Powerboating For A Cure Wrap-Up: Great Cause Served

With approximately 70 high-performance boats playing hard in rowdy 3- to-5-foot waters on the famed Chesapeake Bay in Virginia last Saturday, the sixth annual F. Wayne McLeskey, Jr., Memorial Powerboating for a Cure Poker Run raised approximately $35,000 for Susan G. Komen “Race For A Cure,” a nonprofit organization that funds breast cancer research and awareness programs. As in years past, the Mid-Atlantic Powerboat Association organized the event.

Approximately 70 go-fast powerboats participated in last weekend’s Powerboating For A Cure Poker Run. Photos courtesy/copright David “Swede” Andrews/Performance Images

“The MAPA organization is just such a great group of hardworking guys,” said Mark Tuck, a Smithfiled, Va., based Outerlimits 44 SL V-bottom owner who is one of the event’s sponsors. “It is the Susan G. Komen organization’s second-largest annual fundraiser.”

“At the end of every Powerboating For A Cure Poker Run event they write a check to the organization,” he added. “People say they like seeing the money actually given to the charity that day.”

In addition to logging time on the Chesapeake Bay, participants traveled for card stops on the James and Elizabeth Rivers. As noted earlier, conditions on the Chesapeake Bay were less than ideal.

Conditions on the Chesapeake Bay saw more than a few participants in the run logging air time.

“Old Mother Nature was nice to us with the weather, but not so much with the water conditions,” said Tuck, who with his wife, Nancy, hosted a “fun run luncheon” at their waterside home for approximately 150 people who came mostly by boat the day before the poker run. “We had a 15-mph wind coming out of the East. It was mostly 3- to 4-footers, but then all the sudden you’d hit three or four 5-footers in a row.”

The poker run wrapped up with catered festivities Saturday evening at the Waterside Marina in Norfolk. Said Tuck, “It was another great event for a great cause. Every year, we have a wonderful group of people. ”

Editor’s Note: In addition to the funds the Powerboating For A Cure Poker Run raised for the Susan G. Komen organization, the event raised $5,000 for Grayson Kirby, a popular local performance boat enthusiast who sustained life-threatining, long-term injuries last month during a tractor pull. Readers interested in following Kirby’s progress can visit a Facebook page set up for him by his brother.