You’re not alone if you’ve never heard of Port Byron, N.Y. But thanks to the work of Phil Hess and his five-person crew at Upstate Powerboat, a fiberglass and paint business just 30 minutes west of Syracuse, Port Byron—population 1,096 as for 2021—has made its way onto the high-performance marine industry map. Upstate Powerboat handled […]
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With registration at $100 per boat this year, South Carolina’s 14th annual Hartwell Lake Charity Run, set for June 8-10, has to be the best value in domestic go-fast boating events. Because not only is it inexpensive by current standards for such happenings, it is by all accounts a fantastic event from the expansive waterway […]
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Believe it or not, Ottawa, the capital city of Canada in the country’s Ontario province, historically has been a weak sales market for Double R Performance, a full-service Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats dealer outside Toronto. But that’s changed in the past few years, according to Peter Roberts, who co-owns the business with his brother, Raymond. Double […]
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Registration for two of July’s hottest events, the Boyne Thunder Poker Run in Boyne City, Mich., and the 1,000 Islands Charity Poker Run in Clayton, N.Y., is open. Both happenings are limited to 120 boats and—if history is a guide—will sell out in short order. Despite that they happen on back-to-back weekends, Devin Wozencraft makes […]
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Poker-run fans who always wanted to experience the Pirates of Lanier Poker Run, but gave it a hard pass because Georgia in July is less than comfortable, now have one less excuse to avoid it. This year’s event on Lake Lanier—about 45 minutes outside Atlanta—is scheduled for September 8-10. Set for September this year, the […]
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To celebrate his 60th birthday last week, NBA legend Michael Jordan made news with a $10 million donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. According to the Make-A-Wish website, it is the largest contribution made by a single donor in the organization’s 43-year history. Sponsor registration is off to a strong start for the 2023 1,000 Islands […]
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Just five days from now, sponsor registration for the 20th annual Boyne Thunder Poker Run, set for July 7-9 and based out of Boyne City, Mich., will close. The good news, according to Boyne Thunder events coordinator Ingrid Day, is that almost 60 sponsors have signed up to the tune of $250,000 for the happening, […]
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Between their registration fees and their next-level live auction generosity, participants in the 1,000 Islands Charity Poker Run, set for July 13-15 this year, bring significant dollars to the annual Clayton, N.Y., event. But long before the first boat even touches the waters of the St. Lawrence River, the event organizers have already secured sponsorship […]
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When we invited MTI founder and owner Randy Scism to be part of a new video series we are producing for Mercury Racing, the first episode of which will air in March, he had one request. He needed to be out of our makeshift studio last week in Fond du Lac, Wis., for last week’s […]
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Now that the revamp of the Kuttawa Cannonball Run website is complete—think cleaner, faster and easier to navigate—the organizers have opened registration for the June 2-3, Kentucky-based event. The run is celebrating its seventh anniversary, and what started as a small, mostly local gathering on the water has grown to be one of the nation’s […]
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Spoiler alert: No boats were delayed in the making of the first episode of “Sunsation Nation,” a new reality video series that went live today. How do I know this? Because a voiceover announcing it is the first thing you hear when you watch the 10-minute episode on the Algonac, Mich., high-performance center console builder’s […]
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Although an announcement was made a couple of weeks after the Speed On The Water Key West Bash—held last year on November 10 during the Race World Offshore-produced Offshore World Championships in Key West, Fla., and the Florida Powerboat Club’s Key West Poker Run—that the ninth annual event raised more than $105,000, $41,000 of which […]
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Though the MTI won’t pull the sheet off a new model during the Miami International Boat Show—after all, the Wentzville, Mo., company introduced its 440X catamaran just two months ago—there will be plenty of eye-candy for fans of the brand during the February 15-19 event. The custom high-performance powerboat builder will display V-50 and V-42 […]
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As part of this year’s Top 100: Top Dealer awards, Boating Industry has recognized seven companies with special “Best in Class” awards, for companies that particularly excelled in one area of their business. Below are the Best in Class award recipients for 2022. Best Industry Advocate Watersports CentralBuford, Georgia WaterSports Central, headquartered in Buford, Ga., has […]
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If you caught the first two installments of “Speed On The Water Stories Of The Year” written by my speedonthewater.com partner Matt Trulio, you already know there was no lack of super-cool news to report in 2022. In the “spare time” I’ve had this week thanks to finishing pre-press production for the 2022 Year In […]
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Success means something different for everyone. No two measures of it are identical, right? For a long-time performance-boat owner, it can be building the most reliable and seaworthy catamaran of his dreams. For a go-fast boating event organizer, it can be raising a record amount of money for people who need help. For a boat-builder, […]
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So far this year, Speedonthewater.com has attracted 687,560 unique visitors who enjoyed a cool 3,246,084 page views per Google analytics. As remarkable as that traffic is for niche news site, what’s even better is that those numbers are tracked by Google—hence the designation. We can’t manipulate or embellish them. They are what they are. Some […]
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While marine industry veteran Bob Teague and announcer Rod Smith will still man the broadcast booth for the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout presented by Performance Boat Center next year, the 35th annual event will have a new production team. Powerboat P1, which holds the marketing and production rights to Class 1 offshore racing, will […]
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<!– Event Coverage: Toys Tour Goes Star-Studded With 110-Boat Fleet –> From a timing perspective, the annual Toys Tour event on the St. Johns Rivers seems ripe for failure. It happens in Palatka, Fla., on the first weekend in December, which isn’t inherently “bad,” but the happening does follow the Offshore Powerboat Association Englewood Beach […]
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<!– In the News: Speed On The Water ‘In The Lead’ Video Series Returning In 2023 –> Flashback from late 2020: Speedonthewater.com co-publisher Jason Johnson and I were driving back from a business meeting, meaning a mountain bike ride, when the idea for the Speed On The Water “In The Lead” documentary-style video series was […]
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