25th Rochester Offshore Seneca Lake Battleship Run - July 18, 2015 - Himrod, NY
07-17-2015, 07:13 AM
#141
Registered
Originally Posted by Padraig
Boat is ready, we are packed. I have a doctor appointment late morning and then we are outta here!
We will be heading east on rt 86/17, then off at Bath NY and over to Himrod. We will be looking for other boats but most people will likely be on 90.
Safe trip everyone,
Padraig
We will be heading east on rt 86/17, then off at Bath NY and over to Himrod. We will be looking for other boats but most people will likely be on 90.
Safe trip everyone,
Padraig
Also, it looks like you will have some company with your 290 VR-1. There will be another from a little farther away- Colorado!
07-17-2015, 07:20 AM
#142
Registered
Originally Posted by WHIPLASH
Since you will be coming up from the south the launch at Severne Rd. will be the 1st of the 3 roads you encounter.
Also, it looks like you will have some company with your 290 VR-1. There will be another from a little farther away- Colorado!
Also, it looks like you will have some company with your 290 VR-1. There will be another from a little farther away- Colorado!
Padraig
07-19-2015, 06:22 PM
#149
Platinum Member
Platinum MemberThread Starter
I think Padraig summed it up pretty well in the previous post, but maybe I can add a little detail. As the original title of this post notes, this was the 25th running of the Rochester Offshore Powerboat Association’s annual Battleship Run on beautiful Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. How many Poker Runs can you name that have been around for 25 years? (Sound of crickets.) That’s right, 25 consecutive years of putting on one of the most comfortable, low pressure fun runs in the country.
So how did this year’s run stack up to the previous twenty four? Well, the previous runs all featured stellar weather. Things didn’t look good at about 6 AM Saturday morning though as I awoke to one hell of a thunder and lightning storm. The lake looked like it was having a pretty bad hair day too with rolling whitecaps coming out of the south. Then my cell phone went off with an urgent Flood Warning from the National Weather Service. Could this be the first year that Mother Nature put a damper on the festivities?
It was around 8 AM when we heard the first sounds. It started out faintly, but then quickly built to a full boil, drowning out the thunder. What the heck was it? Some dapper detective work discovered that ROPA President Bill Krystan was having a little “discussion” with Mother Nature – and Bill was apparently winning. How did we know this? Well for one thing, if one looked to the north, the sky went from ugly dark gray rain clouds to, well, absolutely no clouds at all. Next the lake laid right down and the sun slowly (and gloriously) began to shine. By the time Bill kicked off the Driver’s Meeting at 9:30 AM, it was one hell of a beautiful day! Yup, once again!
And so right on time, the ROPA fleet headed out into the lake and a Helicopter from the Mercy Flight Central appeared overhead to escort (and video) the fleet of 48 boats leaving the Showboat Hotel and headed north for the first stop at Barrett Marine at the north end of the lake. For those of you unfamiliar with this run, Mercy Flight has been the recipient of the proceeds from this run for more years than I can count and this year they helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of the event by sending a chopper to see us off. And like the previous twenty five runs, we didn’t need to call for their assistance due to great preparation and enforcement of common sense rules. (That’s a good thing BTW.)
The overall fleet was divided into four smaller fleets which were paced at 50, 65, 85 and 100+ MPH. As has happened in virtually every past event, all of the big talk about who was going to run in which fleet turned into the majority (21 boats) running in the 50 MPH fleet and the rest pretty evenly distributed into the other three. Go figure. Maybe that’s part of the reason so many people say this run is “comfortable.”
In any case, the fleets – with staggered starting times – stopped at Barrett Marine, then headed back to the Showboat for stop #2, then continued on south to beautiful Watkins Glen for one last card stop before docking to enjoy lunch at a leisurely pace. Next it was an un-paced leg back to the hotels which let everybody loosen up the throttles and clear any remaining carbon off the pistons. A number of boats took advantage of the wide open lake to hit speeds well in excess of 120 MPH. The sound was simply glorious and the locals (including law enforcement) enjoyed the show of boating skills, speed and - believe it or not – courtesy.
And that’s one of the most important reasons the Rochester Offshore Powerboat Association’s premier event has been so successful for so long. It’s not a race. It’s not about who has the biggest or fastest or most expensive boat. It’s not about who gets to the card stops first. It’s about a group of like-minded high performance boaters getting together and sharing a great time with the folks who happen to live on a really great lake. So, would you like to join us next year?
Tom Warda
So how did this year’s run stack up to the previous twenty four? Well, the previous runs all featured stellar weather. Things didn’t look good at about 6 AM Saturday morning though as I awoke to one hell of a thunder and lightning storm. The lake looked like it was having a pretty bad hair day too with rolling whitecaps coming out of the south. Then my cell phone went off with an urgent Flood Warning from the National Weather Service. Could this be the first year that Mother Nature put a damper on the festivities?
It was around 8 AM when we heard the first sounds. It started out faintly, but then quickly built to a full boil, drowning out the thunder. What the heck was it? Some dapper detective work discovered that ROPA President Bill Krystan was having a little “discussion” with Mother Nature – and Bill was apparently winning. How did we know this? Well for one thing, if one looked to the north, the sky went from ugly dark gray rain clouds to, well, absolutely no clouds at all. Next the lake laid right down and the sun slowly (and gloriously) began to shine. By the time Bill kicked off the Driver’s Meeting at 9:30 AM, it was one hell of a beautiful day! Yup, once again!
And so right on time, the ROPA fleet headed out into the lake and a Helicopter from the Mercy Flight Central appeared overhead to escort (and video) the fleet of 48 boats leaving the Showboat Hotel and headed north for the first stop at Barrett Marine at the north end of the lake. For those of you unfamiliar with this run, Mercy Flight has been the recipient of the proceeds from this run for more years than I can count and this year they helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of the event by sending a chopper to see us off. And like the previous twenty five runs, we didn’t need to call for their assistance due to great preparation and enforcement of common sense rules. (That’s a good thing BTW.)
The overall fleet was divided into four smaller fleets which were paced at 50, 65, 85 and 100+ MPH. As has happened in virtually every past event, all of the big talk about who was going to run in which fleet turned into the majority (21 boats) running in the 50 MPH fleet and the rest pretty evenly distributed into the other three. Go figure. Maybe that’s part of the reason so many people say this run is “comfortable.”
In any case, the fleets – with staggered starting times – stopped at Barrett Marine, then headed back to the Showboat for stop #2, then continued on south to beautiful Watkins Glen for one last card stop before docking to enjoy lunch at a leisurely pace. Next it was an un-paced leg back to the hotels which let everybody loosen up the throttles and clear any remaining carbon off the pistons. A number of boats took advantage of the wide open lake to hit speeds well in excess of 120 MPH. The sound was simply glorious and the locals (including law enforcement) enjoyed the show of boating skills, speed and - believe it or not – courtesy.
And that’s one of the most important reasons the Rochester Offshore Powerboat Association’s premier event has been so successful for so long. It’s not a race. It’s not about who has the biggest or fastest or most expensive boat. It’s not about who gets to the card stops first. It’s about a group of like-minded high performance boaters getting together and sharing a great time with the folks who happen to live on a really great lake. So, would you like to join us next year?
Tom Warda
07-20-2015, 06:22 PM
#150
Platinum Member
Platinum MemberThread Starter
Originally Posted by J-Bonz
Let's see some pics!
