Super Cat Fest West ‘Hits It Out Of The Park’
Though the waters of Lake Havasu have calmed from last week’s Super Cat Fest West happening—and just time for this week’s Desert Storm Poker Run—participants in the 120-boat event are still in a state of mild euphoria mixed with perhaps a touch of exhaustion. Four days of boating on the Colorado River-fed water between California and Arizona combined with nightly parties on the Arizona will do that to you.
Fed by the Colorado River, Lake Havasu is simply spectacular—and an ideal waterway for the event. Photos by Tom Leigh copyright Tommy Gun Images.
By most accounts, organizers Dave Johnson and Alvin Heathman produced another hit. Now one of the Lake Havasu City, Ariz., event’s biggest fans, Kelly O’Hara of Upstate New York. O’Hara ran the DCB Performance Marine M37R catamaran he co-owns with Indiana’s Kiran Pinisetti in the event, which was based mostly out of Riviera Marina.
It wasn’t O’Hara’s first time to Lake Havasu, but it was his first Super Cat Fest West experience.
On Saturday, the beach at Pirate Cove Resort was loaded with boats from Super Cat Fest West.
“The facility at Havasu Riviera Marina and the event organization were great,” said O’Hara. “The entire team from DCB have supported us throughout our visit and we really appreciated their help. The Street Scene party Thursday night and the Dock Party Friday night were both awesome and had great attendance.
“Saturday’s live auction and poker-hand and draw party at Horizon Motorsports was a lot of fun as well, while raising funds important to several Lake Havasu charities,” he added.
The Saturday night auction was fast and furious—and an outrageous show of generosity.
Johnson estimated that the event raised more than $300,000 for local charities in Lake Havasu City.
“To watch all that come together in 45 minutes of bidding is really cool,” he said.
Saturday’s group run to Pirate Cove Resort was seamless. But while that was happening at one end of the lake, the Dixie Belle paddle-wheeler, which Johnson rented for the day, was giving free rides to children. Some came from low-income homes. Others had special needs.
Enjoy more images from Super Cat Fest West 2024.
“The Dixie Belle gave free rides to more than 140 kids,” said Johnson. “Alvin put that together.
“I also really need to thank my wife, Stacey, for all her help, and my right-hand man Jake Littman,” he added, then laughed. “I worked him to death.”
Arguably of course, there is no greater fan of Super Cat Fest West, or any organized event that happens on Lake Havasu for that matter, than Tank Sears of Ventura, Calif. Sears and his wife, Kelly, brought the vintage 1999 Cigarette 39 Top Gun he’s been having renovated—neither the original Super Cat Fest in Missouri or its Arizona sister-event are limited to catamarans—to the four-day happening. He had participated before and his expectations were high.
Like its Missouri sister-event, Super Cat Fest West is not limited to high-performance catamarans.
They also were well-met, thanks in no small-part to a photo- package surprise from Tom Leigh of Tommy Gun Images.
“We were stoked to get a text from Tommy on Wednesday that we had one a raffle for a helicopter shoot,” said Sears. “We set it up for Friday morning the photos came out spectacular.”
“The event was awesome,” he continued. “It reminded me of the old days of Desert Storm when there was a lunch run to Havasu Spring on Thursday.”
One of the event’s sponsors, DCB Performance Marine had a strong presence.
The Friday night dock party at Havasu Riviera Marina was particularly festive thanks to its location, according to Sears. Music of all kinds pumped from the boats at the docks, especially one vessel from event-backer KICKER Marine Audio. Despite the sensational hardware in the marina “there were no egos” on display, Sears said.
But what most impressed him was the Saturday auction.
“It was exciting to see people bid on stuff at the live auction,” he explained. “These guys like Austin Carter and Bryan Hutchinson, they have huge hearts when it comes to donating to charities. And it’s obviously not about what they’re bidding on.
Catamaran brands of all kinds were represented at last week’s happening.
Both Sears and O’Hara, who will be joined by his friend and catamaran co-owner Pinisetti later this week, are sticking around Lake Havasu City for Desert Storm. Between now and then, they have another day to explore the lake on their own. Or they can just get some extra rest ahead this week’s festivities, though Sears described Super Cat Fest West 2022 as a “very laid-back” from start to finish.
“Low stress—that was my biggest takeaway from the event,” he explained. “Boat launching and retrieval were easy. Everything was centrally located. Most of all, the schedule was simple and for the most part open to participants to be flexible with their time.
“No hurry-up-and-wait, no rushing,” he added. “Like I said, Super Cat Fest West had a very laid-back vibe that worked extremely well. Dave Johnson and his crew hit it out of the park.”
Participants had high praise for the Havasu Riviera Marina venue.
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