Effective Jan. 1, the New Jersey Performance Powerboat club will be renamed the New Jersey Powerboat Club. According to club president Dave Patnaude, the name change reflects changes in the national high-performance powerboat marketplace.

The new New Jersey Powerboat Club name better reflects the boats owned by current participants in the organization’s event. Photo courtesy/copyright Tim Sharkey/Sharkey Images.

“In the last three or four years, we’ve seen the performance powerboat world change nationally with the increase in performance center consoles and decrease in high-performance V-bottoms and catamarans that used to make up our signature Atlantic City event,” he said. “We opened up the event to a greater variety of vessels, and we’ve seen more cruisers and bow riders and center consoles entering—we even had a pontoon boat in the event this year.

“Going back a few years, we were the first club to introduce a 60-mph class,” he continued. “Two years ago, we created a 35-mph class. This year, of the 38 boats that entered the Atlantic City Rally, 20 were in the 35-mph class.”

Patnaude said he believed that changing the name would not only better reflect the current diversity of participating boats but attract new members. To learn more, he sent out a survey regarding the name change. According to Patnaude, 55 percent of those surveyed approved of the change, 40 percent didn’t want it and five percent had no opinion. At a recent meeting of the club’s 12-member planning committee, he raised the topic.

“I brought it up to the board and Anthony Sauta, who was a member of the committee, immediately raised his hand and said, ‘I think we should vote on it now. I think it’s a fantastic idea,’” said Patnaude. “Here was a guy with a 39-foot Outerlimits and he supported the name change. So we voted on it and it was almost unanimously approved.”

In addition to officially changing its name for the coming year, the club also released its planned 2018 event schedule.

Feb. 10—NJPBC Winter Social, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Beacon 70 restaurant, Brick.
May 27—Memorial Day Social, noon, Water Street Grill, Toms River.
June 15—Atlantic City Powerboat Rally, Toms River to Atlantic City.
July 1—Brunch Run And Raft-Up, Captain’s Inn restaurant, Forked River.
July 14—Shore Dreams For Kids, Seaside Heights.
July 28-20—Overnight Hudson River Run (new event).
Aug. 11—Summer Fun Run—Breezes Restaurant, New Gretna.
Sept. 15—End Of Season Fun Run, Oyster Creek Restaurant to Golden Nugget Atlantic City Resort and Casino.

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