River Dave's Place

Story and select photos by DinaRella / Additional photos courtesy of Ben Robertson & Katrina Beaman Part Two Gifted, grounded, and still going strong – the pioneer of the raceboat and progenitor of the cupped prop and padded V-bottom – Paul Allison turned one hundred years old on August 7...

Story and select photos by DinaRella / Additional photos courtesy of Ben Robertson, Allison Boats, Reynolds Racing & American Performance Media Video John Potts Part One What’s in a name? Absolutely everything when it comes to Allison Craft founder and Tennessee mastermind Paul Allison, his...

Story and select photos by DinaRella / Additional photos from Jackie and Mark Wilson & boatracingfacts.com This November, some of the sweetest speedboats in Key West were the smallest… the shiniest… and not sitting in slips on Stock Island or the Galleon, but instead, on the display table of...

Words by DinaRella "A guy that could brighten any room, pick you up when you were down, and always had a smile on his face,” were the words written on social media by Reindl Powerboats owner Chris Reindl, in memory of a close friend, he lost a few months ago. It’s unimaginable to think the same...

Story and select photos by DinaRella / Professional images from Mercury Racing (T. Leigh) Love was flowing in the air at the Mercury Racing 50th Anniversary celebration of speed on the glowing red 7th floor of the 1111 Lincoln Road Event Space aka convertible parking garage gone glam Miami...

Story by DinaRella / Photos courtesy of Chris-Craft Stinger 390X Miami Vice Filming Boats, Iconic Premier & NBC-Universal Fusing imagery of a flashy tropical canvas with modern cinematography and synthpop sounds, Miami Vice was an iconic, influential and interminable symbol of the 1980s that...

Story and select photos by DinaRella / Additional photos courtesy of Propspeed Propspeed Passing down the purple-carpeted pathway to Propspeed at booth PAN 336 at the 2022 Cannes Boat Show an hour before the 3 p.m. scheduled demonstration on how the product tackles the negative impact of...

We appreciate you all so much! We have much more to come so stay tuned!

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Story and select photos by DinaRella / Additional photos courtesy of Scott Barnhart Recently revived, it was phenomenal to see the cat’s been let out of the bag and to have Phenomenon back in the southernmost city of Key West where it was first let loose at the 29th annual SBI Key West World...

Story and photos by DinaRella Two phat cats clawed their way to Key West for this year’s 2022 fastboat festivities. The first was Marine Technology Incorporated’s new and now largest-in-fleet outboard-powered 440X pleasure machine. The second was the return of Phenomenon – Al Copeland’s insane...

Story and photos by DinaRella / Additional photos courtesy of One°15 Brooklyn Marina ERECTED, a second time over with extensive robust and sustainable design features to fight New York's gnarly gushing East River swells; and RESPECTED for its array of low-cost programs and activities allowing...

Story and photos by DinaRella / Additional photos courtesy of crewny.com Built in 1924, the century-old wooden schooner Pilot floating alongside Pier 6 from April to October, delivers daytime libation lovers and delicate oyster-slurping aficionados in New York's hippest zip code and hottest...

Story by DinaRella / Photos provided by J.J. Turk from several sources Part Two: JT’s Social Bar screams speedboat central, and for one wicked weekend every May, the La Quinta parking lot below looks much the same, morphing into an annual mini dry-pits when the offshore racers and their...

Story and photos by DinaRella / Additional photos provided from J.J. Turk JT’s Social Bar 1275 North Atlantic Avenue Cocoa Beach, FL 32931 Part One: Officially opening three years back on May 16th during the weekend festivities of the 2019 Thunder on Cocoa Beach Powerboat Race – JT’s Social...

Story and photos by DinaRella The last time I hit the LOTO Shootout was in the early 2000s doing PR for AMF Offshore Racing, prior to the Day-Glo yellow turbine team securing its hefty “Day-Glo green” Geico-bankrolled sponsorship. Back then, when Shooters was home base for the horsepower...

Every once in a while boaters do win one against government and bureaucrats. Although it didn’t receive much publicity, our ever-vigilant and all-knowing lawmakers in the Sacramento legislature were preparing to hike boat registration fees by a whopping 250% earlier this year. In some boater...

We still have at least another 60 days of 100+ degree summer heat here in Lake Havasu. And although for many boaters those are ideal on-the-lake temperatures, it’s also a time for caution. Although you may think you’re acclimated to triple digits, that's not always the case. The enemy that’s...

Roy Schrader Fearless – Faithful – Fun-loving – Forever-Friend Words by Dinarella To know Roy Schrader was to instantly love this special soul from the first moment you met him. And boy does everyone have a story about where he or she first met Roy – whether it was over a few shots of his...

I'm sure many of you are fans of the long-running Discovery Channel’s hit TV show, "Deadliest Catch." And when you’ve been around as long as I have, you occasionally have the opportunity to meet some interesting boating-type characters along the way. It was the summer of 2007 at the San Diego...

Tier One Water Shortage Declaration Imminent A week ago, I posted an article about the improbable solution to ease the woes of western states drought conditions. The notion of constructing a several thousand mile long water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the west seems like nothing more than...

Triple-digit temps out west. No rain. Where’s all the water? The pattern might last for months or years. Lake Michigan could be coming to Idaho. I guess Havasu and Parker boaters should consider themselves lucky. We have Colorado River water but much of the western U.S. is living through...

Avoiding on the water collisions is all about knowing the U.S. Coast Guard Rules of the Road Anytime a boating accident thread appears in the RDP Forum involving two or more boats colliding, a debate routinely follows about who had the ‘right of way’. Although there seems to be a lot of...

