Photos Courtesy of Tim Sharkey – Sharkey Images. To see more of his photos from the event, please click here.
The New Jersey Powerboat Club held its annual Powerboat Rally to Atlantic City on Friday and the event had solid numbers and a long-awaited break in the weather.
“It was the first nice weekend we’ve had,” said NJPC president Dave Patnaude. “Spring has finally sprung.”
This year’s event had 30 boats and offered the fleet challenging conditions in the open ocean and smoother water on the inside. “Going back 20 years, the largest group was the offshore boats and now the 35 and 55-mph groups are growing,” said Patnaude.
The participants rode in a variety of boats including a 38’ Checkmate with twin Mercury Racing outboards, Bob Christie’s 34’ MTI catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboards plus a Doug Wright cat with the same engines.
There were a number of Monterey cruisers including Michael Ciasulli’s bright-red 350 with Mercury Racing 520 stern drives, plus Tom Menhouse’s 378 bowrider and Patnaude brought anew client, Dr. Don Frichionne in his new 328 SS. All the boats were sold at Cote Marine where Patnaude is the director of sales. One of the biggest performance boats to run was a 42’ MTI center console and the queen of the fleet was a 65’ Sea Ray cruiser.
While there were no charities directly tied to the event, there was a 50-50 raffle with benefits going to Shore Dreams for Kids and on Saturday, the poker runners were doing a fun run to Oyster Creek, a restaurant featured in the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives TV show.
