Four days of non-stop performance-boat action—from a poker run to an offshore race—at the Desert Storm Poker Run on Arizona's Lake Havasu at the end of April created plenty of tidbits. Here are 10 that caught my attention. (Check out some Desert Storm Poker Run photos in the Powerboat photo gallery and don't miss Tank Sears' Desert Storm Reflections blog from the event.)

1. In the “battle of the fastest” between Bill Pyburn in his Skater 388 and Gino Gargiulo in his 44 MTI, Pyburn came out on top. Well, sort of. Gargiulo had an engine problem during the poker run and didn’t compete in the Shootout. Pyburn did—he took one run in the Shootout before calling it a day—and posted a top speed of 154 mph.

2. Depending on who you ask, Albert Haynesworth may be building another 48 MTI with Mercury Racing 1300/1350 engines. Or he may also replace the Mercury Racing 1025/1200 engines in his current 48 MTI, Terminator, with the 1300/1350. When I spoke with Haynesworth, he was talking replacement. “I love this boat,” the NFL superstar said.

3. Speaking of 1300/1350s, I caught up with Fred Kiekhaefer, president of Mercury Racing. Kiekhaefer remains mystified—as do I—by ongoing speculation that the engine was developed in Germany. “See that big ‘M’ on the block?” he said. “That means it’s our block. It’s our engine from the bottom up.”

4. Drawings for a 42-foot Mystic are already complete. That came directly from company principal John Cosker, who also told me that he definitely will build the catamaran—with piston power—if he gets a few orders for it.

5. A little more on the Mercury Racing 1300/1350: I finally have a retail price. At $200,000 and change, the engine isn’t for anyone lacking big bank, but the good news is it does come with the beefy M8 drive and a one-year factory warranty.

6. According to Mike Fiore of Outerlimits, the company has 10 boats in production. That’s a hefty number—even in a good year—for a company that reportedly builds about 20 boats a year.

7. Final word on the 1300/1350 (at least for now): Though they usually travel in pairs, so to speak, Kiekhaefer told me that one will be used in a single-engine application by a builder out West. Beyond that, he offered no detail.

8. Desert Storm “veteran” Mike DeFrees, who owns and runs the Team CRC MTI race boat, went pretty much nowhere during the four-day event. He’d planned on participating in the poker run, the Shootout and the offshore race. A broken transmission sidelined him from all three.

9. Up the Colorado River near Topock Gorge, Pirate Cove Resort became the off-site hangout of choice for participants of Desert Storm. Said one participant who awaits a new MTI with a smile: “That place is wild. It’s really something.”

10. Finally, big boats were everywhere you looked at the Desert Storm Poker Run. Starting with the catamarans, more than 20 Skaters, 14 MTIs, four Nor-Tech 3600s and one Mystic were on the water at one time or another during the five days of the event. Big V-bottoms on Lake Havasu included a Sunsation F-4, a 42-foot Nordic, a handful of Outerlimits including the recently repainted “Strut” 47-footer, a few Cigarettes and several Fountains.—Matt Trulio

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