Performance Boat Rendezvous For Cigarette Owners At 117 Entries

Registration for the ninth annual Performance Boat Center Rendezvous For Cigarette Owners at the Lake of the Ozarks closes this morning at 10 a.m., so as of now the final boat is not complete. Still, the current roster of 117 Cigarette sportboats and center consoles signed up for the Central Missouri event is close to the 119-boat record, and Brett Manire, who owns the multi-brand dealership in Osage Beach, expects some 20 more entries before sign-ups end.

Cigarette owners from around the country are flocking to the Lake of the Ozarks this weekend for the Performance Boat Center event. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.

“It’s just crazy how this event has grown and continues to be so popular,” said Manire. “It’s nuts.”

Fresh from the Mercury Racing 500R outboard engine debut in Charleston, S.C., this week, Florida Powerboat Club owners Stu and Jackie Jones are in town with their own Cigarette 38 Top Gun called Flight 1130 for the event. The rendezvous, said Jones, has long been on his “bucket list” since he bought the 38-footer.

Performance Boat Center is a loyal Florida Powerboat Club event sponsor. And that gave Manire an idea.

“I feel like I should charge Stu,” Manire said, then laughed. “Maybe I should charge him a membership fee.”

On the flip side, Michigander Ron Szolack is in town for the Cigarette run but his brand new 41 Nighthawk powered by four Mercury Racing 500R outboards—the first Cigarette to be equipped with the V-8 mills—is not. The 41-footer is back in Charleston, where it was part of the demo fleet for the new V-8 outboard’s introduction.

Though it won’t run in this weekend’s event, Ron Szolack’s new 41 Nighthawk is the first Cigarette to be powered by Mercury Racing 500R outboard engines.

“That OK, I’m at my new lake house, which is under construction, overseeing the building,” said Szolack, who will ride with his friends Todd and Debbie Campbell in their 42 Cigarette Huntress tomorrow.

Szolack with take delivery of the 42-footer and run it for the first time next month at the Boyne Thunder Poker Run.

“I’m going to have a great time with it in Boyne,” he said. “(Cigarette Racing Team president) Erik Christiansen and his wife are joining me that weekend. It will be their first time to Boyne.”