No one with functioning eyeballs will ever confuse the waters of the Ohio River with those of the Bahamas. One is chocolate milk. The other is a tropical drink.
Yet each has its moments, and I’ve logged a lot of them covering the inaugural Nor-Tech Invitational Bahamas Run led by the Florida Powerboat Club for the past five days. My next event-stop is this weekend’s Rock The River Cincinnati Fun Run in Ohio.
You would think—and of course you wouldn’t be wrong—that I will miss Bahamian watercolors. If there is anything like them on earth, I haven’t seen it.
And yet I am looking forward to Rock The River Cincy, because the powerboat owners it attracts appreciate and make the most of their home-water. They may joke about the Ohio River mercilessly with a dry, Midwest gallows sense of humor, but waterway is their playground and they’re glad to have it.
For the record, it was the Cuyahoga River in Ohio—a tributary of Lake Erie—that caught fire in June 1969, not the Ohio River. Outsiders often get that wrong when telling tales of industrial pollution. Just a quick data point to take with you if you’re from out-of-town, heading to Rock The River Cincy this weekend and want to seem in-the-know.
After filling 50 sponsor slots in a few days, the then-remaining 75 entries for this year’s Rock The River Cincy Fun Run were gone in just eight hours.
“I believe it’s the welcoming atmosphere and the camaraderie among powerboat owners that you don’t find at some of the bigger events,” said Pat Feldhaus, who organizes the annual event with his brother, Matt, and their mutual friend Michael Caliguri. “And we keep the prices reasonable so that most powerboat owners can join in on the fun.”
Yet Feldhaus and his cronies hate to turn away anyone. The 2025 affair has swelled to an event-record-setting 140 entries.
“We had a lot of people who were working and couldn’t get registered in time, so we accommodated as many as we could,” he explained. “The marina will be tight, but we should be able to manage. For the street party, we added more space. We have a lot of local boat dealer support, so we created a small boat show area for them and vendor sponsors. Also, the street party will have a stage with a DJ and live band.
“We also have a new bonus stop at Smuggler’s Cove Marina,” he added. “We will add another 35 miles for the guys who like to stretch it out.”
The upcoming Cincinnati event will be my second such experience there in as many years, and I’m looking forward to chilling with old friends and making new ones. I’ll dig running on the Ohio River with Indiana’s Kiran Pinisetti and his wife, Jessica, in the DCB Performance Marine 37R catamaran they co-own with Kelly and Julie O’Hara of Upstate New York.
But I still have one day and night left in the Bahamas. Time to go enjoy it.