Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run Tops 200 Boats

With a mind-blowing 214 boats registered for this year’s Key West Poker Run, the Florida Powerboat Club reached a milestone number that the club hasn’t seen in more than a decade, according to club president Stu Jones.

This striking 48-foot MTI catamaran running near Sunset Key was one of many models from the Wentzville, Mo., builder entered in the Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run. Photos by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

On both Wednesday and Thursday of this week, FPC members headed from Miami to the Southernmost point in the U.S., for several days of fun activities in the Florida Keys, as well as watching some of the Super Boat International Key West Offshore World Championships taking place today and Sunday.

In response to Jones’ text this morning about the total boat count, I said, “Holy (expletive)—that’s insane.” Jones immediately replied, “It was—you should have seen it.”

What I saw—after running around for most of the day preparing for last night’s Key West Bash hosted by Speedonthewater.com and OffshoreOnly.com—were gorgeous V-bottoms, catamarans and performance center consoles coming in one after another throughout the afternoon. What I didn’t know was how many boats were actually in the poker run this year, especially since just a few weeks ago, Jones said the event had 150 boats registered.

Check out the photos in the slideshow above from the end of yesterday’s Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run.

Even Jones seemed somewhat surprised by the overall turnout.

“I’m not sure if that’s a record (boat count) for this event, but it’s pretty darn close,” Jones said. “Either way, it’s been more than 10 years since we’ve had 200-plus boats here.”

I also spoke with several poker run participants during the Key West Bash last night, and every one of them—including the unfortunate ones who broke something on their boat during the run—said they had a great day on the water. And with that many people to share the experience with, I’m sure it was a great day on the water.

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