Skater At 50—Skaterfest Then And Now

From Skater Powerboats fan Rich Luhrs, the chairman of the American Power Boat Association Offshore Racing Commission, to Super Cat Fest/Super Cat Fest West producer Alvin Heathman, yet another Skater-brand loyalist, several folks have held events that paid tribute to the vaunted catamaran brand during the years. But none of them stuck with it as long, much less raised it to such a high-profile level, as Ron Szolack, who launched his own Skaterfest happening 13 years ago in the St. Clair, Mich., area.

Ron Szolack (left) and the author ran Final-Final, a 46-foot Skater cat, at the last official Skaterfest in 2021. Photos from Skaterfest 2021 by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

A well-known Skater man who has owned every model produced by the Douglas, Mich., catamaran builder, Szolack invited his Skater-owning friends to bring their cats for a three-day weekend of boating on Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River.

“At the first Skaterfest, we had 10 boats,” he said. “The biggest group we ever had was 44 boats. I think that was in 2014.”

New York’s Chris Ryder has never missed a Skaterfest—and doesn’t plan to.

Though always a good time for Szolack and his buddies, Skaterfest eventually became a bit of a headache for Szolack when it came to logistics and public perception of the event itself. The event was canceled in 2020 thanks to the pandemic and after the 2021 happening, when Skater founder Peter Hledin showed up to greet the group for the final time, Szolack announced he was calling it quits.

Rockette, the first 438 Skater catamaran produced, became a Skaterfest regular.

Of course, that didn’t stop Szolack from hosting scaled-down, under-the-radar versions of Skaterfest—dubbed Weekend At Ronnie’s—in 2022 and 2023. The event name was different and the guest list was smaller, but the intimate gathering remained a celebration of the Skater brand.

In 2021, the traditional Skaterfest lunch at Pepper Joe’s happened for the final time.

Szolack, who splits his time between homes in South Florida and the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri, no longer owns a place in Michigan. So the Midwest version of Skaterfest is gone, likely forever. It will be missed by the likes of Skater owners Danny DeSantis, Chris LaMorte, Steve Gordon, Chip Miller, Todd Fountain, Rob Turner, Ed Tirakian, Bill Grannis, Erik Breckenfelder and many others.

Skater catamarans of every generation, such as this 36-footer owned by Michigan’s Bill Grannis, were represented at the annual event.

But all is not lost for the Skaterfest faithful, far from it. Szolack will host a Weekend At Ronnie’s event on the Lake of the Ozarks in September. The following month, Ross Ramsey of Dallas-area-based RP Elite Motors and Marine—the brand’s official dealer—will host its own Skaterfest on Lake Texoma.