For anyone who has been to the amazingly scenic Colorado River reservoir straddling the border between Utah and Arizona—Lake Powell—you understand why it’s such a popular summertime destination (especially if you did the houseboat thing). The exploration possibilities on the second-largest man-made reservoir in the country are endless.

An M35 Widebody from DCB makes its way through one of the scenic Lake Powell channels. Photos courtesy Adrian Barrett

You also can understand why 80-plus boat owners would enjoy a mid-September poker run on the lake, which is exactly why a handful of locals started an event, the Lake Powell Challenge, six years ago to raise money for JDRF and the organization’s effort to finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

Hosted by Antelope Point Marina, the sixth annual Lake Powell Challenge (Sept. 12-14) had more boats registered than before—85—and raised more than $200,000 for the first time. That’s a huge number considering the first year of the event brought in a respectable $3,000.

Burl Griswold of Antelope Point Marina gave a lot of the credit to the experienced performance boaters, such as George Argyros who owns the Donzi 43 ZR Donzilla, for helping the event grow larger than organizers ever expected it to get. Arygros, who called the event one of his favorite runs of the year, is also one of the primary benefactors.

“Quite frankly we’re not sure we do everything right, but we started small and have listened to the people who know what they’re talking about and made improvements each year,” Griswold said. “We added a lunch on the beach close to the marina this year and we’re already working on ideas for next year, such as adding a specific event on Friday. Everything is focused on being fun for the whole family, which is why we have a kids fun run on Saturday afternoon. We’re a charity event first and a poker run second.

“The generosity this year was just amazing,” he continued. “We don’t really do any advertising—it’s all word of mouth from guys like George and their friends. And now people are starting to show up a few days early to enjoy the lake—it’s pretty cool.”

Check out the slideshow above for more images from the Lake Powell Challenge.

Adrian Barrett of Barrett Custom Marine in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., said he brought four of his customers’ DCB Performance Boats (DCB) catamarans along with the whole crew from the shop, most of which had never been to the lake.

“We had a really good time this year—it helped that the weather was perfect,” said Barrett, who has participated in the poker run the last three years. “They had a huge turnout this year. The run has gotten bigger and better, but they’ve managed to keep it pretty low key still, which is nice.”

Dave Megugorac, who lives in Southern California and brought his family and their new DCB M35 Widebody with twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines to the lake for seven days, took part in the event for the first time and had a great time.

“We decided to stay Thursday to Thursday,” Megugorac said. “The weather was unbelievably nice. The poker run was fun, but Lake Powell is just so awesome that it would be kind of hard to ruin anything you do on the water there. Seriously, running with all of those boats on that lake was awesome. I was impressed by the customer service at Antelope Point Marina, too. They do an unbelievable job of taking care of you.”

Griswold said that he or any of the other marina staff members will be happy to take care of anyone interested in attending the seventh annual Lake Powell Challenge next year (Sept. 18-20). They’d love for you to join them for a weekend of boats, food, music and fun.

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