Another Winner! Highlights From The 2019 Lake Powell Challenge

Thanks to an energetic and primarily new staff at Antelope Point Marina in Page, Ariz., and a dedicated group of longtime supporters of the event, the 2019 Lake Powell Challenge lived up to the hype with a fun, safe and successful event once again on the breathtaking lake that borders Arizona and Utah.

In his first visit to Lake Powell and the Lake Powell Challenge, Lane Christianson had a great time running Fast Lane V, his 48-foot MTI catamaran, on the lake that borders Arizona and Utah. Photos by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

Despite what several of the participants felt was an almost unwarranted amount of attention from local law enforcement, including the Coconino County Sheriff, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Park Service, the poker run—which now benefits the Lake Powell Challenge Charities Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization—went smoothly thanks to participant cooperation, a tremendous amount of volunteer support and Mother Nature treating everyone kindly.

“I think this is the best weather we’ve had for this event in years,” said Bob Teague, who owns in Teague Custom Marine in Valencia, Calif., which is one of the event’s main sponsors. “It doesn’t get much better than this at Lake Powell in September. We’ve had rain, wind—lots of wind—and extreme heat. It’s been perfect here this week.”

Teague, who did the run with his family in his DCB Performance Boats M31 Widebody model powered by twin 1,400-hp TCM engines, said he probably covered more than 550 miles in his boat between informal fun runs on Thursday and Friday and Saturday’s poker run.

“Besides the increased law enforcement that seemed a bit excessive, the event was pretty fun,” Teague said. “The restaurant did a great job as usual as did the marina employees. You can’t beat Lake Powell; there’s nothing like it.”

The slideshow above includes several images from the Lake Powell Challenge hosted by Antelope Point Marina in Page, Ariz.

Saturday night’s festivities included an excellent dinner at Jadi To oh Restaurant at The Point, the marina facility that also played host to the morning drivers’ meeting, followed by the always entertaining and impressive silent and live auction, which raised money by the tens of thousands thanks to a cool group of live items.

Auctioneer, Subyn Wadsworth, did an excellent job keeping the energy level high as experiences and items such as a Lake Powell Challenge coffee table, a DCB shotski, an MTI Ram Head Art piece, a custom event-branded fire pit, a Trump shotski, a Utah Jazz suite, Steak 44 for eight with Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald and the Phoenix restaurant’s chef, an MGM Grand Las Vegas trip, and a Deer Valley ski trip for 13 with private jet. There was even a Barrett Custom Marine-constructed custom bar made from a capped DCB catamaran sponson with four Lake Powell Challenge-specific stools featuring propellers for the stool bases. (There’s a picture of it in the slideshow below.)

Among the highlights of the five-stop poker run, which included a BBQ lunch on Lone Rock Beach, was the variety of freshly or recently delivered boats on hand. DCB had a major one as Greg Timmons received his new M33R powered by Mercury Racing 450R engines. The Southern California native’s 33-foot cat is the first DCB with the new engines.

Nordic’s latest 35-foot catamaran, also the Lake Havasu City, Ariz., company’s first boat with twin 450R engines, was finished a couple of weeks before the event. Paul Wallner, the owner of the Nordic, had a great time at the event and didn’t seem to mind the attention his boat received from its premier dock placement on The Point.

Check out even more images from the Lake Powell Challenge in the slideshow above.

On the MTI front, the Wentzville, Mo., boat builder was well represented between 340X sport cats and MTI-V 42 luxury performance center console. Chaos, the newest 42-footer from MTI that has four Mercury Racing Verado 400R engines, was delivered to owner George Argyros, who also owns a 48-foot MTI cat called Mayhem. Mark Schouten, one of the longtime supporters who helped organize this year’s event, and his wife, Jennifer, got to show off their center console powered by quad Mercury Racing 450R engines that they picked up in late August at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri.

Another boat that was delivered at Lake of the Ozarks—New York performance boater Johnny O’Loughlin’s 48-foot cat with a pair of Mercury Racing 1550/1350 engines—made it all the way across the country for the event, and according to Jimmy McIntyre of Falcon Performance Marine Center in New York, he and O’Loughlin ran more than 500 miles in the boat during the event. McIntyre said their New York-based crew had an incredible time at the event.

On Sunday morning, after a busy week, Schouten breathed a sigh of relief and then thanked everyone who participated in and sponsored this year’s Lake Powell Challenge as well as Antelope Point Marina owner Jerry Moyes, Positive Beverage, the event’s title sponsor, and the National Park Service for its assistance.

Another Winner! Highlights From The 2019 Lake Powell Challenge

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