XINSURANCE and Good Boy Vodka Bringing Some Heat To The Desert Storm Poker Run
If you haven’t already heard, the XINSURANCE/Good Boy Vodka team is coming in hot to Lake Havasu City, Ariz., for this week’s Desert Storm Poker Run. No, the crew is not bringing its new Class 1 raceboat—it’s currently being painted after arriving from the Middle East and before rigging begins prior to next month’s season opener in Cocoa Beach, Fla.—but the team will have its helicopter, its expansive support rig and its 50-foot turbine-powered Mystic Powerboats catamaran featuring new-look graphics wrapped to match the raceboat on hand for the 25th annual event on the Colorado River-fed lake.
Thanks to a new wrap applied over its high-end paintjob, Alex Pratt’s 2010 canopied 50-foot Mystic cat powered by twin T-53 turbine engines has a new look that will be enjoyed by those in town for this week’s Desert Storm Poker Run. Photos courtesy Gene Greber
En route from Nashville to Las Vegas on Tuesday afternoon, performance boat enthusiast Alex Pratt, the face of the ever-growing vodka brand and the throttleman of the Class 1 offshore race team he owns with XINSURANCE founder Rick J. Lindsey, spent a few minutes before and after going through security at the airport giving me a rundown of the team’s 2023 plans, some more immediate, such as attending this week’s Desert Storm Poker Run, and some that are not to be shared quite yet.
Pratt, who purchased the Mystic and overhauled it in 2021, said he’s looking forward to visiting Lake Havasu for the first time and participating in all of the poker run events from Thursday afternoon’s street party to Friday’s poker run. He is unsure whether the team is going to run the 50-footer in Saturday’s three-quarter-mile shootout. He added that the team’s new crew chief, Gene Greber, recently dialed in the boat, which needed some attention after sitting idle on its trailer for some time.
“We’ve got a slip at London Bridge Resort and we’re planning to display the boat in the street party and do the poker run in it,” said Pratt, who was in Franklin, Tenn., to represent Good Boy Vodka at his business partner’s charity golf tournament, the John Daly Classic at Old Natchez Country Club. “We decided to go out there to see what the event is all about and hopefully add to the show. We’ll be taking it all in and taking it easy while promoting our brands and meeting new people. I can’t wait.”
For local knowledge, Pratt said the team will be leaning on a friend he met through boating, Southern California’s Austin Carver, who owned an MTI-V 42 luxury performance center console that he established an APBA center console record in during the 2021 Huntington Beach Around Catalina Island Ocean Cup race in the Pacific Ocean.
“Austin said he’d show us around so we’re in good hands there,” said Pratt, adding that his turbine-powered boat—like most—requires a lot of work so the team will take all the help it can get.
Lindsey, the president, CEO and chairman of Utah-based XINSURANCE, which was established more than 40 years ago to provide customized specialty insurance for ever-changing risks and issues such as specialty liability, property and casualty insurance, said he’s excited to get a firsthand look at Lake Havasu’s largest performance boat event.
“This is my first time going to the poker run so I have no idea what to expect,” Lindsey said. “From what I’ve heard this is a very fun event so I’m sure we’re going to have a great time.”
One thing’s for certain, Lindsey, who is most excited about taking it all in from above in his A-STAR helicopter, is going to leave Lake Havasu with more people knowing XINSURANCE than did before he, Pratt and the rest of the team rolled into town with their fire-breathing monster.
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