During its 28-year history, the Florida Powerboat Club based in Pompano Beach has cancelled just a handful of events. The poker run-organizing outfit is, after all, a business so scrubbing events is decidedly bad for the bottom line. But between a combination of five cancellations and postponements, FPC president Stu Jones lost much of his 2020 winter and spring schedule to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bright side? The organization has redirected its energy to producing the remaining video content from their 2019 season, and that led to their YouTube channel doubling traffic and followers in just eight weeks. “Since we can’t go boating, there is a lot of pent-up demand for boating content,” Jones said. Here’s what else he had to say during an early-May interview.

You’ve had quite a start to the 2020 Florida Powerboat Club Poker Run season.

(Laughs) There is the off- season, the on-season and the no-season. This season has not been good for poker runs, period. Losing some of the smaller, “boutique” events wasn’t what we wanted, but it wasn’t as bad as losing the Tampa Bay run, which we have since rescheduled for September. That one was on pace for 60 boats—we already had 40 registered when we had to postpone. And even though our Orange Beach (Ala.) event was going into just its second year, losing that one wasn’t good either. That event had great momentum.

To read the entire interview with Stu Jones and more, subscribe to Speed On The Water digital magazine by clicking here.

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