Orange Beach Powerboat Week Finale—Into The Blue

For Clark Beecher, a longtime go-fast boat owner who has homes in the Houston, Texas, area and the Florida Panhandle, last weekend’s Orange Beach Powerboat Week was—to borrow from the late baseball-man Yogi Berra—déjà vu all over again. Just two years ago, Beecher took delivery of a new MTI 390X catamaran at the Florida Powerboat Club-produced event from Steven Fernandez at TNT Custom Marine Sales, the Wentzville, Mo., high-performance catamaran and center console builder’s South Florida dealer.

For the second time in three years, Clark Beecher took delivery of an MTI catamaran during Orange Beach Powerboat Week. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

This time around, Beecher took delivery of an MTI 440X cat, once again through Fernandez of TNT, during the fifth annual Alabama-based event. And the two-day poker-run provided the kind of sporty conditions the affable Texan is accustomed to in his second-home-waters.

“I am a coastal boater, not a lake boater,” Beecher explained. “I like to run offshore. The 440X was noticeably better than the 390X in rough water. The 390 is more ‘sporty’ in its handling—it’s like a Ferrari compared to a Bentley—but at higher speeds you don’t have to ‘drive’ the 440 as much.”

As he did with his 39-footer, Beecher will store the boat at Legendary Marine in Destin, Fla. If and when he buys another MTI catamaran—and based on his track record smart money is on when—it will be from the same South Florida dealership.

Saturday’s water conditions were still sporty enough for full-size catamaran owners to appreciate.

“I will never buy another boat from anyone but Steve at TNT,” he explained. “I’m a relatively simple buyer, but he’s super hands-on and has a great relationship with MTI. He knows what I want and gets it done.

“We have a great relationship,” he added. “Steve is a very genuine person.”

That Beecher’s 44-foot prize won the club’s Best Catamaran award was a nice honor, and not just for the cat’s owner. Taylor Scism, the vice president of MTI, and her husband Shaun Peters ran the company’s new 440X demo catamaran in the event, while her father Randy, the owner and founder of MTI, stayed back in Missouri to represent the brand at last Saturday’s Spring Fun Run hosted by MTI dealer Performance Boat Center at Lake of the Ozarks.

Throughout the day, the enthusiasm ran high among participants.

The two new 440X builds were among the many MTI catamaran and center consoles in the Orange Beach fleet.

Scism, who hadn’t participated in a Florida Powerboat Club event for years, was delighted with the turnout, as well as the entire weekend in Alabama.

“It was a good event,” Taylor Scism said. “It’s nice to explore a different destination. We plan to do the FPC Emerald Coast Powerboat Poker Run in the fall as well.

“And I thought the lunch food on Saturday was great,” she added. “I love a good shrimp-boil, and the restaurant was really efficient at getting that many people fed.”

The 50-boat fleet included most of the big-name brands in the go-fast powerboat world.

Scism wasn’t alone in her high praise for the Saturday fare at the Grand Mariner Restaurant and Marina on the shores of Alabama’s Mobile Bay. The Orange Beach happening was the third stop on high-performance marine finance and insurance man Devin Wozencraft’s “2024 World Poker Run Tour.” Wozencraft, who ran his 34-foot Victory catamaran last weekend with relatives from Arizona, enjoyed the food and camaraderie.

“The Grand Mariner had live entertainment and served a great lunch, all in a casual environment where we got to spend quality time together,” Wozencraft said.

Maintaining a close-knit community for participants in the run was among Jones’ imperatives for the addition of the new Mobile Bay lunch stop. And it worked.

Devin Wozencraft, who has logged significant time participating in poker runs during the year, described the Saturday portion of the event as “nothing less than perfect.“

“For the most part, any organizer’s prime objective is to keep the group-setting together,” Jones explained. “In previous years, the Orange Beach event had to be fragmented on Saturday because 50 powerboats and 200 were too much to accommodate for any marina in Orange Beach.

“As soon as the boats began to raft up on the 500-foot bulkhead at the Grand Mariner Marina, the staff was ready and very prepared for our group. Large banners hung around the property expressing a warm welcome to the Florida Powerboat Club,” he continued. “The owners, Jason and Shanda Bunch, closed the restaurant to the general public and reserved all space exclusively for our event.”

Added Wozencraft, whose next stop is the Kuttawa Cannonball Run, May 31-June 1, in Kentucky, “Saturday was nothing less than perfect.”

For Florida Powerboat Club head Stu Jones (center), the new lunch stop was a hit.

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