This week brings the first of the PBN member profiles. The heart and soul of any enthusiast driven sport or activity rests with the enthusiasts themselves. While it might be interesting to see are read about a 50 foot new Catamaran with huge new factory power, the reality of our world is rooted with greasy hands wrenching in bilges rather than writing checks and signing deals in board rooms. I am an enthusiast; I have a passion for boating and messing about with boats. I am not a professional journalist, photographer, or businessman. Call me a boat bum, water rat, or whatever you want. I am the one who believes as the rat in the mind of Kenneth Grahame believed “There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of ‘em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do.” I am urged by no other motivation than my passion of Powerboating and to spread the world and develop a platform that enables all of us the ability to buy, build, repair, and rebuild what we love without having to pay needlessly let’s just say it’s more of a. “Built not bought” attitude.
The only thing that outweighs the fiberglass and iron is the band or brothers and sisters that have assembled as we bust knuckles together and actually do what we do. One day all the stories will come out, crashed rental cars, strip clubs, road trips, plane trips, and boat tales The good and the bad; in the end we can say that we didn’t just talk about it we do it, we lived it and we did the best we could with what we had.
I want Powerboat Nation to be the place where from minor mods to major overhauls we will give you what you need to make your ride the best it can be for the lowest cost it could be.
My first member profile is about two guys who have known each other since they were young. I had the privilege to meet them when they enrolled in the Performance Boat School after buying a Catamaran. These guys and others like them are the fuel that feeds the future of Performance Powerboating from where they came from to where they are now at to what the aspire to go to. The progression is now under full acceleration and they are turning up at winter Poker Runs in the south before the boat goes north for the summer.
Mathew Gordon from Greenwich , Connecticut and Edward Dawson from Cross River New York met over 27 years ago when in their twenties they both got jobs working as lifeguards while they were paying their way through college. These guys are unusual as they have maintained a friendship for so
long and it has been surrounded by activities. Surfing, life guarding, and Powerboating beginning with a 16 ft Crestliner pushed with a 115 HP outboard and since then they have gone through a bunch of boats. A, Mako, Grady White, Scarabs, Formula PC Cruisers, Donzi and now a 377 Hustler Talon Cat powered with 750 HP Naturally Aspirated Cobras on B- Max Drives and when I talked with them at the Florida Powerboat Clubs Tampa Bay poker run a hint of a possible move to a MTI slipped out.
Matt and Ed have at least six Florida Poker Runs under their belt and are now planning more before the boat goes back to Connecticut for the summer. They do as they have done for years they work on the boat together and travel together. They have known each other for so long they know each other’s every move. The whole Powerboating Lifestyle they share is grounded in the boat. Their wives don’t really like the boat but it doesn’t matter because it is what they enjoy and what they do and I don’t think the boat type or speed really has anything to do with it; it is simply the idea that they are actually doing it. They removed the drives and had them rebuilt/replaced did some minor work to the boat and now have had a series of trouble free runs. Now they are having fun with the boat and maybe having more fun looking, thinking, dreaming about the next one. A MTI? Maybe, we shall see!
Much More to Come!
