That’s Boating is a 160 epsiode TV series created and produced by Ashley Gracile. Seen in 40 million homes - it's an exciting look at life on the water.
Ashley Gracile lifestyle TV producer and Executive Producer of That’s Boating believes that Carroll Shelby and Don Aronow were cut out of the same cloth.
“They both loved to go fast and make the competition eat their dust or wake.” states Gracile, who is also President of GPI Content Corporation which released the national TV series That’s Boating. “But Shelby was always amazed at his success.”
According to Shelby who passed away in 2012 “When I built these cars back in the early ‘60s I never dreamed that they would become what they are. I never dreamed it’d be the most copied car, I never dreamed that we would win the world championship, I never dreamed that a lot of this would happen.” He also never dreamed that speedboats and choppers would also one day bear the Shelby name.
Well racing success was not surprising to Don Aronow who was famously murdered in 1987 by his partner Ben Kramer. Ashley Gracile remembers “Don was The King of Thunderboat Row and that a wild place… in the end it may have been what did him in.”
In 1964 after a brilliant career in construction Aronow fell hard for power boats. First racing them and then building them. Eventually he started Magnum Marine, Cigarette, and Formula speed boats. Soon Aronow was building speedboats for the Shah of Iran, Charles Keating, Robert Vesco, Malcolm Forbes, George H. W. Bush and Lyndon Johnson.
But it was the Sweet 16, launched in ’64 that was to become perhaps the most celebrated boat line of all time…the Donzi. That same year, Carol Shelby also accomplished the unthinkable – he beat rival Enzo Ferrari at the 24 hours of Le Mans with a 1,2,3,4, sweep for the Shelby designed, and Ford built GT40’s.
Some 4 decades later; the names Donzi and Shelby were both still synonymous with performance, winning and leading edge design and that’s boating.
So much so that these two powerhouses joined forces in 2006 to create the Shelby 22 GT from Donzi. From its dual painted Shelby stripes to its apple-chrome trim, this Shelby boasts an undeniable resemblance to its automotive siblings.
The Shelby’s hand-built upholstery features custom vinyl selections with contrasting piping. The metallic finishes and polished stainless steel hardware make the Shelby shine like the showpiece she is.
For added performance, Donzi designed a custom engine hatch with raised scoop, which not only gets more air to the Shelby’s clear-breathing big block V8, but also allowed Donzi to raise dimension for added performance. The end result is a 22 footer with a 80-mile an hour top end!
This boat isn’t for everyone. Those who prefer to go unnoticed are best advised to move along. But for those who want the most singular expression of style and performance available, your ride is waiting….. The Donzi 22 Shelby GT.
Ashley Gracile is the leading expert in creation, development and production of outdoor recreation broadcast television programming with an award winning and world recognized television series Distant Roads the longest running most widely watched road travel TV series in the world. He has been written about in numerous publications for major industry magazines and online resources. Recently, he has redefined first run broadcast television programming for the automotive industry with his ground breaking TV series Steel Dreams TV. Through his production company GPI Content Corporation Ashley has 14 other TV series totaling over 1,300 episodes.
