The home of Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats, Southwest Florida is a mostly miserable place to be right now. Don’t get me wrong. The water and the beaches are still beautiful. But the heat and humidity are obscene and likely will be through mid-October.
This new Nor-Tech 4000 Roadster catamaran will be in the Boyne Thunder Poker Run fleet.
That’s one of two reasons—the other being my job—I’m in Northern Michigan for the Boyne Thunder Poker Run, which starts tomorrow with the Bay Harbor Lunch Run followed by the traditional welcome party for participants at Boyne Mountain Resort.
American Custom Marine, a Nor-Tech dealer in Kimball, Mich., and Nor-Tech itself are backing tomorrow night’s bash. American Custom Marine principal Michael Knoblock will be there, but this time around neither Nor-Tech chief operating officer Henrik Margård nor Geoff Tomlinson will make it. Both are huge fans of the event, and not just because Northern Michigan is lovely and temperate this time of year and Southwest Florida is not.
Yet duty calls at the company’s home-base so they are staying put. So it’s up to Knoblock—Knobby to his friends—to carry the hospitality load. And he can handle it.
As for representing the Nor-Tech brand on the water, he already has that knocked. Knoblock is running a new 42-Eleven center console. He also just delivered a 450 Sport center console and a 4000 Roadster catamaran to Michigan-based buyers. Both will be in the Boyne Thunder mix.
Plus, there will be plenty of local Nor-Tech’s on the water including Bill and Lori Lemanske’s 39-footer. The Michigan-based couple never misses Boyne Thunder.
As it happens, the Lemanskes spend a good bit of time each winter in Southwest Florida running their 390 Sport in Fort Myers Offshore events. They love the area and the vast boating opportunities it offers.
They also know what it’s like there in the summer. So they’re exactly where they need to be.
Editor’s note: A weekly feature on speedonthewater.com, “36 In 35” will resume on Wednesday, July 15. The article series celebrates the 36 different models Nor-Tech has introduced during the past 35 years and their ongoing effects of shaping and enhancing the longevity of the brand.