Allan Brown, Super Man

The news of high-performance marine industry legend Allan “Brownie” Brown’s death at 89 broke social media yesterday. Acting on a tip from a longtime Brown friend, Powerboat Nation and speedonthewater.com opted to wait a day to report as not all his family members had been informed of his passing. That also gave award-winning marine industry journalist Eric Colby, who came to know Brown well during the years, time to write a beautiful tribute to the man.

As he does for so many marine industry companies and offshore racing circles, Brown holds a special place in the hearts of Powerboat Nation team members. He wrote over 50 “Brownie’s Bites” stories for Powerboat Nation, and his pieces always were revealing and insightful—and funny.

Sometimes, Brown based his articles on remembrances from his fine book, “Tales Of Thunderboat Row.” Sometimes they came straight out of his head.

That’s the benefit of spending a lifetime in a colorful industry. Not only do you accumulate thousands of colorful stories. You became colorful yourself. And Brownie, who was 89 years old when he died yesterday, was Wizard Of Oz colorful.

But beyond that, he was accomplished, as his longtime compatriot Rich Luhrs described in Colby’s fine story.

“Brownie was the rarest of human beings,” Luhrs explained. “He could design, construct, rig, repair, manage, diagnose, improve, race, win and report brilliantly. He possessed the greatest sense of humor in the history of our sport, the greatest depth of knowledge and experiences, and without a doubt the greatest people skills. He was admired by folks worldwide without benefit of a major marketing effort and no inflated ‘brand building.’ He was simply…special.”

A multi-time offshore world champion from the United Kingdom, Steve Curtis recalled Brown’s immediate and lasting impression on not just himself but his racing career.

“I have so many great memories with Brownie,” said Curtis, the son of legendary boat-builder Clive Curtis. “When I came to the states at 17, he really took me under his wing making sure I didn’t get into too much trouble in those crazy ’80s days in Miami but he also made sure I had plenty of fun.”

“He used me as his guinea pig test driver and was always there to give me pointers and teach me from his vast knowledge of high-performance boats,” he added. “He was a one-of-a-kind great friend and a true legend in our industry.”

May he rest in peace.—Matt Trulio

Source: https://www.powerboatnation.com/allan-brown-super-man/