The collection of boats at this year’s Jacksonville River Rally held in Jacksonville, FL, June 9-11, served up a buffet full of sweet treats to the eye, stretching from center console cruisers to the meanest of marine hardware.

Among the impressive flotilla of performance was the 50-foot twin-hulled Outerlimits Golddigger and the one-and-only 2008 Nor-Tech 44’ Roadster XXX, owned by veteran poker runner Jim Wiley. Always a class-act on the V-bottom circuit, Wiley turned to operating cats a few years back. When he told me to hop on his 44-footer, how could I say no? It wasn’t long before all four XXX Roadster riders super-glued our eight eyeballs towards the port side, dedicating our full attention to the fluttering flag raised up high on the fast track 100 mph+ pace-boat, while anxiously anticipating the monumental drop. More in tune than an Alabama church choir, harmoniously we belted out in sync over the headsets, “it’s down” and the twin set of Cobra-powered 1200 hp engines peeled down the liquid runway.

The upper-echelon of the pack sped-up and fled towards the Buckman Bridge, faster than the Team 6 Navy SEALs carrying out a Middle East operative.

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