ON BOARD WITH John Ruiz
“I like to get where I’m going so I choose boats that allow me to do that. You are in control of the ocean instead of the ocean being in control of you”
John Ruiz, yachtsman, inventor, trial attorney and pioneer in healthcare data analytics applied to the field of law, has just powered into a new career as a performance boat manufacturer. In May, he acquired Cigarette Racing Team, the iconic brand from his native Miami, with investment partner Lionheart Capital.
It’s a dream a long time in the making. As a youngster he watched powerboats from Miami’s Collins Avenue beach and dreamed of being there himself. “I was enamored by the speed and the sound - the freedom it conveyed,” he says. When he watched the 2018 movie a biopic starring John Travolta as the founder of Cigarette, Don Aronow, a particular scene called out to him - Aronow squints into the sun as he watches the young guns out on speedboats getting ready to race. He grimaces and
