Teague’s Take: Season of Giving

The boating community’s generosity has been rather impressive this year.

As Seen In Speed On The Water, Issue 26; Sept-Oct 2017

Over the past few months, thanks to the efforts of some notable names in the industry such as Reggie Fountain and Nigel Hook, there has been a lot of talk about records. Kilometer records—Fountain Powerboats is building a boat specifically to challenge the V-bottom speed record early next year—and endurance records—Hook’s 48-foot SilverHook V-bottom set a record from Key West, Fla., to Cuba in mid-August.

For the purposes of this column, I’d rather
talk about some records that were set by
three different events I attended in August
and September. Charitable records.

Between the Big Cat Poker Run in Discovery Bay, Calif.—an event my business, Teague Custom Marine, has had the pleasure of supporting for many years—the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Missouri and the Lake Powell Challenge in Page, Ariz., I was blown by the generosity displayed by the performance boat community.

All three events—held on extremely different waterways—exceeded expectations in terms of money raised for charity. And to me it’s quite obvious why.

Each one has an extremely dedicated staff that puts in hundreds of hours without asking for any sort of compensation, and each one has an army of volunteers who are on hand to make sure everything about the event goes smoothly.

This whole performance boat community I’ve been a part of for decades has always been about giving back. From the offshore races in Sarasota, Fla., that benefits the Suncoast Charities for Children to the poker runs ranging from Pirates of Lanier in Georgia, Emerald Coast in Florida and Powerboating for a Cure in Virginia, charity is normally the driving factor behind most events.

But getting back to the three events I was fortunate enough to attend this summer, each one raised the bar in 2017.

Thanks to nearly 70 boats and 300 participants, the Big Cat Poker Run ended up with close to $100,000 in donations for the Discovery Bay Lions Club.

The 29th annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, which hosted more events around the expansive lake in a week than any other performance boating event I know of, collected $200,000 that was donated to 36 different organizations.

Then there was the ninth annual Lake Powell Challenge, which is a must-attend event in my opinion for the scenery alone.

Jerry Moyes, Burl Griswold and the entire team behind the event are saints. In a matter of a couple of days at one of the most remote marinas in the country—Antelope Point Marina—they managed to raise a whopping $500,000 that was donated to JDRF (To read all about it Click Here and go to page 36). Yes, a half-million dollars. Kind of mind-blowing, huh?

Kudos to everyone involved with those events as well as others around the nation.