Cigarette Passion Meets Pure Southern Charm In Kuttawa
Just an hour before the Kuttawa Cannonball Run auction raised more than $80,000 for local charities last Saturday evening, Paul Michael Ison and Tiffany Crawford sat down with their friends, Stu and Jackie Jones of the Florida Powerboat Club, in Hu-B’s restaurant for an early dinner. Like everyone who came to enjoy the eighth annual event, Ison and Crawford had hoped to enjoy a lunch run earlier that day to The Breakers Marina. The 120-mile roundtrip trek—combined with a few hours of dock time at the lunch venue—would have made a fine showcase for their 2024 model-year Cigarette Racing Team 42 Auroris center console.
The performance-boating passion of Paul Michael Ison and Tiffany Crawford is infectious and bodes well for the high-performance marine industry future.
But the weather gods had other plans and delivered wind and rain throughout the day. The organizers had to cancel the lunch run and subsequent raft-up. Most of the 160-plus registered powerboat owners and their guest were gone by the early afternoon.
The Kuttawa happening was supposed to be a launch party of sorts for their Cigarette Kentucky dealership, so Ison and Crawford had good reasons to be disappointed by Saturday’s foul weather. Their Lake Cumberland, Ky., location, is slated to open in late July. Their Tennessee location should be open in six months. Both dealerships will carry the Cigarette line of center consoles and sportboats, as well as the GSX/Glasstream Powerboats center console line, which is specifically under the Ison Marine umbrella, and trailers from Adrenaline Trailers.
Engaged to be married this year, Ison and Crawford are in the process of becoming Mercury Marine/Mercury Racing dealers. They’re currently “looking for the right person to send to Mercury school,” Ison said. Likewise, they’re seeking an ideal candidate to send for training at Cigarette Racing Team headquarters in Opa-locka, Fla., so they can have an official Cigarette technician on site at the Kentucky dealership when it launches.
The couple had demo rides in the 42-foot Cigarette center console and a 36-foot GSX center console set up for Saturday morning. They sponsored the eighth annual Kuttawa event to the tune of $7,000.
Yet if Ison and Crawford were at all let down, it didn’t show. The gracious and positively magnetic couple was stoked about the entire weekend.
Strike that. They’re always stoked when it comes to high-performance boating. Because they’re the real thing, meaning longtime performance boat enthusiasts who take to the water in Florida and Kentucky whenever they can. They live it.
“It’s just one of those things that happens in boating sometimes,” Ison said, then shrugged and smiled. “It rains.
“We had a great day yesterday,” he continued. “This was our first time here. It’s a beautiful lake.”
Added Crawford, “We had a wonderful time here. We met a ton of great people, had lots of interest in the boats and made some really nice long-lasting connections. We’ll definitely be back next year.”
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