old formula 233 boat ??


F

formula72

New member
prior to formula buying thunderbird, or as i have been told, there were 233 boats back in the 60's . does anyone know about the thunderbird badge, as well as if the transom was different than the newer formula boats ?  if anyone has any info on these old 60's boats please let me know may of found a old old one. its a v hull that looks like a 233, with a wider bow on it. any info is helpfull on it.
 
I used to store my 223 in Lady lake in a field at my parents mobile home park. Now this is back in the boonies! One day as I was working on it, two OLD farts (mid 70's+) came by. They came right up to the boat and one of them asked me, Is that about a 1970? I'm kinda shocked, but answer, yes, a 1971. The guy then says, I designed that haul ya know. Now I'm thinking I got some delirious old man that is dreaming up stuff. But then he says, "yeah, we had a boat building business in Miami in the 60's. Now he has my attention after mentioning Miami. He went on how 2 guys had a partnership, he was an employee that layed up hauls. He said one of the partners crossed his fellow partner and sold the design to Thunderbird while the other was out of town. Who knows?? but the guy knew the significance of this haul design and pegged the date of mine right on. Anyway, they left, I just packed his story in the back of my mind. But according to him. they were building this haul as a small time boat builder in miami in the 60's.
 
My understanding is that the 233 was designed in 1962 by Jim Wynne for Don Aronow under the Formula brand. Here's a link of the Formula time line from their site: http://www.formulaboats.com/content/history.aspx

It made its debut in the '62 Miami Nassau race doing quite well. 74Formula233 has a copy of a great old Formula ad w/ the 233 - Eric, did you ever scan it to post?
 
The hull has been unchanged since '62, except for different "top caps" over the years, including both Cuddy and CC versions. ;)
 
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