Photo Essay: Seventh Annual Cigarette Owners Rendezvous In High Gear

With most of the 100- to 105-boat fleet at the Performance Boat Center docks in Osage Beach, Mo., participants in the seventh annual Cigarette Owners Rendezvous are ready to party tonight. And consummate hosts that they are, Performance Boat Center owners Mark Waddington and Brett Manire and their team have them covered with tonight’s on-property welcome bash.

Lindsey and Tyler Miller didn’t just take out the author for the day in their new Cigarette 41 Nighthawk. They let him drive. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Today’s fun run to Coconuts Caribbean Grill and Backwater Jacks got the weekend rolling, and with temperatures in the mid-to-high 90s and humidity to match, there was no better place to be than on the Lake of the Ozarks—or in one of the swimming pools at each waterfront venue. But if you’re not ready for heat and humidity you don’t visit Central Missouri in mid-June, so the Cigarette Racing Team owners and their guests were in good spirits throughout the day.

But none of them were happier than Tyler and Lindsey Miller, who have a new Cigarette 41 Nighthawk center console, which is color-matched to their M CON Supercat-class Skater Powerboats 388 raceboat and powered by four Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines. The 41-footer was my ride for the day, and if there are kinder and more gracious people at the Lake of the Ozarks—an area loaded with kind and gracious people—I haven’t met them.

Enjoy more images from the first day of the 2021 Cigarette Owners Rendezvous in the slideshow above.

Besides catching up with boating friends I hadn’t seen in more than a year from Tim Gallagher to Todd Fountain—even my friends, Tank and Kelly Sears and Taylor Barrett, all the way from California—the best part of the day, at least for me, was when they let me drive the boat. So there I was, cruising down the Lake of the Ozarks with them at 70 mph at the helm of their new Cigarette.

That might be everyday stuff for the folks enjoying the Cigarette Rendezvous, and they’ll be back at it tomorrow. But for me, it was simply exceptional.

The Millers hosted several of their friends—as well the speedonthewater.com team—in their new 41 Nighthawk. Photo by Jason Johnson

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