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    Article: Offshore Legends Series: Charlie McCarthy, "Top Banana" Part One
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    The opinions herein reflect the author’s judgement at the time it is made but is subject to change at any time.
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    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    24' Banana Boat - Top Banana The birth of the Banana Boat Company.

    This hull used to be the Cigarette 24. It was the first 24 foot boat made from the molds that Don Aronow took from the Cigarette production and sold to Charlie. The boat was rigged by Don for Charlie at Magnum Marine. Don owned both Cigarette and Magnum at the time.

    The deck is a 24 Cigarette deck that has additions to make the race configuration. Engines were twin 350 TRS packages blueprinted by Stan Irwin of Miami.

    Driver/owner Charlie McCarthy, Navigator Ron Morrison, and Mechanic, Dick Hart. Charlie drove and throttled the boat.

    The top photo is from the 1976 Key West Race it took first place in the Modified class. The boat also took first place in Gloucester, Plymouth and Narragansett Bay that year.

    The boat was sold in 1978 and raced for another year under the name Gone Bananas by Chuck Fogarty and Neil Cody.
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    Competitor / Contributor jetcruzr's Avatar
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    Great Stuff, Cannot wait to read more!
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    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    It still amazes me to see some of the pics where the boats are so high in the air. Especially the 24's!!!!!!
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    Icon/Founding Member Top Banana's Avatar
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    The two guys that raced Gone Bananas were Green Berets that had just come back from Viet Nam. They had a lot of stories and we all listened and smiled thinking...yeah, sure, nice story.

    Then one day it became real. One of these guys went to lunch in Newport with another Banana Boat owner. They had a nice lunch and after walked back to the marina where they left the other guys boat. Their path led them through a warehouse area. One of the warehouses had a big fence around the yard and as they walked by, a Doberman Pinscher came running out and came right up to the fence really barking and jumping around.

    The Gone Banana guy told the dog to ...Shut Up. The dog kept barking. Next thing this guy is over the fence and chases the dog back into the warehouse. My other customer told me that the look in the dogs eye was pure fear as he watched him climb the fence. A few minutes later he came back and jumped back over and they walked back to the boat. He was real and so were the stories. He loved offshore racing, he said it gave him the same rush as combat did.
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    Icon/Founding Member Top Banana's Avatar
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    Yes, I said there were two guys who raced this boat.

    The other guy? Well, to say that he had a different way to deal with stress is putting it mildly.

    He would sit at the bar and enjoy a nice stiff drink.......and then he would eat the glass. Yup, the glass would disappear.
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    I watched a guy eat a glass once. What a nut!!


    Any idea if they are still around somewhere?
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    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    There was a 66 Top Banana and a 60 Top Banana. Were they the same boat with different numbers?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ratickle View Post
    There was a 66 Top Banana and a 60 Top Banana. Were they the same boat with different numbers?
    The 66 was going to be my number of the 1978 season.

    As you know the boat was not ready until the 79 season and by then number 60 had freed up, which had been my first choice.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails bacardi 790051.jpg   bacardi 790049.jpg   bacardi 790053.jpg  

    bacardi 790056.jpg   bacardi 790057.jpg   bacardi 790059.jpg  

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    This picture (small above) is Charlie and JC Simons together as Charlie signs the last check for the boat design.

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    All of the photos in post 12 are from the first water test in Fort Lauderdale in 1978.
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    "Top Banana"

    The phrase “top banana,” meaning the leader or boss, traces its roots back to vaudeville. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the term caught on after a leading vaudevillian, Frank Lebowitz, incorporated bananas into his act in the early 1900s; the term “second banana,” for supporting actor, also caught on around this time.
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