| It may still be a little puzzling to some FPC members as to why the Miami Boat Show Poker Run isn't actually staged during the Miami Show, and the question is often asked. But after learning more about the origins of this event back in the mid-nineties, one soon has a clear understanding of how it has evolved. |
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Actually, the Miami Boat Show Poker Run didn't start as a poker run at all, but rather as a Manufacturer's Offshore Rally, with the primary focus of giving performance boat builders and dealers the opportunity to go one step further in showcasing their product to buyers. |
| The timing worked well for boat show visitors and especially exhibitors, who could arrange to take their new models straight from the show to the boat ramp and they'd squeeze in a few sea trials over the next day or two. The guys at HOT BOAT really locked into a great program a few years back, conducting performance tests for the magazine in nearby Biscayne Bay, so manufacturers now get a chance to showcase their product in a reputable performance boating publication while they prepared for the weekend poker run. |
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| Rest assured, by Friday morning they're ready for action, and perhaps even a little over-anxious after spending weeks preparing boats for the show, then standing on their feet for seven straight days and talking shop with hundreds of show visitors and schmoozing with customers in restaurants and clubs all over Miami Beach every single night! Hey, anyone that thinks the boat biz is a breeze should try following around guys like Terry Sobo from Nor-tech, Gary Baltz from Fountain or Scott Price from Hardin Marine during the entire month of February. Good luck! |
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Back to the evolution of the Miami Boat Show Poker Run. The idea of going down to the Florida Keys for a hi-octane weekend of fun certainly agrees with everyone, whether they're selling boats, buying boats, or just looking for an excuse to take a three day romp in tropical paradise in the middle of the winter! But the important point is, this event was in many ways created for, and is still very much dedicated to the members of the performance boating industry, particularly those that believe in and support poker runs.
So enough about the boat biz and poker run trivia. Surely you all want to hear all about this year's event like WHO was there, WHAT was the most outrageous equipment that showed up, WHERE did we party and HOW much fun did you miss by not being there?! Well I have some bad news for those who couldn't make it. You missed one helluva poker run! |
It all began with a sponsor lineup that featured some of the biggest names in the performance boating world as we know it. The best builders; Cigarette, Fountain, Nor-Tech and Outerlimits, which, when combined, represent over 60% of the FPC membership roster.
Sponsoring marinas and dealers included Fountain of North Texas, Hideaway Marina from Pompano Beach and Grove Harbour Marina, one South Florida's premier marinas and the location of our first poker run checkpoint. Turbine Marine also participated as an event sponsor, with showboats Warbird and AMF Racing putting on dazzling displays as the high-pitch of their Lycoming turbines distinguished them from the rest of the thunderous pack. |
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By late Thursday afternoon, the docks at Sealine Marina in Miami had undergone a full-scale transformation, almost overnight, from "Boat Show" docks that featured yachts, cruisers and fishing boats, to row upon row of colorful offshore machines. Dozens of anxious poker run crews scurried around the docks to check out the latest arrivals or catch a dock line from an incoming poker run boat. To say that the energy level was building would be an understatement. For first-timers, it was no doubt reaching new peaks. |
| From the docks, teams wandered no more that a few hundred feet to either one of two hotel lobbies to check in, the Biscayne Marriott and the Doubletree Grand. As always, a welcome reception, poker run check-in and compulsory captains meeting all fell into place over the next few hours, and shortly after 9 PM, poker run teams were free to head for South Beach, Coconut Grove or any one of dozens of fine restaurants and clubs within minutes of the host hotels. With so much to do in Miami on the night before the poker run actually begins, it's easy to see why the format is appealing to so many participants. |
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| A night in the Magic City before heading to the Keys! You gotta love it! |
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Friday morning arrived, along with sunny, clear skies and warm temperatures. We were in for a great day, and in spite of forecasts that foul weather might be heading towards the Keys in the next 24 hours, the entire poker run pack was locked and loaded, anxiously awaiting the 11 AM poker run start.
Unlike the Key West poker run, which takes a 165-mile tour through the scenic Florida Keys and requires a six to seven hour time frame with stopovers for food and fuel, the Miami Boat Show Poker Run is really just a hop-skip-and-jump to the Upper Keys. |
From Miami it's only about 75 miles and has only one stopover in Key Largo, so leaving anytime before noon gives the group plenty of time to arrive at Holiday Isle by late afternoon.
After a quick recap of the captain's meeting dockside, hundreds of engines roared to life and the colorful pack took a parade formation through downtown Miami. |
Passing the American Airlines Arena, massive cruise ships, Bayside Marketplace and the towering skyscrapers of the Miami skyline, the impressive parade of rumbling fiberglass and hundreds of smiling faces made its way to the starting gate…a.k.a Rickenbacker Causeway, where they'd be unleashed.
But with a new poker run format, where the first card is gathered up at our sponsoring Grove Harbour Marina, the first leg is really only a short sprint to wet the appetites of our poker run crews. |
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| It's only seven miles to the seaplane channel near Coconut Grove, but it only requires a short idle into the docks, where our pretty girls of FPC and the Grove Harbour girls are more than happy to distribute card number one to each team. Two distribution points made it an easy task, with boats forty feet and over going to the outside face dock near the fuel pumps, while boats under forty went into inside basin. |
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The next part of the run proved once again that not many captains actually attempted to follow the safety guidelines that were so clearly stressed in the captains meeting the night before and dockside on Friday morning.
