Gallery Of The Week—A Dock Party For The Ages

For their actual wedding, Taylor Scism and Shaun Peters of MTI in Wentzville, Mo., wanted just immediate family and their closest of friends to be there when they exchanged vows. That’s why their early April wedding was a tiny, intimate affair in the Middle Florida Keys.

The docks below the Scism family’s lakefront home became a resort-like nightclub last Saturday. Photos by Tom Leigh copyright Tommy Gun Images

But after 25 years in the high-performance boat-building world, the Scism family has developed a remarkable extended family of clients and marine industry notables. And no one appreciates extended family more than Randy and Cherell Scism, the parents of Taylor and her older sister, Chelsea, a business attorney in New York City.

So they invited 200-ish key members of that family to a reception last Saturday night at the docks below their Lake of the Ozarks home. That’s a lot of people, of course, to host on the not-so-average private docks.

But then, the Scisms’ docks would not be out of place at a small public marina.

The father of the bride, MTI founder Randy Scism enjoyed chatting with customer Patrick Clark and the rest of the invited guests.

The collection of characters that showed rivaled that of both Mercury Racing 50th anniversary parties—the first in Miami and the second in Charleston—last year. At one table, Super Stock-class offshore racer Sean Conner canoodled talked shopped with MTI’s Milton Calafel.

Another found Greg and Brenda McCauley, Taylor and Chelsea Scism’s aunt and uncle, catching up with a reporter.

Greg and Brenda McCauley came ready to celebrate their niece and her husband.

Still another saw legendary offshore racing throttleman John Tomlinson, who the Scisms flew in from the Ocean City Grand Prix in Maryland on Saturday afternoon and back for the Super Cat race on Sunday, and his wife, Donna, chatting with future offshore racing star Caleb Mead and his parents, Zane and Amanda.

Tomlinson, who subbed for Super Cat-class M CON/Monster Energy team owner Tyler Miller, who is still recovering from back surgery, practiced Saturday morning with driver Myrick Coil in the team’s Skater Powerboats 388 raceboat. Then he headed for a private flight courtesy of Scism to the Lake of the Ozarks. He and his wife arrived in plenty of time to get ready for the Saturday night celebration.

“We head back at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning,” he said. “I don’t think our race is till noon.”

Tomlinson and Coil would go on to win that contest.

Lyndee Moe and her daughter, Saylor, found a few nibbles to enjoy.

On the oh-so-local industry side, Performance Boat Center co-owner Mark Waddington shared a laugh with Kaitlyn Kristal, the fiancé of Brett Manire, his business partner in the Osage Beach, Mo.-headquartered MTI, Performance Powerboats and Sunsation Powerboats dealership. Freelance photographer Tom Leigh and videographer Carter Bahde—who also captured the wedding in the Keys—were there to chronicle the event.

Last but far from least, the customer side of MTI’s extended family on hand included Eric Belisle, Scott Rosenbach, Andrew Mackey and his fiancé, Savanah Richardson, who got engaged during MTI’s Spring Fun Run to the Florida Keys in March, and a host of others.

The Downtown Band kept the music pumping.

Said Rosenbach, a multi-time MTI owner, after the event, “The party was a blast and everyone seemed to have a really good time. Randy and his family are just great people and they always do everything first-class.”

The catered food and hosted drink flowed, of course. The Downtown Band, which has a Presidential Inauguration celebration bash on its gig resume, played till midnight.

“Randy and Cherell really know how to throw a party,” said Eric Belisle, a Southwest Florida-based MTI client. “The band was amazing, the venue was perfect and most importantly it looked like Taylor and Shaun had a blast.”