Herding Cats: Skaterfest Preview
Just two weeks away, Ron Szolack’s Skaterfest event heads into its sixth successful year. Photo courtesy/copyright Chip Miller
Call them rallies or rendezvous, by any name brand-specific gatherings are a staple of the high-performance powerboating world. But more often than not, they are organized and hosted by the boat manufacturers themselves or one of their key dealers, such as the recent Cigarette Racing Team event at the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri handled by Performance Boat Center, or the upcoming DCB event on Arizona’s Lake Havasu.
But there is at least one rendezvous—or a least one that captures national participation—hosted and organized by one very happy customer. And if you have even a passing interest in the go-fast boating world you probably know it’s called Skaterfest and that man is Ron Szolack. A nightclub owner who bounces between homes in Harrison Township, Mich., and Pompano Beach, Fla., Szolack estimates that he has owned 30-plus Skater cats, about the same number of the coveted custom boats he is expecting to show up for Skaterfest 2016, Aug. 4-7 near his Michigan digs.
Szolack’s current Skater count—a 32-footer and a 36-footer—is on the low side. For him. As a hobby, he buys and sells Skaters, often before he’s even ridden in them. If they don’t sell immediately, he runs them a bit until they sell. But they usually sell quickly, for Szolack has a knack for knowing what will appeal to his fellow well-heeled Skater fans.
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