Photo Essay: Low—And High—Speed On The Water In Kuttawa

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Event Coverage: Photo Essay: Low—And High—Speed On The Water In Kuttawa

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I had a choice of rides this morning—both with dear friends—for the first day of the Kuttawa Cannonball Run on Kentucky’s Lake Barkley. I could have joined Burton and Yvette Kirsten of Michigan on Jet, their full-canopy 46-foot Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats catamaran powered by Mercury Racing 1350/1100 engines. Or had I been in the mood for fast-moving fresh air, I could have tagged with along South Florida’s Greg Harris and Yvonne Aleman on Mad Props, their DCB Performance Boats M37R catamaran equipped with Mercury Racing 450R outboards.

Speed On The Water/Scrapyard Media video/photographer had an exceptionally luxurious platform for the first day of this weekend’s Kuttawa Cannonball Run.

An air-conditioned cruise at 150 mph or an open-air trek in flawless, 70-degree weather at 120 mph. Both great options, for sure. Not for one moment do I forget my good fortune.

But instead, I grabbed an eight-mile-an-hour ride on Slow Motion, a 90-foot houseboat owned by Stephen and Heather Miles and Donnie and Cara MacLeod and my home for the weekend in Kuttawa Harbor Marina for the Kuttawa Cannonball Run.

We cruised in fine style to Prizer Point Marina for the two-day event’s lunch-stop and raft-up. Lunch and libations on board. Shade when needed, air-conditioning when desired plus a killer elevated view of go-fast catamarans, V-bottom sportboats and center consoles arriving for lunch followed by a large raft-up.

Meanwhile, as you can see from the slideshow below, speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pete Boden was a capturing all of the action from below.

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Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix. Additional images by Brad DiMaggio and Matt Trulio

None of this happened by accident. Stephen Miles and I talked about using a houseboat as a home-base last year but didn’t have the time to pull it off. Next year, we swore to one another, we’d do it.

Thanks to my incredible hosts and a hard-working crew from Stephen Miles Design, we did it. And now I know the forested shoreline of Lake Barkley actually looks like.

Of course, most the boats beat us back to Kuttawa Harbor and Marina, the host venue for this weekend’s event, but none of us cared. We knew what we signed up for—we wanted what we signed up for.

I’ll catch a fast ride tomorrow and I know I’ll love it. I’m just not sure I’ll love it more than what we did today.