West Michigan Offshore's only 2018 Poker Run certainly had its challenges, all weather related. Mother Nature decided to not be very motherly for some reason this June 16th. Thunderstorms started rolling through fairly early in the morning on Saturday, postponing many of the boats arriving by water and delaying the launch of many others. But, that was not the only thing happening over the course of the Muskegon Powerboat Weekend.


The beginning of the postponed Poker Run start.

The Friday evening street party by Muskegon's Hackley Park had perfect weather, all of the storms stayed to the north. The food and drink provided by the Taste of Muskegon, live bands in the park, along with the ...

Every winter there is a dilemma for West Michigan performance boaters. How soon can everyone count on getting boats in the water? How soon can they be tested to make sure they are ready to do a run? Followed by, how soon can those boats actually do an organized run followed by some fun conversations at a get together?

Some years it still seems there is snow on the ground late in May. Some years there are late winter and spring storms. And some years everything is so perfect all are wondering why there is no run scheduled the week before Memorial day, instead of waiting for June. What is a Michigan Performance Boating ...

Courtesy Shoot 2 Thrill Pete

Stock Outboard, the only class where the world's rules match the US rules, also appears to be strong this year. There are a few boats who will have the role of favorites, the wider Doug Wrights being the boats with the advantage over the narrower tunneled competition. But, there is one boat that we will be keeping our eyes on closely to see how it does. Risky Business, a 1992 Skater 28 with a pair of Mercury Racing 200 XS outboards (running approximately 240 HP), will be competing against ...

Superboat in SBI has been growing since they modified the rules for the class a couple years ago. As the combined classes of the old Superboat 750, Superboat 850, and Supercat, the class had a group of teams to choose from. The only question was, would they all buy in to a class that almost mimicked the old Supercat Rules before the changes early in this century.

Many of us can remember the 12 or 13 boats that competed on a regular basis in the Supercat Class in the late 90's and early 00's, but it disappeared into a multitude of classes where the rules seemed to change annually. Well, that seems to be the case no longer and the teams appear ...

For everyone who survives the influence of the overall Key West atmosphere of fun, the races on Wednesday, the races on Friday, and still have the energy to head down to Duvall Friday evening for the parade and street party, there will also be another place to hook up with ardent performance boaters while admiring all of the race teams along Duvall. Our friends Matt and Jason from Speed On The Water and Gino from BurgerFi will be hosting a party at Gino and John's BurgerFi restaurant on Duvall Friday evening.



Once again, ...

As a pre-Captain America was toasting his upcoming transformation into a much bigger and tougher super hero ready to save the world through the magic of science, he probably didn't know that some Little Guys can make it in the outside world without any magical transformation into some larger entity. If there is any question about little guys being tough, check out Bruce Lee at 5' 8" and 141 lbs. So maybe being tough, or in the thick of a contest has nothing to do with size, maybe it's just Karma.....

Karma refers to the principle of causality where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual. Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, ...

A Charlevoix waterfront restaurant and marina came close to an untimely end a couple years ago, but luckily, a couple of performance boaters with a super hero and a greek goddess portrayed as their respective on-the-water rides, combined forces to save the establishment from demise in 2013. Not only were they able to save and re-open the restaurant, but also improved it as a Lake Charlevoix destination. While it may not be a spot for high performance boating fly-bys, (it presides on a no-wake zone of the lake), it is home to some really good food and a location with a very interesting history along with their great views of the water and boats.



Iceman, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics, is an original member of the X-Men. A mutant, Iceman ...