Impatient poker runners that don't wait for the official pace boat can create very hazardous situations that threaten the safety of their crew and other boaters on the water. The two primary concerns are excessive speeds and lack of local knowledge in Biscayne Bay, and video footage later illustrated that some boats passed over shallow shoals and sandbars at high rates of speed, putting their safety in jeopardy. |
We arranged to have our chopper start off by spending few extra minutes with sponsor Mike Fiore and about a dozen Outerlimits owners before the 2nd start, while the rest of the boats were requested to hold and wait for the paceboat to do the official start. This was scheduled to occur after the completion of all the poker cards, and unfortunately requires some boats to mill around for a few minutes.
But when XXX hit the throttles, so did everyone else and the entire pack vanished as we arrived for the official start!
Riding aboard our Fountain paceboat from Lighthouse Boat Center, we decided to change our official status from pace boat, to chase boat, and Clayton Kirby dialed the 35 Lightning in for a great ride to Gilberts in Key Largo. Fortunately no serious incidents occurred, so we were able to take a sigh of relief after arriving in Key Largo. |
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Like most other visits with seventy-plus boats to Gilberts in Key Largo, the raft-up provided a sea of colorful fiberglass and a spectacle that has in some ways become an event in itself. With boats tied up as many as ten-deep, the sight was impressive to say the least, which was apparent by the constant traffic jam on US1 as motorists crossed the Jewfish Creek Bridge.
The staff at Gilberts provided a wonderful lunch buffet for our poker runners while the FPC gals Tina and Laura cruised around with the second poker card.
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| Gregg Mansfield and Tom Newby from Powerboat Magazine wandered around the crowded docks, snapping shots and talking to poker runners, and soon Tom jumped up in our FPC chopper to take a few aerial shots for an upcoming issue, which featured a great story on member Bob Christie, owner of the 36 Nortech, Perfect Storm, (See Powerboat May '05, HIGH ROLLER, written by Gregg Mansfield) |
| The run continued through the scenic waterways of the upper keys, but it was just a short twenty-five mile ride to Holiday Isle Resort. Some of the faster boats that wanted to run did the right thing by heading out the Marvin Adams cut from Blackwater Sound, weaving their way through John Pennekamp Coral Reef Park to offshore waters, where they could hammer it all the way to Islamorada. As for the inside pack, we can't exactly say it was "without" incident. It all started with a vapor lock on our 46' Cigarette paceboat that forced a short delay at the Gilberts dock, so we quickly jumped in Keith Stuart's 38 Top Gun to set the pace and navigate the tricky course. Only problem was, the pack had once again headed off into the distance, leaving a cloud of mist and trails of white foamy water in the mangrove waterways of Dusenbury Creek. |
Not a big deal I figured, since many of our members have done the trip countless times, and they got their slip assignments so it should go pretty smoothly. But a small group of impatient captains decided to chart their own course and unfortunately cruised well past the entrance to Whale Harbor Channel, missing Holiday Isle by several miles and ending up on a sandy shoal halfway to Marathon. They eventually figured things out, and after cleaning out the strainers, most made it to the Holiday Isle docks with minimal distress.
Check-ins at Holiday Isle Resort and the neighboring Pelican Cove Resort went very well, in spite of the fact that our club collectively booked over 150 rooms between the two resorts, and by early evening the first group of hungry poker runners were making the rounds at the lavish dinner buffet at the Horizons Restaurant, high atop the Holiday Isles main building with a fantastic view of the ocean. |
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| Like the lunch earlier, the food was simply marvelous and the two seatings that fed well over two hundred participants went without a hitch. |
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After dinner, Jackie and I had the pleasure of sitting with Gregg and Tom from Powerboat, sharing thoughts on powerboating, poker runs and the evolution of the Florida Powerboat Club.
After several days of planning and a very long day on the water, it was nice to just kick back and talk shop with respected peers, and sip (gulp) down a few Bacardi & diets. By eleven o'clock, the presence of the cleaning staff indicated we might want to head to the Tiki Bar and check in with the rest of the gang, where naturally, the party was W.O.T.! It might have gotten ugly, but I refused to let a group of members drag us out to Woody's and Hog Heaven. After all, Jackie and I were quietly celebrating the first birthday of our son Tyler, an episode which unfolded on that very same run, at the same resort, exactly one year earlier.
Saturday's weather was a little marginal, not perfect by any means, but it was OK to go boating and a large number of our participants broke off into smaller groups and headed different ways.
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A few headed for Key West which was about 85 miles, some went to Marathon, but a good sized group chose Hawks Cay Resort at Duck Key, about 23 miles Southwest. We were scheduled to fly the chopper again on Saturday, so it was great catching up with most of these boats as they headed out. About a dozen boats went in an entirely different direction, i.e. back home, after taking the weather report seriously. But after reaching Miami, we were happy to see many of them drive vehicles back to the resort later that day, to join us for the poker run party.
By 5 PM Jackie and the FPC girls were gathering up all the poker hands at the Tiki Bar, and after a couple of hours all the teams' cards were posted.
Sponsor presentations and Peoples Choice awards were made covering several categories, and David Cavallero of Lighthouse Boat Center won the grand prize with the best poker hand. Not bad for his first FPC event!! |
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As for the big storm that was supposed to hit? It didn't, and our ride home on Sunday was absolutely beautiful. Chalk up another one for the club!
Stu Jones |
Click here to see event photos
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