Boyne Thunder Poker Run

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jimh
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Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
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Boyne Thunder Poker Run

Postby jimh » Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:53 pm

On Saturday July 10, 2021 I was able to observe a portion of the 150-mile Poker Run that is part of the Boyne Thunder weekend. The event is primarily a charity event to raise money for three local charities. This year participation was bigger than ever, with about 120-boats.

Previously most of the boats in the Poker Run were really big offshore racing boats, often 50-foot catamarans with enclosed cockits with aircraft type canopies, or big offshore v-hull boats with monster sterndrive engines.

This year I was very surprised to see a significant number of the boats were just really big center-console v-hull offshore boats, maybe 40-footers, and most with QUADRUPLE Mercury VERADO engines on the transom. And also plenty of center console boats with triple and twin VERADO engines, as well as some big Yamaha engines. This was quite a departure from past years. The big center console boats with quad engines were keeping up with the big offshore guys quite nicely, by the way. And they typically had a large crew, maybe six or eight, aboard them. I could not say for certain, but there might have been a big Boston Whaler center console in that group.

One of the stops on the Poker Run is at Northport, so I can sit in front of my cabin and watch quite a spectacle of 120 really fast boats coming into the harbor to get a card for their poker hand. The conditions were perfect: wave heights were about six-inches, which is what I think these guys like to get going and get some air under the hull. It was quite fun to watch the bigger boats coming in at about 80-MPH and throwing a roostertail.

I figure if you had 1,000-HP the engines would burn about 100-gallons-per-hour. The course is approximately 150-miles, but not all is open water and run on plane. I can only imagine how much fuel was burned in this fleet. But they raise money for good causes and have themselves a good time doing it.

The entrance fee is $750 per boat, with up-charges for additional crew. Figuring an average of two extra crew, that's about $1,000 per boat times 120-boats, so $120,000 in entrance fees. The Poker Run winner gets about $5,000, second place $3,000, and third place $1,50—most of the money can go to charities.

More at https://boynethunder.com/

Here is one of the typical big offshore boats (but I think this is an old picture as the waves this year were not as large as seen in this image):

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and here is a big center console (but I don't recognize the builder):

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