With the retirement of the Boston Whaler 13, the Donzi 16 is one of the oldest fiberglass powerboat designs still in production.

The very first boat to wear the Donzi name was a little 16 foot runabout called the Ski Sporter.  Its design layout, was based on an earlier wooden racing boat known as the 17 foot Wyn-Mil II.  The Wyn-Mill II was later developed in to a production boat all on its own called the Formula Jr.  two years after the introduction of the 16.  Although the Formula Jr. and the 16 are very simular in design, they do not share any dimentions and should be consided completely different boats, derived from completely different proto-types.  Designed by Jim Wynne and Walt Walters, the Ski Sporter was introduced in 1964.   All pre OMC boats have a distinctive wrap around passenger seating arrangment.  The newer two plus two seating arrangement boats re-introduced in '92 are refered to as the Sweet 16s or 16 2+2.  I can find no official reference to any Wrap-a-round 16 being refered to as a "Sweet" 16.  The Wrap around seating models are great for the boat's intended mission, that being a combination sport boat and ski boat,  allowing a lookout passenger a view to the stern in a semi reclining position. Rough water pilots will quickly find their passengers complaining of neck and back aches as the side style seating arrangement is very hard on the body.   Very early models came with Eaton C drives, which were soon replaced by Volvo  Aquamatics in 65.  Many of the early, 64 to 65, 16s were updated to  H/M Ford small blocks and Volvo Drives.  In the first three years of production (64-66), the 16s had  metal scripts which spelled out "Donzi Marine."
From 1971 to 1978, Donzi made an production outboard version which was called the "Baby."  There are a few pre-71 Outboards, but these were special order, non-production boats.

There is alot of speculation on what defines a "barrel back"  but this argument is specious as there are NO fiberglass Barrel Backs:  The term simply does not apply to glass boats.   The arced transom found on earily 18's was never used on the 16.

All 16s, to this day, have a hook build in to the hulls that help the boats plane and is consistent with the skiing aspect of the design.  Early, standard 110 Hp. Volvo powered boats did'nt exceed 43 MPH.   Speeds over 57 MPH are effected by this hook.

Performance 16's, had Holmer and Moody Small Block Ford V8s, and H/M badged Drives.
Holmer and Moody were slow to use a newer form of engine to drive coupling and therefore many of these earily boats have a slight build out in the rear seats for clearence which was compensated by the Bilt-Rite interiors.

 
You will notice that there is a  break in the production of the 16.  This occured while OMC owned Donzi and was designing a new line of small runabouts to replace the 16 and the 18.  Fortunately, OMC changed their minds and these later became the Fourwinns Unlimited U-17 and U-19 boats.   Also during the OMC era there were boats refered to as Donzi By Chris-Craft. Chris-Craft was one of the other many companies held by OMC at the time.   In 1966, the well respected Canadian  builder Shepherd, took out a license to build 16's and 18's.
The 16, 18,  22 and GT 21 are the most copied of the Donzis and one should be careful to check out any of these boat's histories.   Non-licensed copies include Legend,  StarCraft, Viper,  Dolphin, Sterling and Cobalt - though the Cobalt was a well made boat.

Having  such a long production run,  the 16's are a diverse lot.

They came with:
Eaton Drives
Volvo-Penta Drives
Out board, right hand helms
Merc  Type 1s
OMC drives
Merc Alpha and Alpha IIs
Berkeley Jet drives
Vee Drives.
And a few experimental Vee Drive powered, jet drives.

Power was also diverse.
Holmer and Moody
Ford Marine Interceptors
Volvo Penta
Chrysler
Chris-Craft
And various Merc Engines.

The 64 to 65 boats were all white gel-coat, with three available interior and stripe colors:

White
Lucan Red  -   Named after John Bingham, the 9th Earl of Lucan
Christina Blue - Lucan's sister-in-law, wife of Billy Shand-Kidd, Princess Di's uncle.
Grumble Green - Named after Shand-Kidd's dog.
 

Current models are standard with two barrel Merc 4.3 engines and Alpha IIs
 

 66' 16 Specs
Lenght 16' 7 1/2"
Beam 7'
Deadrise 24 degrees
Weight 1500
Fuel 25 Gals
Speed 40.6 with 110 Volvo Aquamatic