On a late Saturday afternoon in February, a group of guys from the 2009 Miami Boat Show Poker Run sat in the open-air Tiki Bar at the Holiday Isle Resort in Islamorada. They sipped a few cold ones and enjoyed the 75-plus-degree Florida weather. A television in the background was tuned to ESPN’s SportsCenter, which had all the sporting news of the day.

That the TV went mostly ignored in front of a group of beer-swilling guys was testament to exactly how idyllic the Florida Keys can be in the dead of winter. But then a news headline caught everyone’s attention: “Albert Haynesworth to Receive Economic Stimulus Package.”

For a moment, the Tiki Bar went dead silent. And it probably would have stayed that way had Haynesworth, an All-Pro NFL defensive lineman who is now the highest paid defensive player in the history of professional football, walked into the bar to order a drink.

“Hey Albert, we hear you’re getting a bailout,” one of Haynesworth’s boating buddies hollered, sending everyone in the group into fits of laughter. “You’re buying, right?”

You’ve got to give Haynesworth credit, he took it all with a smile and laughed—and a whole lot of vigorous headshaking. After all, he had little to be upset about. In a few days, he would sign a contract worth more than $100 million. But he didn’t know that at the time. He only knew he was in Islamorada with his new 44 MTI catamaran, which boasted an outrageous molten skull-theme paint job, and 100 or so of his new—and in some cases familiar—best friends.

Of all the poker runs in a given year, the Miami event draws—arguably of course—the best-natured crowd. The reason is simple: Most of the participants come from the East Coast where, outside of Florida, winter spells the end of the boating season.

The folks from New Jersey or New York or Maryland or Virginia might pick up the odd “nice” day in November or even December, but for the most part getting out on the water is not a viable option in winter. So the Miami Poker Run in February represents the first “serious” go-fast boating most of the participants have done since the end of summer.

And the fleet at this year’s run certainly was serious. That the run was down about 25 boats from the 2008 event did nothing to diminish the quality of the fleet. In addition to Haynesworth’s 44-footer, powered by a pair of Mercury Racing HP1075SCi engines, the fleet included Derrick Wahcob’s 44 MTI Corvette-themed catamaran, complete with monster speakers that rose, transformer-style, from the deck and separated from one another. On the wickedly fast side of things, there was a turbine-powered 44 MTI, Turbine Marine Specialties, and a 388 Skater reportedly capable of topping 180 mph thanks to twin 1,500-horsepower Sterling engines.

On the V-bottom side, the big attention-getter was Eileen’s Fifty, a 50-foot Nor-Tech with three supercharged 1,000-hp engines (See “Full House,” Page 76, Powerboat March/April 2009). Owned by Mark and Eileen Fischer, the 50-footer served as the pace boat for the V-bottoms.

With all that hardware, it’s hard to imagine that a boat with as much media exposure as Speed Racer, a 44 MTI, would draw the lion’s share of attention at the Holiday Isle marina docks. But in terms of drawing crowds, the catamaran, which is powered by a pair of 1,000-hp engines and owned by Bob Christie (who owns Typhoon Service Center, one of the sponsors for the event), was untouchable.

As was the parade of major players in the high-performance powerboat industry. With the Miami International Boat Show happening just one week before the run, many the best-known people in the go-fast game stayed in town an extra week to attend the run and support their customers.

On hand at the 2009 Miami Boat Show Poker run were Skip Braver of Cigarette Racing, Randy Scism of MTI, David Woods of Pier 57 Marine (Woods throttled for Haynesworth), Trond Schou and Terry Sobo of Nor-Tech, Brad Schoenwald of the Tres Martin High Performance Driving School (Schoenwald also was the safety coordinator for the event), John Arruda of Turbine Marine Specialties and others.

None of whom were on hand in the Tiki Bar when Haynesworth’s soon-to-come, record-breaking “stimulus package” was announced on SportsCenter. The group in the bar that afternoon was just a bunch of fun-loving guys from New Jersey, and a couple from California, enjoying a few cold beers on a warm day and grateful to be away from the sting of winter.

“Here’s to Albert,” said one of them, raising his glass for a toast. “It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

–Matt Trulio is a freelance writer for Powerboat.

Photos courtesy Florida Powerboat Club

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