Photo Essay: Florida Powerboat Club Members Ride Thursday Wave To Key West
If there’s an inch of empty dock space left in Key West, Fla., right now, we’d be surprised. The culprit, of course, is the Florida Powerboat Club and its annual poker Key West Poker Run, which as of early this week had an astounding 280 boats registered that departed to Florida’s famed city at the end of the road in Wednesday and Thursday waves.
The 25th Anniversary Edition Mystic Powerboats C4000 catamaran was among the boats in yesterday’s Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run fleet. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Consider this: In the early days of the Key West run, it took one waterfront restaurant in Key Largo—Gilbert’s Resort and Tiki Bar—to handle the Florida Powerboat Club lunch crowd. This time around on Thursday, which remains the event’s most popular departure day, it took three.
Water for yesterday’s wave of boats ranged from mellow to messy, depending on who you asked. For Jason and Laurie Moe and their son, Colton—the proud new owner of a DCB Performance Boats-created carbon-fiber longboard/skateboard that fetched more than $10,000 in last night’s live auction during the eighth annual Speed On The Water Key West Bash—the ride down was “easy.” Of course, the Moes, who live in Washington, ran their canopied 46-foot Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats catamaran dubbed Hurry Up.
Check out the slideshow above to enjoy more images from the Thursday wave of the 2021 Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run.
On the flip side, high-performance marine insurance man Devin Wozencraft logged more than a little air-time with “a few rough landings” in his 30-foot Skater Powerboats catamaran.
The roughest leg, as usual, was the final one between Marathon and Key West, where the boats trade the protected Intracoastal Waterway for the Atlantic Ocean.
Said speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pete Boden, who captured all the action, “Conditions outside after Marathon were snotty—plus there was a lot of dodging rainstorms. What we’re willing to endure in the quest for Key West.”
Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats’ first SC 37 catamaran made its poker run debut yesterday.
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