Team, 2010, is led by the go-getting CEO Skip Braver, a former electronics salesman from Chicago who bought the company in 2002 for what was believed to be more than USD$11 million.

Under Braver’s leadership, it’s fair to say that Cigarette has gone from strength to strength, reaffirming its status as the world’s best-known high performance boat.

Visitors to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show will be on hand to see the company’s full line-up, from the 20-year-old classic, the Cigarette 38’ Top Gun through to the fabulous Mercedes-Benz AMG-inspired 46’ with its incredible 1350hp engines developed by Mercury Racing.

The 38’ Top Gun has been described as 'the perfect pleasure boat', with proven 525hp Mercury Racing engines and Bravo XR drives delivering a package requiring ease of maintenance and operation. It boasts an incredible graphics design in an aquatic blend of deep blue colours of the sea, its natural habitat.

Fancy ‘kicking up a notch?
Then the Cigarette 39’ Unlimited is your boat, with 700hp Mercury Racing engines and NXT drives; And how, from its black carbon fibre dash to a striking paint design which combines matt black and pearl white with bright red Cigarette accents, those who pilot a 39’ Top Gun announce to all and sundry that 'they have arrived.'

Of course, blue water angling is a popular sport for many and the Cigarette Racing Team caters for the sportsman as well.

The 39’Top Fish is offered in two versions, Open and Cuddy Cabin and in this case calling on outboard power rather than stern drive; with triple 300hp Mercury Verado installations at their transoms, the Top Fish boats get up and boogie in true Cigarette style.

Looking or something a little larger?
Cigarette can come to your party with the 42X, a favourite of those who enjoy poker runs, the 46 Rider, 49 Grand Sport and not forgetting the stunning 46 AMG-inspired ‘thriller.’

I was privileged to see the AMG boat at the Miami International Boat Show last February and I can tell you here and now, it is something else!

With those Mercury Racing engines this fabulous ‘Ciggie’ can easily top the magic ton, 100mph (160km/hr) and keep on smiling. To see this Cigarette close up makes a visit to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show an absolute must. Of course, the background to the Cigarette Racing Team is one of the most famous stories associated with recreational boating.

It’s now history that the Cigarette Racing Team was established by the late Don Aronow on a dead-end street in North Miami Beach that would later become known as ‘Thunderboat Row’. That rather unimpressive street, North East 188th Street, became the home of high-performance boat building and Aronow was anointed ‘The King of Thunderboat Row.’

Seventeen years after forming Cigarette (he had previously established Formula Powerboats), Aronow was murdered in 1987 on the very street he had propelled to fame; he was shot to death while sitting in his Mercedes-Benz almost outside the Cigarette facility.

I guess that’s all water under the proverbial bridge now, a drug dealer named Bobby Young was eventually charged with the murder and another powerboat builder and arch-rival of Aronow, Ben Kramer, was also allegedly involved. Both men were sent to prison with no possibility of parole and Bobby Young died in jail last year.

Aronow won more than 350 offshore powerboat races. Most of them in boats of his own design. Together with the legendary Gar Wood, from an earlier generation, the pair remain the only Americans ever awarded the UIM (Union Internationale Motonautique) Gold Medal.

There’s just an indefinable ‘something’ about Cigarette, like a Bugatti roadster or a shotgun by James Purdey and Sons. It’s more than just a name, it’s the Cigarette Racing Team.

For further information, please go to: www.cigaretteracing.com