Don’t let the calendar fool you—just because the 38th annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout is complete and Labor Day Weekend is just four days away doesn’t mean the go-fast boating event-season is done. This month is loaded with worthwhile happenings.
The fun resumes September 10-13 Lake Cumberland Poker Run. The venerable Kentucky affair will celebrate its 20th anniversary this time around.
The Pirates of Lanier Poker Run is just one of the events happening this month. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Next up is the September 17-20 Florida Powerboat Club Emerald Coast Powerboat Week, which is among the club’s strongest events. After the Destin, Fla.-based happening only the October 9-11 Fall Fun Run to Hawks Cay Resort in the Middle Florida Keys and the November 3-9 Key West Powerboat Week remain on the outfit’s 2026 schedule
Want something cooler and closer to home if you live in the Northeast? The Oneida Chicken Wing Run in Sylvan Beach, N.Y., returns September 19. You don’t even have to bring your own wings.
A once-classic event that came back strong last year, the Pirates Of Lanier Poker Run is set for September 25-26 in Buford, Ga. Despite an organizer change, the momentum should continue.
That Pirates of Lanier happens on the same weekend as the Catalina Fun Run in Southern California is unlikely to prevent a schedule conflict as Buford and Newport Beach—the starting pointing for the Pacific Ocean crossing to Catalina Island—are 2,220 miles apart. That’s not to say performance-boat fans don’t travel well, but long road-trips with boats in tow are more the stuff of mid-summer than early fall.
And of course, there a slew of other event this month from the September 6 Red Eyes Dock Bar Fun Run in Maryland to the September 11-12 Englewood Beach Pirate Poker Run in Florida to the September 25-27 Lake Conroe Thunder Run in Texas.
Bottom line? Unless you’re done for the season, you have options. Lots of them.