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Regatta/Poker Run disenchantment

F

Flower Child

New member
After just returning home from having spent the last 10 hours or so in Sandusky with the Checkmate and Kunkels people - I have come to the conclusion that the $200 entry fee was designed to "weed out" those of blue collar incomes because the factory and Kunkels only want to associate with people who can afford an $80,000 outdrive on their boat. For the most part we were ignored, shunned and made to feel very unwelcome and out of place. The few who spoke to us curtailed their conversation when they found out what we do for a living. When the story of a year's work to bring our old Checkmate back to life and make it seaworthy was recounted, the response from the listeners was "why bother buying an old boat for a few hundred dollars and then trying to fix it up? Why don't you just buy a NEW one?" For me to own and race a Checkmate was a dream come true in my life. My experience today was a nightmare in real life. In the future I will enjoy my Checkmate in other ports with other associates. I refuse to apologize for my income (or lack thereof in your minds)
 
I think that I know the outdrive that you are talking about.
Of the six boats I saw in the parking lot at the factory. I liked Big Daves boat the best. I think he paid 300 bucks for it. I also liked the Blue and Silver Flake Predictor that had the clear yellowed so much it looked like Gold flake. What kind of boat do you have and what kind of work did you have to do to it.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by cooperider:
I think that I know the outdrive that you are talking about.
Of the six boats I saw in the parking lot at the factory. I liked Big Daves boat the best. I think he paid 300 bucks for it. I also liked the Blue and Silver Flake Predictor that had the clear yellowed so much it looked like Gold flake. What kind of boat do you have and what kind of work did you have to do to it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This will be my last post to this forum. I can be contacted privately at LB1956@adelphia.net
 
Last post to this forum? This forum is all about the smaller and older Checkmates. If you look at every post ever done here, you'll find that 80-90% of all posts are concerning boats that are worth less than $20,000 total for boat/motor/trailer. This forum is for ALL Checkmate boats and owners, large and small, but the majority that are here are the smaller and older models. Stick around, have some fun with us!
 
Geez Flowerchild.

Take a look around.

I own a '92 Pulse with an interior that needs replacing, JW is Checkless at the moment, and Gus is driving and Old Trimate that he had to totally gut and paint. And he's still working on it! And that's just the three guys that run this joint. I don't know what happened at the reggatta but it had nothing to do with us. I didn't put the event on, and I didn't go.

As JW said, this is a site where outboards unintentionally seem to dominate. Some of our most active members are the guys who have passion in their boats, and they aren't the 30' Convincors. It's guys like Matt who's boat is on the front page, guys like Gus who's been working on his boat for two years, guys like Coop who's always fixing old boats up, guys like BD who bought his rig on Ebay and has been fixing it up and I could go on and on. Just check the member directory!

And we have some awesome I/O guys around here too. Fellas like Vinny who are always answering questions, but if you ask him what he does for a living you'll find out, he's not a "white color" guy.

Look, IMO, pokeruns by their vary nature are usually dominated by big rigs. There are a lot of people that own boats for no other purpose than to enter pokeruns and impress everyone. I think Kip tried to help put together something where everyone with a Check could be involved, and that's to his credit. But if this event was dominated by big I/O's (which I don't know that it was) I would chalk that up to the nature of pokeruns.

My advice is not to let a couple of people ruin your enjoyment of your boat or this site or life. It's not worth it. I get A-holes all the time, complaining about one thing or another via email, telling me I should do this or that and the site sucks as compared to this one, so you're not alone! Life is what it is, so I say to hell with people who make you feel low!

All the best, and I hope you stick around.
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I own the boat with the "$80,000" outdrive (a gross exageration). The boat is a 2001 model that we spent 2 1/2 years building with blood, sweat, and yes some tears. This is the first poker run that we've participated in so we hardly qualify as people who own a boat to only enter poker runs to impress people. Ask Herb and Stacy who own a smaller Check if they enjoyed themselves at this event. I think that Big Dave and his wife who came all the way from Texas with an older Diplomat had a great time as well. Of course the bigger I/O's were faster, but so what? This event was well run and the card stops were planned with smaller boats in mind, not the "big I/O's". The entire run took place in the Bay to make it safer for them. I'm sure that other participants will echo many of these observations.

Bill

From Monica....

