Emblematic of both the American dream and a particularly magnetic kind of American masculinity, Don Aronow was a frontiersman, a real-life Marlboro Man and a fearless racer. He was formidably competitive both on and off the water, brutally handsome and adroit at negotiating the line between the legal and the illicit – at least until the very end. A ruthless businessman, he equally relished a challenge in his personal life and had a reputation as a prolific womanizer. Celebrated yacht designer Michael Peters, who went to work for Aronow the day before he died, said, “He was an asshole, but he was my asshole –a benefactor for whom I'll always be grateful.”
On February 3, 1987, Peters was 34 and among the last people to speak with Aronow at the Miami office of USA Racing Team, the latest of Aronow's boat firms. “Don and I had a meeting to discuss my salary. He gave me a spacious office, and I thought, ‘Finally, I'm starting to feel secure in life after a recent divorce.’ I remember taking a call from a guy named Ben Kramer and telling him that Don had already left his office for the day.”
At that time, NE 188th Street was a weed-strewn, low-rise strip. The sun was lowering in the wintery afternoon yet there was still plenty of warmth and light. There was fiberglass dust in the air and the pungent smell of resin and paint. Saws buzzed and machinery hummed at the various boat shops, most of which Aronow had started at one time or another. Radios blared out the hits of the day. Still riding high in the charts was The Bangles’ recent chart-topper Walk Like an Egyptian, originally inspired by the way people struggle to maintain balance aboard boats, apparently.
There was a jumpiness, an electricity in the air, too – not unusual on the street known locally as Thunderboat Row, Performance Street or Gasoline Alley. You never knew who might show up here, from royalty and high-born celebrity clients
