The Tomlinson family recently won an auction involving the prize of a trip to the FPC Key West Poker Run in a new Mystic Center Console! Check out the full coverage from Speed on the Water, below.
With four Mystic Powerboats M4200 luxury center consoles heading down to Key West, Fla., with the rest of the fleet in the Florida Powerboat Club’s signature event next month, more than a few lucky passengers will have the chance to experience the iconic daylong journey from Miami to the nation’s southernmost city. But few if any of the folks who’ll be aboard those four boats are looking forward to the trip more than Rip Tomlinson and his wife, Nicki, as well as their son, Ripley, and—if all goes well—Tomlinson’s sister-in-law, Rhonda.
And that’s not just because the family, which lives in Southern Illinois and owns a 36-foot Skater Powerboats catamaran powered by twin 1,100-hp Richie Zul engines will be visiting Key West for the first time. Earlier this year at t the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri, the Tomlinsons won the trip on a new M4200 with its owner Frank Sacco in the fundraising auction for Derek McCormick (read the story).
“I don’t remember what we bid on it,” said Rip Tomlinson. “I remember it was pretty expensive, but Nicki—she’s the one who did the auction—said, ‘It’s no more expensive than taking our own boat would be’ and I think she’s right. We’re really excited about it. We’ve talked about doing it in our own boat, but we never have and we’ve never been there before.”
For Sacco, the trip to Key West also will be a “first,” as in the first time he’s run his Mystic luxury center console powered by triple 350-hp Mercury Marine Verado outboard engines. The DeLand, Fla., builder currently is finishing final detail work on the boat, which will be displayed at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show at the end of the month.
This article originally posed on SpeedontheWater.com.