Performance Boat Center’s ‘Small And Casual’ Fall Run Goes Big
What began several years ago as an annual, laidback final farewell to the Lake of the Ozarks boating season, the Performance Boat Center Fall Fun Run has taken on—like pretty much everything the multi-brand, Osage Beach, Mo., dealership touches—a wonderful life of its own. A few years back, Brett Manire, who co-owns Performance Boat Center with Mark Waddington, once described the annual happening, which attracted 54 boats yesterday, as his favorite event of the year because “it’s small and casual.”
Good Boy Vodka, Alex Pratt’s turbine engine-powered 50-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran, was among the stunners in yesterday’s Performance Boat Center Fall Fun Run. Photos by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.
The vibe hasn’t changed, according to Manire. But yesterday’s turnout for the run, which departed Performance Boat Center in the late morning and stopped at the Tap and Grill, the Neon Taco and Dog Days waterfront restaurants before returning to the dealership for a crab boil and pool party, left him impressed.
And Manire is not an easy man to impress.
Enjoy more images from the 2021 Performance Boat Center Fall Fun Run.
“It was spectacular,” he said. “On a fall day in Missouri, we had 54 of the baddest, coolest powerboats in the world from Cigarette, MTI, Sunsation, Mystic, Skater and more. “How often do you see a turbine-powered catamaran hauling down the lake in October? We had 250 people boating in sweatshirts on the Lake of the Ozarks in October in 65- to 70-degree weather—just an incredible day.
“It was windy as hell in the afternoon, though” he added.
But even the strong breeze wasn’t enough to blow the fun off the water.
“Most every boat made every stop,” said Jeff Helmkamp, a frequent speedonthewater.com contributing photographer who was on scene to capture the event and also had to deal with the wind. “It was a good day, a little cool but sunny.”
Michigan’s Burton Kirsten, who has a second home at the Lake of the Ozarks, ran his 46-foot Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats catamaran dubbed Jet in the event.
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