Miami Boat Show Poker Run: Live From Gilbert’s

Editor’s note: Check out the Speed On The Water YouTube Channel for a video playlist from Matt Trulio’s ride down to Gilbert’s.

There is nothing—and I mean zero—wrong with being among the last boats to arrive at the lunch stop of a poker run. That’s especially true if your ride was a pleasure, and that’s a fair description of the last hour I spent on Greg and Brenda McCauley’s V 42 center console from Marine Technology Inc. Between a stiff crosswind and a sloppy mix of go-fast boat and cruiser wakes, conditions were anything but smooth. They also were anything but challenging for the 42-footer, which has an 11’6″ beam and rides on a patented stepped hull.

While we nicked 70 mph a few times thanks to four 300-hp Mercury Verado outboard engines on the transom, we spent most of our time cruising at a comfortable 60 mph and—as we approached the mangroves leading into Key Largo and our lunch destination at Gilbert’s—50 mph. Truth be told, in a boat with the kind of heft of the V 42, the difference in sensation between 50 and 70 mph is mostly experienced through the onrushing wind. The ride doesn’t change a whole lot.

Greg and Brenda McCauley were perfect hosts on their MTI V 42.

We did have a few of those “classic poker run moments,” most notably when Michael Ciasulli and company blew by us—at a safe distance of course—in his new Skater 388 catamaran. Equally entertaining was trading lead and trail positions with the other MTI V 42 in the run. Plus, the crew on McCauley’s boat couldn’t have been more hospitable, as well as adept at dealing with rafting off such a substantial ability.

Among the visual high points of the first leg of the Miami Boat Show Poker Run was this Skater 388 cat passing us as if we were tied to a tree.

Next up, I’m on board the 52-foot MTI cat called Pass Blocker with owner Brad Benson, Tom Healey and the rest of their crew. Given that the boat is canopied, there should be a whole lot less breeze to deal with. But given that it’s reportedly capable of 185 mph—not to be done in the poker run, of course, which has a 150-mph speed limit—it should be every bit as fun as the 42-footer. Maybe even more. Stay tuned.

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