“You get 25 or so guys out there on the water and then those male hormones break loose on a Saturday afternoon, and everything gets,” he pauses to think of a word and his eyes light up when he found it, “wild, yeah. It’s those hormones that just make them want to go fast.”
That’s Bill Taylor describing powerboat poker runs, a sport that made its debut in the Sault this weekend with the 2016 CAN/AM President’s Cup VIP Poker Run.
The event was put on by Power Boating Canada and Poker Runs America, two of 12 magazines owned by Taylor, who is also the sport's creator.
Some of the boats at the event cost well over a million dollars.
Taylor calls them ‘the Lamborghinis of the water’.
“These are the fastest boats in the world because race boats are governed to certain sized motors while these guys are unlimited," he said.
"Some of these boats come in 30 - 50 ft. lengths, on the extreme they have as much as 4,000 horse power, and they're made of 17,000 lbs. of fiber glass and steel - it’s amazing,” said Taylor who really gets animated talking about this stuff.
Taylor came up with powerboat poker runs while watching Miami Vice in the 1980s.
He was about to launch Power Boating Canada magazine.
“Don Johnson (the star of the show) was jumping the six foot waves pursuing the drug running bandits of the Atlantic and I said to myself: ‘My God, I’m going to bring a boat like that to Canada and I’m going to make it the mascot of my magazine starting from the first issue'.”
Taylor had a custom-made Miami Vice-style 38 KV scarab powerboat built and he toured North America with it running Don Johnson look-a–like contests wherever he went.
Poker Runs morphed out of that.
He said the event really picked up in the 1990s when he launched Poker Runs America magazine, a U.S. publication dedicated to the sport.
“With the launch of that magazine, it fuelled the sport overnight and from then on out there were well over 100 events a year put on by myself and many others across North America,” he said.
A poker run is not a race, although the boats still go fast.
Boaters travel from location to location around a waterway collecting playing cards sealed in envelopes at the different stops.
After five locations the boaters have five cards – a full poker hand.
Although the boats go fast, and the drivers often try to outdo each other out on the water by going top speed, there’s no prize for getting to any of the stops first.
At night there’s a dinner and ceremony where the cards are revealed and compared.
On Saturday, Wayne Legge drew three eights, beating out Bill and Monica Reiffer’s two-pair for the top prize of $10,000.
Boaters paid a $1,000 entry fee to get into the poker run and fuel for a day out could easily be $1,000 or more.
“[The boaters here] are very wealthy group of people. They’re businessmen, doctors, and professionals,” said Taylor.
The poker run event on Saturday had boaters start off in the morning at the Roberta Bondar Marina.
They got their first card at Richards Landing, then another at Hilton Beach where they also had lunch.
They then went to Thessalon, double backed to Hilton Beach, and then completed their poker hand back in the Sault.
They were supposed to make a stop in the United States but there were complications coordinating a cross-border event.
The events Safety Coordinator and power boater Dave Kirkland said the Sault-area waters and surrounding landscape was just the sort of thing that power boaters enjoy.
“This was my first time up here. When I was out on the water, I was absolutely flabbergasted at how picturesque it is. It looked like a thousand Tom Thompson paintings out there, “ said Kirkland.
On Sunday, powerboats are holding a ‘Ride of a Lifetime!’ charity day.
People are making donations to take a ride on the powerboats and the proceeds will be given to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Canada Sault Ste. Marie.