Current registration for the Kuttawa Cannonball Run next weekend stands at 120 boats, and online registration closed last weekend. But the final boat count for the ninth annual Kentucky event will be greater. Organizers Jeff Hoefling and Terry Martin don’t love walk-up registration—no organizers do as it makes planning more difficult—but they will accept it on Friday, May 30, and Saturday, May 31, from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

The Kuttawa Cannonball Run is on pace to attract 150-plus boats this year. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

“We’re hovering at 120 boats right now,” Hoefling said. “But we usually get 30-plus more during walk-in registration.

“We’re starting to pack tomorrow for the event,” he continued. “Lake conditions good and the weather also is looking good—fingers crossed, of course.”

The Kuttawa affair has become the traditional season-opener for next month’s high-performance boating happenings in the South and Southeast. It is followed by the June 6-7 Binks Fun for Addition Awareness on North Carolina’s Lake Norman, and a pair of South Carolina events—the Hartwell Lake Charity Fun in June 12-14 and The Dam Boat Run at Lake Murray June 20-21.

Though the Dam Boat Run at Lake Murray is in its third “comeback” year, the Texas Outlaw Challenge June 18-20 is anything but in need of resurrection or relatively new. The Clear Lake area-based event, which includes a top-speed shootout, a poker run and the mother of all pool parties at Texas-based MTI 48 catamaran owner Kenny Armstrong’s massive waterfront home, will celebrate its 18th anniversary this year.

Organized by Justin Lucas and Dan and Julie Weiss, he Lake Cumberland Thunder Run will celebrate its 17th anniversary this year.

A trio of events, the Lake Cumberland Thunder Run in Kentucky, the Rockin The Harbor Poker Run in Maryland and the Tip Of The Spear Poker Run in Virginia, share the June 27-29 weekend and out the busy month.