After taking a year off, the SCOPE Poker Run came roaring back and—in the process—raised its own high standard.

Originally published January 2008 issue

By Matt Trulio

ll the boats were at the docks or on their trailers, dinner for 500 guests under two tents was finished and the awards had been handed out. Flock of Eighties—a 1980s cover band—kicked into its first song and it was time for everyone at the 2007 SCOPE Poker Run in Long Beach, Calif., to party.

And no one was ready to party harder than Chris Grayson, the new poker run director for SCOPE, an acronym for the Southern California Offshore Powerboat Elite go-fast powerboat club.

It wasn't just that the 2007 event was the first poker run Grayson had organized, albeit with plenty of welcomed guidance from Wayne Lee, the club's former poker run director of 10 years. Thanks to a lack of dock space and several logistical issues, SCOPE had cancelled the run in 2006. So the 2007 run was a comeback event, and comebacks are never a sure thing.

"At that point, everything had come off to a T," Grayson said. "The meal was great, the poker run was a 100-percent success in every way and the city (Long Beach) was happy. It was a huge relief, and when the band started it was like, 'OK, we can let down our hair. It's time to celebrate.' The dance floor was absolutely packed, and we went as long as the city would let us go, which was right up to 11:30 p.m."

Tank Sears, who participated in his restored 38-foot Cigarette Top Gun said the event was awesome. (Sears' V-bottom graced the pages of Powerboat in 2006 and early 2007.)

"I've been doing this since 1997, and it was the best SCOPE Poker Run ever," Sears said.

That the 2007 event came off so well was a testament to the power of different groups working together. The cancellation of the 2006 run discouraged more than a few SCOPE members, but not Grayson or Lee. Looking for some guidance, they contacted the Southern California Marine Association (SCMA), which works annually with city officials to put on the Long Beach Boat Show.

With help from the SCMA and the city, club organizers secured the docks at Rainbow Harbor for the weekend after the boat show. IMCO Marine signed on as the title sponsor, and additional sponsorship came courtesy of Nordic Boats and Lifeline Jackets.

"When we skipped a year, the energy was really down," Grayson said. "We had to start with a clean sheet of paper. But once we had the SCMA and the city on board, everything fell into place. We tried to develop the event so that it would be sustainable. Developing a relationship with the SCMA and the city was key."

The event kicked off on a warm and clear Friday evening in late September with a catered party on the pier in Rainbow Harbor, walking distance from the Long Beach Hyatt (the host hotel) and the Yard House restaurant. The next morning, 104 boats headed out Queens Gate, the opening of the Long Beach breakwater near the Queen Mary attraction.

The participants, who came from as far away as Washington and Arizona, chose from either a short or long course—each with four card stops. They received their first card during the Saturday morning drivers meeting. The long course ran from Long Beach to Avalon on Catalina Island, back across the channel to Newport Beach, then to Los Alamitos and back to Long Beach. Participants who opted for the short course headed south to Newport Beach, then north to Los Alamitos and back to Long Beach.

And in typical fall Southern California fashion, the weather put on a show.

"The week before, we had rain and drizzle and I was thinking, 'Oh great,'" Grayson said. "By Friday, it was unbelievable—in the 70s with a small swell, the best weather and water conditions we've ever had for a poker run.

"When the run was started 14 years ago in Newport Beach by Ron Songrath, who founded the club, the participants would hand over their entry money, we'd hand them a T-shirt and say, 'Get going.' The way it has grown is incredible."

The participants weren't the only ones who benefited from the return of the SCOPE Poker Run. The event reportedly raised more than $21,000 for the Friends of the Firefighters charity.

"We had some concerns about whether people would come back or not after taking a year off, but we also had been worried about people getting burned out on the run—it's been going on for a long time," Lee said. "So maybe taking off a year helped."

—Matt Trulio is a freelance writer for Powerboat magazine.

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