PBC Fall Fun Run Caps An Extraordinary Lake Of The Ozarks Season

The Lake of the Ozarks was an oasis of sorts for high-performance powerboat owners this season. No waterway in the country hosted more organized boating events than the extensive body of water that snakes around the Ozark Mountains of Central Missouri, and Performance Boat Center of Osage Beach had a hand in most of them.

That’s not unusual for the popular waterway, but in a year of COVID-19-cancelled group happenings it is particularly noteworthy. So go-fast owners flocked there this summer. A few even took up residence at the lake.

Said Performance Boat Center Fall Fun Run participant Adam Seraphine, “Between the Kuttawa Cannonball Run in Kentucky and Lake of the Ozarks weekends, we used the boat more this year than we ever have.” Photos by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Jeff Helmkamp Photography.

Last weekend’s Performance Boat Center-organized Fall Fun Run was the last of them, and with more than 55 boats in the water it was a fine ending to the only complete boating-event season in the country. And according to MTI’s Randy Scism and others who came out to play on Saturday, you’d have never known it was fall.

“”The weather was awesome,” said Scism, who was joined by his wife Cherell in an MTI 390X sport catamaran. “Performance Boat Center does a great job with these events.”

Awesome, as Scism put it, was 80-plus-degree mid-day temperatures, light breezes and calm water—on October 11. On the weekend prior, the two-day Offshore At The Ozarks Cat-Edition powerboat race saw high temperatures in the mid-to-low 60s and cloudy skies.

Check out the slideshow above to enjoy more image from Performance Boat Center’s Fall Fun Run.

“We had an amazing turnout—what a huge variety of boats,” said Brett Manire, who co-owns Performance Boat Center with Mark Waddington, who did not make it to this year’s Fall Fun Run. “And what an amazing, 85-degree October day.”

The owners of Jet, a 46 SC Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats catamaran, Burton and Yvette Kirsten of Michigan logged much of their spring, summer and fall boating time at the lake. Performance Boat Center has housed their Mercury Racing 1550/1350 engine-powered 46-footer, as it will this winter. And soon they’ll have a second home of their at the lake.

“Yvette and I bought a condo there,” he said. “We’re very excited about it. So we’ll be there more this spring getting it ready. Those guys at Performance Boat Center have made us feel so welcome.

“PBC put on a stand-up, safe event last weekend,” he continued. “Rusty Williams was our captain and he drove while I throttled,” he continued. And there was a nice party at the Red Head to end it.”

Celebrating his 40th birthday last weekend, another Outerlimits owner, Adam Seraphine of Minnesota, finished his boating season with the fun run. Like Kirsten, he spent extensive time on the Lake of the Ozarks water this season. Also like Kirsten, he kept his boat—an SV 43—at the lake for most of the season.

“The Fall Fun Run was what has now become a typical Performance Boat Center event—lots of cool boats, lots of fun people and lots of drinks into the night once the boats are back at the docks,” said Seraphine. “We initially thought this year was going to be a no-go with all of the events being canceled, but between the Kuttawa Cannonball Run in Kentucky and Lake of the Ozarks weekends, we used the boat more this year than we ever have.

“Performance Boat Center has always stored my boat, but we didn’t expect to be down there every second or third weekend—the ease and lack of stress from not having to haul the boat all over the country was definitely a nice change of pace,” he continued. “And we still got to see our poker run friends from all over the country every time we were there. And the Fall Fun Run was a great way to end the year and to celebrate my 40th birthday.”

The owners of the Jet SC 46 Outerlimits catamaran, Burton and Yvette Kirsten of Michigan enjoyed Lake of the Ozarks events and hospitality so much they have purchased a second home in the area.

PBC Fall Fun Run Caps An Extraordinary Lake Of The Ozarks Season

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