Lake Powell Steals Its Own Show
No matter what sort of high-performance hardware shows up to a top-tier boating event, the waterway and its surrounding environment take center stage. For solid evidence, consider the Boyne Thunder, Key West and 1,000 Islands Charity poker runs. Three remarkable events, three remarkable settings. They make a compelling case for the importance of place.
Thanks to an other-worldly setting and a passionate following, the Lake Powell Challenge is on its way back. Photos by Tom Leigh copyright Tommy Gun Images
But for irrefutable evidence, you need look no further than last weekend’s Lake Powell Challenge. Based out of Antelope Point Marina in Page, Ariz., and now in its second year of a comeback, the event delivers a setting like no other—on the planet.
Just ask MTI’s Shaun Peters, who was joined by his wife, Taylor Scism, the company’s vice president, at the 40-plus-boat event.
Said MTI’s Shaun Peters of the Lake Powell Challenge, “It’s a must-return event for us.”
“This is my first impression of Lake Powell and, I mean, it has me hook, line and sinker,” Peters said. “The changes in the landscape, the scenery, the water—it’s just so big. It’s a must-return event for us.”
Of course, the hardware didn’t exactly disappoint. The fleet included everything from the first RP Elite Motors and Marine Skater Powerboats 368 catamaran owned by Utah’s Jim Mellor, to an MTI-V 50 center console that kept Peters and Scism busy with demo rides all weekend, to an MTI 390X cat wrapped in the colors and logo of Utah-based XINSURANCE, to an older but immaculately kept Eliminator Boats 33 Daytona.
Jim Mellor’s wild RP Elite Series Skater 368 catamaran attracted plenty of attention throughout the weekend.
But with a dozen catamarans ranging from 44-footers owned by Dave Megugorac and Mauricio Vivanco to a smattering of M41, M35 and M31 Widebody cats with sterndrive engines and an armada of outboard engine-equipped M37Rs, DCB Performance Marine pretty well owned the docks in front of the Jádí’Tooh restaurant, party central for the weekend.
“It turned out to be a little DCB-fest,” quipped Tony Chiaramonte, the vice president of the Phoenix-headquartered company. “That never hurts my feelings. DCB has been coming here for this event since 2014-ish. We’ve had as many as 20 boats here.
“We had a few newbies who came a long way to be here—Greg Harris and Yvonne Aleman from South Florida, Kelly and Julie O’Hara from Upstate New York, Kiran Pinisetti from Indiana, and Greg and Heather Scheller from Kentucky,” he continued. “I think they all would say it was worth the drive.”
DCB boasted the largest presence of any brand at the Antelope Point Marina docks last weekend.
Harris agreed. “Lake Powell was everything everybody has ever said about it and then some,” he said. “You just can’t appreciate the scale of this place until you’re in a canyon looking up at 1,000-foot cliff, mountains behind them and taller mountains behind those.
“That said, this isn’t ‘up the street’ from South Florida or even the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri,” he added. “If we come back, it will be for a week. Three days of boating doesn’t begin to cut it. Then again, just one day here was worth everything.”
Lake Powell is all about mind-blowing scale.
The plus side for those DCB owners who traveled across the country is that the company’s regatta at Lake Havasu in Arizona, a little less than three hours from Phoenix, is set for the weekend after next. So rather than hauling their cats all the way home, they left them with the builder. They will return ahead of the annual brand-celebration and then haul them to Lake Havasu City for the event.
No one was more delighted to see all of the brands represented than Amber McDaniel, the event’s key organizer. McDaniel has worked at Antelope Point Marina since 2014. She has watched the event, which celebrated its 13th anniversary event last weekend, erupt into prominence, fall into dormancy and face near-extinction.
(From left) The DCB tribe included company president Jeff Johnston and his son, Dylan, Yvonne Aleman, Greg Harris and DCB vice president Tony Chiaramonte.
“We just never gave up and now we’re back,” she said. “We’re really excited.”
The “challenge” in Lake Powell Challenge is fundraising for Breakthrough T1D, formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Monies raised come through registration fees, a silent auction and donations from participants during the Saturday night dinner celebration, which this year included a dueling piano-show. An accurate number for funds raised during the weekend is not yet available.
Scenes from the Saturday night celebration.
But perhaps the larger challenge for the event is keeping participants focused on anything other than exploring Lake Powell. The 200-mile poker run and the Friday and Saturday night parties run a distant second to the waterway itself.
“This is the most breathtaking boating we’ve ever done,” Pinisetti said. “I think we put in 400 miles this week. If you’ve never done Lake Powell before, you have to experience it at least one time.”
Right at home in the Sun Cave, Nick Child (upper left) is passionate about his home-water.
More than 200 of those miles happened for Pinisetti on Saturday, when a half-dozen DCB catamaran owners and their guests ran to the “Sun Cave” at the northern end of the lake. For DCB M37R owner Nick Child of Utah, Lake Powell is home-water and he has been coming to the Sun Cave since he was a boy. Gracious, easygoing and knowledgeable when it comes to the lake, he is the de facto leader of the DCB group when it comes to town.
Long ago, Child learned that boats can raft-up to one another in the massive rock-opening without needing an anchor to keep them from drifting in the cave walls.
Scenes from the DCB Sun Cave adventure. Photos by Matt Trulio and Greg Harris
“The wind swirls around and keeps you in place,” he explained. “You just keep slowly spinning in circles in there.”
Child described Lake Powell as a “destination lake,” but not one where a pretty waterfront haunt with nice food and drink lie at the end of the journey. At the end of each adventure on the water, there is always something of rare natural beauty to experience. The Sun Cave is one of many such places, he said.
“Over the years, I guess I have become the dedicated ‘Lake Powell guy’ for DCB,” Child said, then grinned and laughed. “I love this lake so much—it is my favorite place on earth—and I love having people come here to help keep its spirit alive.”
With their mascots along for every ride, the Cowboy & Indian DCB M37R crew of Kelly O’Hara and Kiran Pinisetti are ready for their next adventure.
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