Aero-Marine Finishes New Windshield for Cigarette 36 Gladiator

It pretty much is everyday that Aero-Marine is prepping, constructing and/or shipping acrylic windshields to be retrofit on models from Baja Marine, Eliminator Boats, Fountain Powerboats, Sonic Boats, Spectre Powerboats and more.

A former canopied raceboat, this Cigarette Racing 36 Gladiator is getting a new windshield from Aero-Marine as well as fresh paint.

But it’s not everyday that the Aero-Marine crew carefully packs up a new windshield for a canopy-style performance boat and ships it out to the customer’s installer. Yet that’s what was happening the day speedonthewater.com visited the Aero-Marine facility in Fontana, Calif., last week.

Carmen Bélanger-Martin, president of Aero-Marine and AM Hot Rod Glass, was visibly proud of the finished product—a custom 3/4-inch-thick acrylic windshield for a 2003 Cigarette Racing 36 Gladiator. Since converted for pleasure use, the 36-footer—one of three built with a canopy—raced under the name Unleashed.

Aero-Marine built this optically clear acrylic pleasure windshield to replace the worn out polycarbonate racing windshield on the 36-footer.

Now the boat, which was transformed into a four-seater with an open canopy several years ago, is owned by Michigan performance boaters Kevin Kaczan and Kristy Vandenplas. After purchasing the boat in February, they decided to have some cosmetic work done on the boat—and the polycarbonate windshield was in obvious need of replacement, according to Kaczan. He also said he couldn’t wait to see the new windshield this week and drive the boat with Vandenplas in next month’s Boyne Thunder Poker Run. (Look for a story on the boat, as speedonthewater.com will be in Boyne City, Mich., for the event.)

Obviously the canopy for Unleashed wasn’t the only thing happening during our afternoon visit. Bélanger-Martin showed us a nearly complete windshield for a 50-foot Outerlimits V-bottom, discussed an upcoming project going on with Skater Powerboats and let us touch and feel some new hardware on the horizon—all stories to keep an eye out for on speedonthewater.com.

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