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My Way, one of the most popular powerboats in the 1000 Islands Poker Run, sustained severe damage when it failed to negotiate a wave on the return trip from Prescott Saturday afternoon.
Event co-ordinator Pierre Savoie confirmed no one was injured in the incident, which happened east of the Three Sisters Islands as the vessel was returning from a card stop in Prescott.
My Way, the ultra-slick cigarette boat owned by Rockport summer resident Bill Tomlinson, is a perennial favourite of Brockville poker run fans and its absence on the return trip was the topic of much discussion among the crowd lining Blockhouse Island and the southern tip of Hardy Park.
Savoie said a laker travelling along the St. Lawrence River created a deep wave, which My Way apparently came into at the wrong angle. The vessel came up with the wave with its nose up, which caused it to lose balance and flip to one side, then the other, when the wave dropped.
“The important thing is that the people were not injured,” Savoie said in French. He had not spoken to Tomlinson.
Savoie was relieved the boat did not flip over entirely. Still, the shock caused by the wave was enough to cause serious damage.
“It's like butting your right elbow and then your left elbow,” said Savoie.
Brockville stop chairman Chris Paul said My Way had a crew of two.
When a boat hits a wave at the kind of speed My Way reaches, the damage is extensive, as was apparent to anyone who saw it removed from the water in Brockville, added Paul.
“The majority of the port side of the boat's been torn right off,” he said.
Event marshals were on the water to assist with the damaged vessel, while fellow poker run participants also stopped to offer assistance, including the other souped-up boat in the event, Aqua-Mania, said Savoie.
“The participants, once they see someone stopped with the motor cover open, they will take the time to stop and see if they need help,” said Savoie.
My Way also has a land team, whom the crew immediately radioed, he added.
Meanwhile, the event includes a boat with paramedics, who were able to confirm there were no injuries.
Savoie and Paul were not sure how the vessel was towed to shore.
City police Sgt. Surinder Gill confirmed Brockville officers helped get the vessel out of the water at the Home Street boat ramp early Saturday evening.
These kinds of incidents are among the hazards of the sport, said Savoie, adding vessels sustain damage to their engines or propellers all the time.
This year's poker run, drew 55 registered vessels, with My Way and Aqua-Mania the two most powerful, boasting engines that can exceed 220 MPH, said Paul.
The 1000 Islands Poker Run took competitors from Kingston to Brockville, then Prescott, before they returned westward for a stop in Gananoque before ending in Kingston.
As the powerboats pulled out of Brockville on the run to Prescott at 2 p.m., My Way made for a dramatic spectacle as it appeared to chase a helicopter off Blockhouse Island.
Tomlinson could not be reached for comment after the accident.
Earlier, as he prepared to head out of Tunnel Bay after the Brockville lunch stop, Tomlinson, an Ottawa resident, said he continues to enjoy the poker runs.
“I like the tension and the adrenaline rush that I get from it,” he said.
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