Serious Offshore - WMO’s Keith Holmes Memorial Run 2021

One of the hardest, and most important, things one ever has to do is write remembrances for friends and associates who have tragically passed away. It is damn near impossible to accurately portray the impact special people have had on those who surrounded them, or state the importance of their lifespan.

Keith Racing in Michigan City

Once a year West Michigan Offshore has a remembrance run to honor Keith Holmes, a special member of the performance boat community, and one who impacted so many performance boaters; not only in West Michigan, but around the world. Hopefully his legacy will continue to be honored, and the lives he touched can take one day a year to commemorate the impact he had on so many.

Boats Attending the Memorial in Muskegon

Countless people have so many memories of Keith it will take years to review even the main ones, but every year we will try our best to recall some of the key items, and to highlight the annual memorial run. It seemed appropriate that some of the boats participating to honor Keith were escorted into Muskegon by the Sheriff. Not sure why TowBoat US was following. Keith would have got a kick out of that.

Entering the Muskegon Channel

One memory many of us have of Keith were his aerial acrobatics in the Sutphen now owned by his good friend and partner Mike Holford. Mike is honored as the lead boat when the Memorial Run begins, and in the next day’s Poker Run Mike did his best to honor his friend and mentor with some Keith type aerobatics of his own. It was impressively Holmes worthy, and I’m sure Keith was smiling as he watched.

Sutphen Air Time

For this memorial run West Michigan Offshore had organized a helicopter to take photos and video.

The timing was also perfect for having the Lake Express ferry leaving at the same time several of the Memorial Run boats were arriving.

One of my favorite memories with Keith and the Cat Can Do team was the Lake of the Ozarks win in 2014. They were quite a happy group at the awards!!

As the President of West Michigan Offshore, Roger Zuidema, put it, “Keith was a person who so enjoyed being in and around performance boats, it affected everyone who was around him. He would be extremely happy if he could see the continuation of that persona in this annual event”.

I personally think he is most likely watching and enjoying….