Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants In South Carolina
My Cowboy & Indian summer-tour story series—where I follow one boat through it maiden event-season—was supposed to start last weekend with the Kuttawa Cannonball Run. Kiran Pinisetti, a fine gentleman of Indian descent, hauled the cleverly named DCB Performance Marine M37R catamaran he co-owns with semi-retired, Upstate New York dairy farmer Kelly O’Hara from his home in Bloomington, Ind., for the eighth annual Kentucky event.
Kiran and Jessica Pinisetti hosted a trio of guests yesterday on their Cowboy & Indian DCB M37R catamaran.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you see such things, O’Hara’s sister was getting married that weekend to he couldn’t make to Kuttawa.
But it wouldn’t have mattered if he had. Wind and rain scrubbed Saturday’s main event.
By last Sunday afternoon, I was back on the West Coast. Next stop, Oshkosh, Wis., for the inaugural Bago Big Bet event June 20-24 on Lake Winnebago, where Pinisetti would officially kick off the Cowboy & Indian tour in the 37-footer.
At least that was the plan.
Said DCB’s Tony Chiaramonte, “This kind of hospitality is a lost art.”
Four days and two persuasive text messages later from Pinisetti and South Carolina mega-host Chuck Stark, I was on a one-way flight back across the country to Greenville. And so the Cowboy & Indian tour began yesterday on Lake Hartwell. DCB vice-president Tony Chiaramonte and his 14-year-old son, Ashton, joined Pinisetti, and his wife, Jessica, and this reporter on the 37-foot cat for the day.
All are in town for today’s 15th annual Lake Hartwell Charity Run benefitting Meals On Wheels-Anderson. As of last night, 130 boats were registered for the event. The organizers are expecting 10 to 15 more sign-ups this morning.
But I will catch just the early portion of today’s fun as I have an extended family commitment tonight at Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri. My flight out of Anderson—courtesy of “Air Stark”—leaves at 2 p.m. I had planned to fly commercial out of Greenville early this morning to Springfield, Mo., but Stark, of course, had other plans.
After their own event—the Kuttawa Cannonball Run—was rained out last Saturday, Stephen and Heather Miles were ready to run in their 34-foot MTI catamaran.
Yesterday’s casual lunch run—call it Stark-A-Palooza—has become among a tradition among its namesake’s invited friends including Alabama’s Mike and Angela Goldbaugh, BRP Marine Custom owner Chad Shutter and his wife, Ashley, from North Carolina, Kentucky’s own Stephen Miles and his wife, Heather, Jack Gladke and his friend Joe Loquetara of New York, plus a whole slew of folks I now count as new friends I didn’t have 36 hours ago.
Most are staying at Chuck and Shannon’s expansive waterfront property this weekend. Every room in their home is full. So, too, is a motor-coach and two third-wheel trailers in a cavernous storage facility on property.
In fact, I am writing this story from the motor-coach, my digs for the past two nights.
Performance-boat outings are like Forrest Gump’s proverbial box of chocolates, which meant our day on the water started with trouble-shooting a water-pressure issue with one of the new Mercury Racing 1100 engines that power Goldbaugh’s 2014 model-year Pure Platinum series Skater Powerboats 388 catamaran and finished with Miles securing a Scuba diver to recover Goldbaugh’s iPhone, which he dropped in 60 feet of water at the docks during our second stop of the day.
For Kiran and Jessica Pinisetti, today’s Lake Hartwell Charity Run is among the few events they have enjoyed so far together in Cowboy & Indian. Both have busy lives. Kiran is a serial entrepreneur with multiple ongoing businesses. Jessica is an equestrian of note who oversees the couple’s horse-breeding operation.
Shannon Stark enjoyed—as best she could—her first ride in Crypto, the 43-foot Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats V-bottom her husband bought in late 2023.
Despite the limited time they’ve enjoyed together so far on the 37-footer, they function as if they run it side-by-side for years. They make it look easy.
“I hope I can do more events with Kiran this summer,” said Jessica, who was with her husband when the cat debuted last June at the Mercury Racing 500R outboard engine unveiling in Charleston, S.C. “I’d like to if we can work out the schedule between horse shows and boating events.”
“I love having Jessica here,” Kiran added, then chuckled. “We were in Kuttawa last week and ran on Kentucky Lake on Friday. Jessica drove all the way back and the MTI boys had a tough time keeping up with us.”
During a quiet moment that afternoon, Pinisetti and I marveled the DCB creation he shares with O’Hara. The ride was perfect, the boat itself a piece of performance art. Soft-spoken by nature, Pinisetti could not contain his appreciate and gratitude not just for boat, but for his own good fortune.
“In my wildest dreams, I never imagined I’d own something like this,” he said.
Live music was just part of last night’s good times.
Just before 7 p.m. last night, the group hopped in Stark’s MTI V-42 center console and headed for the Lake Hartwell Charity Run welcome party at the waterfront Green Pond Amphitheatre venue. We stayed until nothing but an orange glow of the sunlight remained on the horizon, then returned to Stark’s home where we were greeted by a live band and an endless stack of pizzas.
Chiaramonte and I are both native Californians. When I asked him last night if he he’d ever been treated more graciously in our home-state, he laughed.
“Dude, this kind of hospitality is a loss art,” he said. “It’s unreal.”
A few minutes later, Stark pulled me aside.
“What do you think, Trulio, you having a good time?” he asked, then laughed. “You need anything? You’re in the South now, and we’re not always the best hosts. We just expect you to treat our home like your home and help yourself.”
Chuck Stark (center) takes care of his guests.
I’d never heard Southern hospitality described that way, but there is some truth to it, at last Chuck and Shannon Stark-style. When they tell you their home is your home, it’s not pretense. They mean it.
For the past two days, I was home because—to borrow loosely from Sir Isaac Newton—I was privileged to stand on the shoulders of giants.
And giants, you see, have giant hearts.
Yesterday ended as it began—perfectly.
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