An Unexpected Proposal

Traveling to performance boat events I’ve never been to always leads to new experiences, but something happened at the Lake Cumberland Thunder Run hosted at State Dock Marina in Jamestown, Ky., by the Lake Cumberland Powerboat Club on Saturday night that I’ve never experienced. And I’m pretty certain I won’t witness anything like it again. Let me set the scene.

Kansas performance boater Jarus Henning, who owns a Donzi 35ZR, made sure he and his fiancé would never forget this year’s Lake Cumberland Thunder Run in Kentucky. Photo by Kevin Johns/Instant Memories Photography

Through a mutual friend, Steve Grier of Oklahoma, I met two boat owners Steve Beranek of Wichita, Kan., and Jarus Henning also of Kansas. Beranek was joined by Grier in his 32-foot DCB Performance Boats catamaran with twin Mercury Racing 525EFI engines. Henning had his girlfriend, Courtney Holmes, and his buddy, Rhys Page, with him for the poker run in his 35-foot Donzi Marine V-bottom named Knot Complain’n.

On both Friday and Saturday night, Grier, who is good friends with fellow Oklahoman Kevin Johns of Instant Memories Photography, brought Beranek, Henning, Holmes and Page over to hang out with Johns and everyone else staying with Johns in a houseboat at State Dock.

I was one of the people on the houseboat with Johns—the event’s official photographer who also set up a photo booth next to the party barge so participants could take home a souvenir photo. Along with Johns’ two teenage sons, Arizona’s Misty Rich and Jennifer Schmid, and Ohio’s Branden Helton, it was definitely a fun crew, many of which joined their friend, Devin Wozencraft—the Southern California-based owner of Wozencraft Insurance—in his 30-foot Skater Powerboats catamaran for Friday’s fun run and Saturday’s poker run.

Read more: An Unexpected Proposal

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