Bill Muncey Reveals Being a Professional Boat Racer Isn’t Quite as Glamorousas It Might Seem Since there were more than a handful of you RDP faithful who seemed to like my account of Bill Muncey’s breakfast meeting with famed L.A. Times sportswriter Jim Murray story, here’s another behind the...

Although this is a personal story that not too many people might appreciate, it is a story that’s never been told…..and something I think is worth telling. Hope you find it interesting. Coming in as the new executive editor at Powerboat Magazine in late 1973, I had the opportunity to meet and...

In Part 1 of the Harlan Orrin interview, we chronicled Harlan’s amazing longevity and influence on the development and innovations of the west coast custom boat building business since the mid-1950s. This part of his story focuses on more recent projects including the building of a replica of...

Anybody remember the old saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure?" Well, feast your eyes on this. Tucked away in the hilly back-country near Fallbrook, California, resides Harlan Orrin, on a five acre parcel of land with a modest house and a separate barn out-back he built himself...

Story & select photos by DinaRella / Additional photos from C. Gavidia & The Official TRUMP Boat Facebook Page Part Two: To describe the vibe in Palm Beach for the Flag Day Trumptilla on June 14, I've got to go with the AC/DC banger "Thunderstruck" from my classic rock playlist; you know the...

The Invincible Captain Trump The Gentleman Behind the Mega MAGA Marine Movement Story by Dinarella / Photos courtesy of Carlos Gavidia Part One: The gentleman behind the mega MAGA marine movement is Carlos Gavidia but try hollering out "Captain Trump" if you really want to grab his...

For those that are familiar with the high end V-drive game on the West Coast there is a name that has been around for a long time and is one of the most respected in this "niche" industry. Mike King has been doing custom rigging on not only race boats, but show winners for as long as I can...

Story by DinaRella / Photos by Foley Loaded, Outerlimits, THE BOAT SHOW, & JK Automotive Designs When Valentine's Day weekend arrived, Jason and Laurie Moe were in a HURRY to wave goodbye to Washington and cross the country with their son Colton. If their daughter Katelin wasn't on a...

We all get excited when a manufacturer announces that they are going to do a new model. It happens in several subtle stages, the first of which is quite literally "conversation." "We are thinking about doing XYZ" Depending on the feedback they get from their inner circle and close customers...

This project has been kept under wraps by the crew at Nordic for the last several months. We managed to get our hands on the spy shots of the boat before it debuts at the Los Angeles Boatshow!! Boat came out absolutely incredible! Look for the full write up after LA!

Meet the Owner Robert Lankford and Service Director Mike Morris of Iguana Marine located on Industrial Blvd here in Lake Havasu City. Best friends since high school, Robert and Mike grew up in Southern California. Since childhood, Lake Havasu has always been a favorite playground for the two...

Legend Performance Marine is a new dealership in eastern Washington, just outside of Spokane, in a small town called Liberty Lake. The new owner, Chad Bixby, has always loved the high-performance boating industry. When it comes to Lake Havasu, Lake Mead, and Lake Powell, Chad is no stranger...

The performance-boating industry generally consists of companies founded on a distinct passion for going fast on the water. Regardless of the size of the company, nearly all players in todays performance segment can trace their roots back to a simple love for the water and of course, the...

Part Two: The Now Fortunately, Allan "Brownie" Brown hasn't permanently traded in his toolbox for a table in Starbucks to pen the sequel to his grand slam debut hardback -- Tales from Thunderboat Row. And even better, he answered "yes" and required minimal persuading when an old-time racing...

Part One: The Then Everyone has a nickname and Allan Brown's is BROWNIE. He is sweet like one too, but more suitable and fitting would be to place the word BUOYANT in front of his alias, and place a snapshot of the nonsubmersible hero alongside the definition of the word. Wondering why...

I am excited to announce that we are getting back into both Boat Tests! RiverDavesPlace.com is traditionally recognized as a lifestyle website. That's not to say that we haven't put out some of the best and most accurate boat tests in the industry to date! That's to say we didn't put out...

My last article on RDP was for the Long Beach Sprint Nationals. If you read it, you’ll know that the weekend didn’t necessarily have a happy ending. It turned tragic when our friend, Greg Duff, was critically injured in an accident on the first turn of the second race of Sunday morning. At...

Life jacket exchange events kick off Saturday, May 19! 10-year anniversary of life jacket exchanges starts with events statewide Have an old, worn out life jacket? Swap it for a new one. 2018 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s (AZGFD) life jacket exchange...

A few weeks ago Fox's had their grand opening of their new dock bar on the Parker Strip! Now if you are a Havasu guy that might not sound like much, but if you are a Parker guy, then one of the three main fixtures on the water being rebuilt from floats to rooftop is a pretty big deal. Parker...

We are polar opposites on the political Spectrum.... I met you by chance through some friends of friends. And further more you'll always be "B" team to me But you have always been a solid dude, and I'm not only glad to have met you and gotten to know you. I'm proud to be your...

There's one company changing the face of the Solar Industry one customer at a time and that's Palomar Solar. If you are in your early forties you will remember all the positive PR that went into the Solar Industry thirty years ago. Colleges had Solar powered car races, they had solar powered...

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet up with Glenn Prine to check out his amazing 75 Howard 21 V-drive. Gene Willen had told me about this boat at last years Howard Regatta and said "You have to see it in person to believe it." While Gene has never been one to live in the past...