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Formula right on money for gulf

The name brings power and speed to mind, but legendary boatmakers say serving Bay-area families is the next frontier.

By TERRY TOMALIN
Published October 6, 2006

[Times photos: James Borchuck]

The Formula Sun Sport 330 zips by the Pier. Heaquartered in St. Petersburg, Passport Marine was the top-selling Formula boat dealer in the world for 2006.

	Although the Formula name is best known because of its powerboat racing history, the future of the brand is in developing boats for daytrippers and a variety of uses that don't necessarily require speed as the top priority. Behold the U-shaped forward dinette lounge/double berth with filler cusions.

ST. PETERSBURG - Jim Dillon hopes the hard-core boaters will remember that Formula powerboats helped kick-start the performance boat industry.

"This line has such a colorful history," said the president of Passport Marine, which recently opened up a dealership in St. Petersburg. "But we are eager to show people that we have more to offer than just race boats."

Formula, built by a family-owned company in Decatur, Ind., can trace its roots to the glory days of offshore racing when the action centered on Miami's 188th Street.

Don Aronow, who would later become known as the King of Thunderboat Row, founded Formula and other legendary boat builders - including Magnum, Donzi and Cigarette, a brand name that later became a synonym for all go-fast boats.

One of the first to use a little-known material called fiberglass in his construction process, Aronow was an avid offshore racer who counted both the U.S. Customs Service and drug smugglers among his loyal clientele. He built boats for the rich and famous, including the Shah of Iran and George H. Bush, as well as the once rich and now notorious, including Robert Vesco and Charles Keating.

But Aronow's business practices eventually caught up with him in February 1987 when he was shot and killed as he sat in his car on 188th Street, the place where the performance boat had begun 25 years before.

"Formula has come along way since then," said Dillon, who recently moved his company's headquarters to St. Petersburg area. "We now have a little something for everybody."

Aronow's original 233 deep vee hull design would become the boat that all other offshore performance boats would be modeled after. Formula's new 292 Fastech is a modern version of that early race boat, but surprisingly, performance boats are not where the company plans on staking its future.

"That is a big part of our heritage," said Formula's president, Scott Porter. "But today the performance boats make up only about 15 percent of our sales volume."

Porter, whose father Vic started building and selling small fiberglass runabouts in the Midwest in 1958, would eventually buy Formula, which had previously joined forces with Thunderbird, another legendary South Florida boat builder.

Under Porter's leadership, Formula won world and national offshore powerboat racing championships in 2000 and 2003. But by then, the company had already made a name for itself among the weekend warriors when it introduced the Sun Sport line, which set the standard for day boats.

Last year, Formula won Powerboat Magazine's coveted Sport Cruiser of the Year award for its 370 Super Sport.

"That is where our future lies," Porter said. "Our customers like the fact that they can have a comfortable family boat that still will perform when it needs to."

Dillon, who recently moved to St. Petersburg with his family, is no stranger to the boating market. He built his South Florida dealership into the No. 1 dealership in the country.

"Tampa Bay is such a promising area," he said. "What also attracted me was that this is an ideal place to raise a family."

Tampa Bay has roughly 125,000 registered boaters, which makes it the largest boating market in Florida.

"You also get more value for your money up here," he said. "It is becoming more and more expansive to have a waterfront business in South Florida."

Passport Marine has an office in St. Petersburg, across from the Harborage Marina. Dillon said his company has recently opened a second location at the future home of the Tampa Harbor Yacht Club, which will be built on land now occupied by the Bayside Marina.

"But I think the thing I love most about the Tampa Bay area is the water," Dillon said. "I would be happy to just see more people get out and enjoy this great resource.

"After all, that is why most people move to Florida ... to have fun on the water."

"That is where our future lies. Our customers like the fact that they can have a comfortable family boat that still will perform when it needs to." - Scott Porter, Formula president

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 09:02:17]