I was discouraged to hear that the event was not received well by Flowerchild. I think that we all work very hard (regardless of our occupations) to participate in the things that we enjoy. The event illustrated to me that whatever we do, we all have a common interest....Checkmates! When I look at the amount of hard work, grand prizes, give aways, food etc. the entry fee $97.50 per person seems more than fair.

It was great to meet all of you and I look forward to next year!
 
Bill, Monica,
I like that outdrive no matter what the price. Next year I should have something that I can take up there. It was nice to meet ya even if I was on the phone with bdusted and couldn't talk. Wanted to meet Herb and Big Dave but I had to get back home lots of things going on here right now. Maybe next time.
Coop
 
To all the Checkmate people @ this weekends poker run. I'm the wife of a "little" check owner. I thought that you all showed just how dedicated to your boats you are this weekend. Big to little you all had that gleam in your eye.
Monica I admire the work you guys have done. Let no one take that away from you. And to tell the truth I would never have guess what anyone did for a living - who's busness is that anyway?
To Big Dave and his wife my hats off to you can't wait to see what you get done over the next year
icon_smile.gif

To the fella that had the "little brother boat" you took on the run with the same gusto as the big boats. Well Done.
This was a CHECKMATE POKER RUN not a Poker Run and I had a blast. Maybe next year the Canadian's will have a better showing.
Jon Roberts you did an awsome job. Rain or shine you kept that great smile on your face. Thank you for everything you did.
 
Thats funny, nobody asked me what I did for a living, and many people I talked with did not know wich boat was mine until much later in the coversation. I have never been to a event where I met such a friendly group of people. Just as this sight,a great group of people.
 
Flower Child


I have a hard time believing what you wrote. I think there was plenty of so called blue collar workers there. Hell......I will even one up you on here, I dont even own a boat. All i do is make a few parts here and there and help on turning wrenches.

Usually I am a quite shy person and this past weekend I think that I tried talking to atleast eveyone I could at some point. My little mind is lucky to remember a new name a day but I do remember quite a few. There was a lot of nice poeple that I got to meet there, Bonnie and Clyde "Bill and Monica" Jeff and Suzie, Bill and Kip Combs, Big Dave, Mike and quite a few others that were easily approachable to talk with. I am sorry to hear you did not have a good time, I guess you can not please everyone but I think the guys and gals that put this on did one hell of a job and there is plenty of people that I feel will look forward to next year.
 
WOW! Stacey & I are truely surprised to see this post after arriving home. Stacey and I have been there at other events and G2Gs, the unwelcome new couple/boaters with the little cheap "eggbeater" boat, and it's not a good feeling. Sorry to see Flower Child & JRS1958 felt that way about this event, but I can say this was probably the most welcoming and enjoyable group of people and event we have ever been to. I only wish we had more time to connect faces and names to the screen names here on the board. It's even better than the local crowd that hangs out on our nearby river and our favorite place to go untill this weekend. Stacey and I, and especially Mya will never forget the best boating vacation we ever had, all this even though the weather kind of sucked and we were a little over our head in the waves and weather at times. We didn't get to meet Flower Child/JRS1958 and I know Stacey and I were trying to chat with everyone. We would have welcomed you and would have never wanted to make you feel like you were "ignored, shunned and made to feel very unwelcome and out of place". I know the feeling and I bet no one ment to make you feel that way.

We enjoyed ourselves and we look forward to an even better time next year
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Stacey
 
Wait do they have the Predictor with the really nice wireing job that they did? I would have loved to see that.
 
I'm sorry we missed you cooperider, and sorry to hear about your father-in-law.

Did you at least get a chance to see the boat you helped me pick out ;-) Thanks again! We'll see you at another event , hopefully sooner then later.
 
I have to agree with the Mooney's. My husband called me in to read the posting and I couldn't believe it. I didn't notice anyone that wasn't trying to talk to everyone. I thought that, other than the weather, it was a great event. You see poker runs all the time, but how many do you see for just one type of boat? John and I didn't have the biggest or the fastest boat there, but we met some really cool people. It was neat to see all the boats that were there and listen to the stories from everyone about what they have done or have yet to do to perfect their boats. Who cares what you do for a living? I don't think I even heard what anyone did for a living there. Sorry to hear that there were some hard feelings. I hope it doesn't discourage anyone from working on the second annual Poker Run/Regatta. The first year is always the roughest. It was nice to meet you all and hope that for the most part everyone had a great time and got back safely.

