Anyone familiar with Mr. Chaos?

Manny · 03-22-2011, 10:31 PM

Just curious if anyone knows about the 65' named Mr. Chaos. What's its history? Where is it now? I heard it was supposed to be a very special 65', like it stood out from the rest of them. My son had this picture of it on his computer taken from a magazine and I thought I'd raise the question about this boat

Capt J · 03-23-2011, 09:36 AM

Not sure, but I know you like to keep up on the Donzi's. ACY just did a refit on a 73' Donzi called Wenzel.......

Manny · 03-23-2011, 02:40 PM

My source for all the Donzi info is my son. He pretty much likes Donzi's more than I do!! I asked him about the 73' refitted at ACY...he said the name is actually "Wench". He even showed me pictures of it...I'm 95% sure that's the ex-Fox Harb'r Too. I think it's one of the first 73' Donzi's ever built. And it's one of like 2 or 3 that is equipped with 16v92's....

SHAZAM · 03-24-2011, 09:35 PM

Manny, thanks for keeping the Donzi section humming!

Manny · 03-24-2011, 10:49 PM

I felt like this part of the forums was a little dead, so I thought I'd just give it some more life

SHAZAM · 03-24-2011, 10:56 PM

Manny, have you ever seen a 65 with a seat in the front of the salon just behind where the dingy would go?

Manny · 03-25-2011, 10:31 AM

isnt that the Donzi you bought?

Bamboo · 05-17-2011, 08:36 PM

That's one of the earlier models produced on the cover of the mag- it still has the early style engineroom air inlet configuration.

Manny · 06-08-2011, 10:19 AM

assuming it's the same year as the magazine it was printed on, it's a model 1990.

JamesS · 01-20-2012, 12:00 PM

I was researching Mr. Chaos when I came across this thread. Mr. Chaos sank in 70' of water off Cape May NJ after burning to the waterline. If you have the actual magazine whose cover is shown, it states this in the cover description. When that issue came out, the boat was at the bottom.
That's what I know. Why, there are many theories.

The vessel was built on spec (no buyer) by Roscioli International after he bought Donzi Yachts from Dick Genth. Car dealership magnate John Staluppi was in the market for a sport fisher at the time. He liked the Donzi 65 but preferred MTU diesels to the Detroits that were installed. Rather than waiting for a new boat to be built, he had the Detroit Diesels removed and MTU's installed. I think new gen sets too. It's much more difficult to properly install mechanicals in a finished boat than one under construction, with no deck. He wanted a new interior, painted the teak toe rail black and on and on. There were so many workers on the boat at the same time that Staluppi named it Mr. Chaos. He took it fishing once and got the magazine article in Southern Boating. By the time the issue hit the news stands the boat had a fire while running off Cape May. When the captain opened the engine room door the engine room was engulfed in flames. Apparently the halon gas put out the fire initially. The gas was then removed by being pulled through the engines. When there was no longer enough halon to kill the fire it re-ignited. The captain rode the jet ski to shore and the boat burned to the waterline before she went under. Foul play was not suspected because the owner had so much money and nobody would sink their own boat in such shallow water.

The fire suppression system on the Donzi was redesigned to include an engine cut off device, a louver that automatically shut the air intake ports on the hull sides, a delay in the release of the fire suppression gas and a second, manual only bottle. That was right around the time I got into the boat building business full time and had the experience of working on this project.

JamesS

Capt J · 01-20-2012, 06:26 PM

How do you get the jet ski off of the front deck when the engine room is totally on fire probably killing the davit electricity. And, if the boat burned to the waterline, you couldn't wait for it to float off.......it sounds a little fishy.....

RVN-BR · 01-20-2012, 11:08 PM

If the jetskis were relatively small (some still today are under 300kg - which is a lot... but who knows the size of the guy), I "suppose" you could just push it out... if you know the boat is going down you dont really care for scratching the entire bow or breaking the railings?

completely absurd? I dunno... Thankfully i've never been in that sort of situation, but if the captain truly feared for his life he'd find a way to get it off...

Any chance that whinch is manual? (i have no idea, its a honest question, no sarcasm)... I see a bulge but cant tell if it is just a motor or if it would be a handle for manualy winching it?

etoeng · 01-20-2012, 11:33 PM

I Can confirm you are correct "Wench" is the ex-Fox Harb'r Too.

Manny · 01-22-2012, 10:50 PM

One theory I read in another forum is that he sank it on purpose because he didn't like the end result with the MTU's. He put in the MTU's with expectations of having a faster boat than with the detroits(how he expected that with the MTU's having about a hundred less horsepower than the detroits is beyond me). And since he didn't get that desired speed, he pulled the plug.

Does anyone know if the captain was alone when the boat sank? because that also seems kind of weird...