by Brandon Weppner

photography by Jerry Zegart

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ROCKSome call it Mardi Gras on the water. Welcome to the world’s craziest and funnest poker run.Let’s

W ith more boats, parties, prizes—and, yes, wet T-shirt contests—the Lake Cumberland Poker Run is under-standably one of the country’s most popular perfor-mance-boat attractions. The crowds have long since surpassed normal capacity, way beyond what anybody ever expected. There were 80 registered entries this year, and the spectator crowd was larger than in any year prior.

Things kicked off earlier than usual. On Thursday night, the docks began crawling with poker-run enthusiasts, and the

well-known Party Barge (provided by Bill Kingery with Total Marine Performance) was transformed into the ultimate dance floor. Meanwhile, event sponsor and host State Dock featured a wonderful setup, as “Boatel Row” surrounded the Party Barge while live music from the band Caught Red Handed performed on Saturday night after the poker run and awards ceremony were concluded. Other activites included a the aforementioned wet-T shirt contest and a DJ-let dance-off on the disco floor at the Party Barge.

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This year’s run consisted of five stops, starting with State Dock, followed by Conley Bottom Marina, Burnside Marina and back to State Dock for a lunch break. Afterwards, the fleet handed to Camp Earl Wallace, Grider Hill Marina and then to Harmon Creek, where hundreds of boats clustered together to celebrate the week-end and watch a display of some of the finest boats around. In attendance was the PURE PLATINUM 46-foot red Skater; FLIGHT CLUB from Detroit, a-one-of-a-kind 50-foot blue Skater, and a newly built vee-bottom from Statement Marine. In addition, Doug

Utter brought his 42-foot PIER 57 Fountain raceboat, famous for having set the world speed record of over 160 mph.

The weekend brought those who had attended year after year, as well as a few new poker run enthusiasts.

All said, the Lake Cumberland Poker Run continues to be a phenomenal event centered around fast boats and huge fun. As people in the bluegrass say: “Kentucky, home of fast horses and beautiful women.” And that is precisely what all the excitement is all about.

Some of the big muscleboats attending this year’s Cumberland run included the Pier 57 raceboat (top right), with Brandon Weppner and Tyler Utter and Doug Utter. Among the human eye candy on display was the gorgeous Katie Weppner (above middle), a huge supporter of the offshore racing sport.

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Onlookers gawk at the The Pure Platinum Skater (right). Below, a multi-stepped Nor-Tech goes card collecting.

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