Are post-Labor Day, triple go-fast boating events getting out of control? My answer is no. If the weather is fair enough to support an organized day or two on the water, why the hell not? Winter will surely come. So as long as conditions are good enough, stretching the boating season well into fall is a most-excellent thing.
From the perspective of temperature, the DCB Performance Marine Owners Regatta in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., was hands-down the hottest event of the weekend. Daytime temperatures reached into the mid-90s, but as the locals like to say it’s a dry heat. You know. Like a kiln. The 35th annual brand celebration attracted 70 boats and more than 300 people, saw the delivery of the first M35R catamaran and produced some of the coolest delta formations of powerboats the waterway has ever hosted.
From the perspective of turnout, the Performance Boat Center Fall Fun Run took the prize with 58 registered boats and another 20-plus more—from the usual subjects—that just showed up. After a season of in-house-produced events that included the Spring Fun Run, the Outboard Fun Run, the Power By Performance Invitational, two in-house boat shows and three Sunny Sundays —and let’s not forget of the PBC Lake of the Ozarks Shootout shenanigans—the Performance Boat Center crew still had the energy and desire to finish on a high note. By more than a few accounts, the Fall Fun Run was the Osage Beach, Mo.-based dealership’s best event of the season.
From the perspective of intimacy combined wide-open water and Texas-style hospitality, the second-year Skaterfest event produced by RP Elite Motors and Marine in Springtown, a bedroom community outside of Dallas, was the clear winner. The Lake Texoma happening attract about a dozen boats from 20-plus to 40-foot. RP Elite’s Ross Ramsey and his wife, Mackenzie, have created their owner Skater family through the brand-celebration. And soon enough, as they announced during last Saturday night’s dinner celebration, that family will grow by at least one member. The Ramseys are expecting their first child, a boy, in April.
