May 2003

Well, this "boys weekend' deal came about three years ago when my girlfriend (now wife) had the opportunity to make a trip to San Francisco in June with a friend of hers. I thought she'd have a good time, having never been there previously. OK now what to do with my time that weekend? Instead of hanging out at one of the local Phoenix lakes, lets get some boats together and make a run to Lake Havasu. While some of my more conservative friends questioned the logic of making a trip to this lake with it's reputation for, shall we say "craziness", we proceeded full speed into the abyss. Now a few ears might have been perked when one friend who shall remain nameless (Donnie), was constantly talking that "The only women allowed that weekend, will be the ones we pay for." Way to get us in trouble before we're even out the door. Anyway, after all was said and done, there were really only two things that we did different then when the girls were with us. One, we could get up at 7:30 in the morning, get ready, get fuel in the boat, some ice for the coolers and maybe some donuts and be on the lake by 8 o'clock. We don't need no stinkin' sit down breakfast! The second was that our throttles spent most of the time jammed to the bulkhead! Yeah, we burn some serious av-gas on these weekends!  The second "Boys Weekend", was combined with my bachelor party. That was a fun one!  Well we decided on another get together for this year. Our turnout wasn't as large as last years due to other events that weekend, but it was still a good time.

Here's are a few pictures from the weekends activities. Click on the picture for a larger version.

We stopped at the Boat Brokers in Lake Havasu prior to hitting the lake Friday morning. Wild Bill Gardner, a good friend of ours and Havasu resident, works there. We wanted to invited Bill and his wife Bonnie to dine with us that night at our traditional first night in town restaurant, The Golden Horseshoe. Well, besides boats and the occasional trick golf cart, they were selling these crazy motorized bar stools. Bill knew all he had to do was get Donnie on one and a sale was in the bag! Oh yeah, Donnie's buzzing around the parking lot on this creation that has an extremely high center of gravity to go with an 8 horsepower motor. Brad and I are just standing there waiting for Donnie to do his "Tommy Tip Over" routine and bust his ass on the asphalt. So we're thinking, "Great, we'll spend the first part of our day taking him to the hospital." Well, luckily this motorized creation was making some funny noises so Donnie abbreviated the test ride. As we suspected, Donnie did decide he had to have one. $1400, sure put it on my credit card, we'll figure out how to get it back to Phoenix later. It isn't fitting in the Suburban! It was probably faith that the Boat Brokers couldn't run that amount on Donnie's Visa and for once, he didn't have the cash on hand. Karma, probably saved him from a sure broken butt down the road!

Rick and Mitch were in Rick's supercharged 454 equipped 25' Eliminator Daytona. New friends, Ron and his wife were in their 26' American Offshore which was also loaded with a blown 454. Brad and I were passengers in Donnie's 25' Eliminator Daytona. Donnie's Daytona has a blown 510. Saturday we were heading north out of the lake into the Colorado River, destination, the Sandbar, Park Moabi and the Topock Gorge. The lake level was just about full and the shallow crossing between the lake and the river was crossed without incident. Sometimes this area can be down to 2-3 feet deep! Add to that the water is very clear and it can be a little unnerving if you've never made the trip before! We typically tell new boaters, "follow one of us, go about 40 mph, trim  your drive up and DON'T LOOK DOWN or back off!"   

This is one of the beaches just off of the main river, called Park Moabi. This is about a mile north of where the I-40 crosses over the Colorado River. Nice place to hangout if you aren't quite up for the silliness that inhabits the Sandbar. Very nice beaches and you're sheltered from the typical afternoon wind.

Rick and Mitch covering some serious water distance at 90+ mph through Topock Gorge! This was Rick's first weekend out with his boat since installing the 799 horsepower motor. You can tell he was heeding Donnie's advice to go easy on the drive and motor until it's properly broken in. That lasted until we cleared the "No-Wake" markers. 

Brad, Chuck and Donnie (from left) at Chucks 22' DCB Extreme while we were beached at Park Moabi. Chuck was heading up an unofficial DCB Regatta that weekend. They had a number of high powered examples of DCB custom boats show up who also traveled up to Topock that day.

Chuck and some of the DCB gang hanging out in the channel by the London Bridge earlier in the day.

This was one of the first AMT 30' cats rigged on the west coast. They were back out at Havasu testing this weekend. The boat supposedly runs over 100 mph equipped with twin Mercury 300X outboards! Some folks, myself included, think the paint is a bit much. But once you see it in person, you really get to like it.

OK, so there's more than just boats to be seen in Havasu! If you can find a spot to beach in the channel, you can kick back and watch the constant parade of horsepower and beauty!

Chuck and Dennis were running with us Friday afternoon near Topock.

We were running north of the Sandbar when this Daytona came up next to us. Boys being boys, the race was on! We made several runs up to about 100 mph when the water ahead was clear of traffic. What an adrenalin rush! We pulled over at the beach by Topock restaurant hoping to get some info on this boat but the driver wouldn't even acknowledge us! Man, it's only a race for fun!

Ron's 2600 American Offshore.

We spoke with two different guys who had deck boats with serious power. While there is typically no shortage of horsepower in Havasu, these boats went the less traditional route by using twin turbochargers as opposed to the more common place roots, screw or centrifugal supercharger route. 

Less you think we're complete heals, I can honestly say we didn't tie our better halves at home in the kitchen! Both Brad's wife (back row, left) and mine (front row, center) got together with their friends, rented a limo and hit the town Saturday night! Fair's fair