Stacy
 
Enough talking about the Regatta.......let's see some pictures! Who won the Poker Run hand? How many boats showed up? What did the Kunkel's bring to the lake?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Enough talking about the Regatta.......let's see some pictures! Who won the Poker Run hand? How many boats showed up? What did the Kunkel's bring to the lake? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


As soon as my hostig site clears the pics I will post them in a seperate thread.


Chad
 
I wish I could have made it. No vacation left, wife doesn't have any left either, used all hers on maternity leave. Long haul for us also. Maybe the next time...I bet it was fun.

-Craig
 
Craig,

If possible, could you post names and screen names with each pic? If not, could everyone reply and post that info so we newbies can link names, faces, and screen names?
 
I was troubled by the comments of FlowerChild. My wife and I felt that everyone enjoyed themselves. We tried to make it a point to talk to everyone. Talking with others at the run, everyone seemed to agree that no one should walk away from this run feeling “left out” or “ignored”.

Regarding the $200.00 entry fee, I do not believe it was designed to “weed out” anyone. Maybe you didn’t notice the great food that was prepared for this event. Maybe you didn’t take into account what it costs to make silk screen tee shirts, or to mail packets, rent tents, chairs, tables, Maybe you didn’t see the cost to secure a facility for this event. I could go on but it’s pointless.

Bill and Monica were good folks that we met. In talking to them, you wouldn’t know what boat they owned. They were very approachable and friendly.

Convincor 283 and his wife were good folks, along with Big Dave and his wife, 91 GTX was friendly, Jon and Dave, The group from Kunkels, the Mooneys, I could go on, but you get my point.

I feel bad that you didn’t enjoy yourself. However, you can’t please everyone all the time.

This event was to bring people together that have a passion for boating, and for Checkmate Boats.

I feel that Bill and Kip Combs were a class act. We thoroughly enjoyed the factory open house on Friday. And Bill giving Big Dave $50.00 for gas shows the type of man he is.

Kudos’ to Jon and Dave for all the time and effort that went forth to produce this run. Also, again Hats off to Lyman Harbor, and the chef that prepared all the food. We didn’t walk away hungry.
 
I guess I feel the need to chime in on Flower Child's comments as well.

I know who they are, as I sat at the table with them at dinner. I thought we had a great conversation as they were talking about all the work they've been doing on the boat since it's purchase... new wires, gauges, mounting the controls for the motor, etc. Then onto the talk about cleveland and the river... so on and so forth.

I don't know what happened earlier in the day that made them so mad, but they didn't seem to 'hate' the event at dinner... or the dinner... after all, she ate about 8 ears of corn! It was good!!!!!

But that's not what bothers me. What bothers me is the comments on the "weeding out" and "blue collar."

$200 is a very small fee for what we received that day. Imagine a breakfast (I missed due to a mechanical problem), a really good lunch, a fantastic dinner PLUS $500 winning hand, t-shirts, give-aways, rentals, time to put the event together, postage, long-distance phone calls, etc, etc, etc... $200 seems like a bargain to me.

My wife and I were doing some calculating, and I didn't see how Kunkels Marine covered their costs with only a $200 fee. I then assumed some sponsors spent money for the event to make it happen. Hell, most decent weddings cost $35 a head for a crummy dinner only! That dinner was great!

They other comment is the "blue collar." I sat with Flower Child for over an hour. They never asked me what I did, never asked my wife or my friend. At that same table, we had a body shop guy, and a mechanic for an automobile dealership. They never asked them either.

I guess I can go on and on, but I won't. Our boat crew didn't talk to many people that day (maybe since we were so late getting there so we missed the 'breaking of the ice') but I did meet some very nice people and the Flower Child crew who also seemed nice at the moment.

YES, Poker Runs are usually dominiated by big money boats. And most big runs have a minumim lenght of 30-32 feet. So, we all were lucky to be in this run.

And to finish up, the course WAS designed for the smaller boats! And that sort of upset me, but I didn't say or mention it to anyone until now. To me, it was a waste for some people who traveled so far to run a 20 minute race. However, we all understood the reason for this.

I wasn't the fastest boat(probably one of the slowest about 50mph), the biggest boat and the newest boat(probably one of the oldest - 1984), but I didn't feel like anyone really cared.

That's my 2 cents.
 
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