Opportunity Knocks
To say that Del Flores’ smart phone has been “ringing off the hook” for the past few day would be a wildly inaccurate use of a tired cliché. First, smart phones don’t have hooks unless—heaven help you—you’re still clipping yours to your hip. Second, more often than not, they don’t ring. They buzz or vibrate or even play a few musical notes, maybe even part of a song you love, when a voice call is coming in or a text message or email already has.
Heading into its first official season, the Spartan Powerboat Club has three fun run events on tap this summer. Photo courtesy Tim Sharkey/Sharkey Images.
So for the sake of accuracy, let’s just say that the 46-year-old, New Jersey-based mechanical engineer and performance-boat owner’s smart phone has been active—make that hyperactive—since Dave Patnaude announced on Monday that he is retiring as the president of the New Jersey Powerboat Club and is shutting down the event-producing organization. That leaves Flores’ Spartan Powerboat Club as the only game in town for Garden State go-fast powerboat enthusiasts.
Thanks to a tip from photographer Tim Sharkey, I learned about Flores, who owns a 39-foot Velocity sportboat, last September and wrote about him and his fledgling Spartan Powerboat Club in a column called “Instant Go-Fast Boat Club—Just Add Enthusiasm And Effort.” Later that month, Flores organized the club’s first run and it attracted a solid 35 boats.
and then