Wozencraft Salutes Customers For Third Year With Parker Event
Devin Wozencraft, the founder of high-performance boat coverage firm Wozencraft Insurance, recently staged his third Customer Appreciation Event on the Parker Strip.
The tradition began two years ago, when Wozencraft’s good friend, helicopter pilot Fred Young, suggested that they invite several of his good customers to spend the day for a lunch, a photo shoot and some boating fun at the Fox’s floating dock bar in Parker, AZ. It was a very low-scale, non-advertised event. Among those attending were Greg and Heidi Pursley in their Schiada. “We ended up having a real blast,” he recalls. “We made a video of it, which is on our website.”
The event yielded so many great memories that a second Appreciation Day was scheduled for 2018. More people were invited this time, and Teague Custom Marine founder Bob Teague even made an appearance, as did racer Gary Hairabedian in his famous 21 Schiada River Cruiser. A video of what became the second annual event was also produced, with footage of Teague and Hairabedian making passes in their boats.
“So we decided to do it again this year,” Wozencraft says. “Historically, we do it the Friday right before the Parker Enduro, because a lot of the participants are out there already. But also, we’ve had some people fly in from out of town just to come and hang out with us without their boats, which is nice as well. I spring for the food and the helicopter.”
The third event was the largest yet: Wozencraft wound up feeding about 100 people, with around 50 boats involved at one time or another. The event started at about 10 a.m. and lasted until about 7 p.m.
“It’s not like a sanctioned event or anything, and we’ve opened it to all of our customers. It’s always fun when boaters can get together and hang out, socialize, and so on,” Wozencraft says. The event drew a good mix of hulls, in all shapes and sizes. “We had a lot of variety,” he says. “We definitely had a big Schiada showing. We had Jeff Clark’s brand-new DCB M31 Widebody that we just insured. And there were a lot of the boats that you see in the ‘Brett’s Cove’ section of Speedboat Magazine. There was also a good representations of Nordic boats. Thane Tiemer and John Lovell, his right-hand man at Nordic, were there as well.”
Expect to see the Wozencraft event continue next year, as well as Devin Wozencraft’s “traveling road show” to some of the big powerboating events in his outboard-powered 32’ Skater, starting with Desert Storm and continuing with the Tickfaw 200 poker run and Jacksonville River Rally.
