TAMPA A favorite amongst many club members, the ever-evolving Tampa Bay Poker Run did not disappoint. By Jason Johnson and Matt Trulio
D
espite having to limit the number of participants in this year’s Tampa Bay Poker Run because of restricted dock space and rooms in downtown Tampa, the 55-boat fleet for the 12th annual event showed up for an incredibly fun-filled weekend featuring welcoming lunch stops, a couple of nights of social activity, an added raft-up and two distinctly different days on the water during the event’s new two-day poker run format.
Louisiana performance boater for the run on Friday and Saturday.
The unpredictable Florida weather stayed pretty true to form during the late-April event as club members and their guests were greeted with a solid dose of rough water on Friday that included frothy three- to five-footers coming from multiple directions. Then on Saturday, which was predicted to have similar weather as Friday, the wind laid down to provide much tamer conditions on the Gulf of Mexico.
For New York’s Matt Borcina, a regular at FPC events, this year’s Tampa Bay Poker Run was extra special, and not just because it was his first in his 38-foot center console from Statement Marine. More so because he and his wife brought their daughter and four of her friends to the poker run to celebrate their high school graduation. Borcina—a cat guy at heart—acknowledged that doing the poker run in a center console with six women on board was out of the ordinary for him but still fun.
Of course the consensus from the participants was that the twoday format worked out well, and would have whether or not the conditions improved on Saturday because club president Stu Jones was concerned enough to change the course ahead of time so participants could avoid heading into the Gulf of Mexico. Among those in attendance was South Florida-based Tim Gallagher of Performance Boat Center. Gallagher delivered a new Sunsation Powerboats 40 CCX to repeat customer Scott Favre, who also owns a 44-foot MTI catamaran, and joined the
70 | POWERBOATING IN PARADISE
“On Saturday we went to this little lunch stop, The Getaway in St. Pete,” Gallagher said. “Saturday was really nice. Friday was rough. “The 40 CCX is a very cool boat,” he continued. “Scott had a 32 CCX before this one and he’s been a longtime Performance Boat Center customer. We had a really nice time.”
“The event was awesome—it always is—but it was the first time in my center console so I wasn’t used to being that slow,” Borcina said with a laugh. “Because I like to run hard, that part was a little disappointing. It was a different perspective though and I can see why center consoles are so appealing. “Overall the run was excellent,” he continued. “It was pretty rough on Friday but other than that the boating was great. We enjoyed downtown Tampa and the convention center. The club put on a nice
