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A great boat show deserves a great party, and the 2005 edition of Florida Powerboat Club's annual Miami Boat Show Bash may very well have topped the charts for attendance and overall South Beach pizzazz. With great weather that included a warm tropical breeze blowing in over Ocean Drive and the landmark Clevelander as our party hot spot, it didn't take long for the program to swing into full gear.
Like the twelve years preceding this great evening of fun, Friday night was the choice and shortly after 6PM, FPC members and Miami Boat Show guests began to trickle in.
A steady flow of guests continued for the next two hours but like a tsunami, Ocean Drive erupted with a wave of eager party-goers that continued through the late evening hours. |
| Party sponsors, club members, boat show exhibitors and the who's who of the performance boating world were scattered throughout the bash. |
At the inside bar, a group of members reminisced over the recent Key West Poker Run a couple of months earlier and how much fun they had.
Just around the corner Reggie Fountain, David Knight and the Fountain Powerboats entourage prepared for a much deserved presentation that honored Fountain's continued excellence in the performance boating industry. |
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At the outside bar, in a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, Trond Schou from Nor-tech shot the breeze with Mike Fiore from Outerlimits Powerboats, while a bevy of beauties from Circuitgirls.com prepared for the highly acclaimed Swimwear Fashion Showcase.
This is certainly one of the many Boat Show Bash features that has kept partygoers entertained for years, and this year, with the addition of the Hot Boat Magazine models sponsored by Hardin Marine, the lineup of ladies for the runway-style show was certainly the most spectacular we've ever seen! |
With a total of three showcases scheduled between eight and ten PM, guests seated in the front rows along the edge of the pool soon realized the value of their prime locations and decided it would be best to camp out for a while than to miss a second of these beautiful ladies.
Soon after the first swimwear show, hundreds of door prizes started, with a full-scale assault of t-shirts, DVD's and marine related gift items donated by sponsors.
But this year's prizes topped the charts, with a Garmin 182C GPS and ICOM M-88 handheld VHF donated by David Tievy of Superior Communications and a bundle of high-end stereo equipment donated by Damion Polgar at UX AUDIO. Of course unlimited amounts of FPC apparel including a few of the club's embroidered jackets ended up in the hands of grateful recipients. |
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| Another new feature of this year's FPC Bash was video entertainment of our poker runs on two big screens, including a 15x15 screen mounted high above the entrance to the Clevelander, where it was visible to the thousands of pedestrians and motorists cruising up and down Ocean Drive throughout the evening. |
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The awards got under way shortly after 8 PM, and among those highlights were FPC Marine Industry awards that went to Cigarette Racing Team, Fastboats.com, Fountain Powerboats, Nor-tech Hi Performance Boats and Outerlimits Powerboats. These companies received their awards for outstanding contribution to the performance marine industry, and together they continue to hold the top positions in representation on the FPC membership roster and at FPC poker runs.
Between the sponsor announcements, special presentations, bikini shows and awarding door prizes, our live band Rough House managed to squeeze in a few great sets of live music, featuring reggae to rock & roll tunes that kept our party guests entertained well past midnight and into the morning hours. It seems like more than ever, club members from all over the nation, and even some of the locals that live in South Florida, are booking well in advance so they have a hotel room in South Beach during the boat show and they don't have far to go when the boat show bash finally winds down.
But wait a minute, most of our FPC members don't have to work the boat show the next day! They can sleep in, have breakfast at some trendy sidewalk café on Ocean Drive and roll into the Boat Show whenever it damn well suits them.
As for the rest of us who are working the boat show..those gates are open at 10 AM and the cattle will herd through the show like a stampede! |
If you've ever hung out with members of the Florida Powerboat Club, it's not that easy to say you're packing it in for the night because you've had a long day and have to work the boat show early the next day. No, there is no sympathy with this gang, and no easy way out.
They show their concern with four simple words… "Bartender…another round please!"
-Stu Jones
Click here to see event photos
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