Story and photos by DinaRella / Additional photos from FPC
With the name King of Clubs it's not hard to guess that milestone build number "500" of the Nor-Tech Hi-Performance 390 Sport went to Florida Powerboat Club founders Stu and Jackie Jones. Since its 2011 launch, the model transformed itself into the Cape Coral-based boat builder's most-popular seller.
This particular center console, the 390 Sport Poker Run Edition, is special in its own right. It's the club’s official support boat for the 2025 season and STRESSES SAFTEY ABOVE ALL! We sat down with Jones for a serious discussion to hear about how the boat, powered by triple 400R outboards, was spec'd for its potentially life-saving role.
Safety-First Initiative
"Safety management is paramount to the success of poker run events, especially the bigger ones, and we are going to play that role. One of those things is to become a chase boat, which is exactly opposite of a pace boat. The difference is a chase boat follows up the rear of the path and is able to react and respond to incidents that take place after take-off. Typically this is when the worst accidents will happen in the first half hour to hour of the event because everyone is running in a group setting close to one another with a lot of congestion. It also tends to be when everyone is trying to show off and speeds get higher," says Jones, prior to outlining its key features.
1- Equipped for Service Dive Rescues
You have fire fighters and you have paramedics. We always have a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue team on board. Fire fighters have the ability to surface swim and do rescues in the water, so just in case they don’t have everything they need, I have two sets of dive snorkels and air in short-term one-liter bottles that allow 20-minute dives up to about a 20-foot depth. If anyone was ejected without a life jacket and is unresponsive and not swimming, they will float for a bit but will sink because of being unconscious, so that’s the first thing.
2- Outfitted with Floating Backboard
The second thing is once you get close enough to establish you have a rollover... we have a 16-inch-wide floating, medical backboard/spine board with a 200-pound capacity. This allows you to strap in a person with internal traumatic injuries or broken bones and safely float them back to the boat. The 390 has a factory stock side door with an 18-inch opening, so I made sure the board was narrower to easily fit through.
3- Inclusion of 250-Piece Trauma Kit and AED Defibrillator Onboard
We always have a trained medic on board which has access to a 250-piece trauma kit that has everything needed to address open wounds and bleeding. If someone goes into cardiac arrest, there's an easy to use Philips HeartStart AED defibrillator. It's the same used on an airplane or in an ambulance, just wrapped in a portable case and not as technical.
4-Speciaizedl Electronics and Lighting
We’re not using flags anymore. They’re too hard to stay up. When going fast they fall out of the rod holders and shred from the high wind. We’ve switched to amber lights. I have a 48-inch emergency light bar on the rooftop bought from a special lighting company that supplies military and law enforcement agencies. It's what you put on a tow or rescue boat. It's extremely bright but there's no red or blue LEDs, just amber and white. We might add green which is recommended by the Coast Guard for command and control boats. I can change the intensity and it's visible for several hundred yards to a mile in daylight and three to four miles at night. For communications, there's a siren and PA address system with high-quality audio integrated into the Garmin to hear my broadcast also heard by monitoring Channel 16.
5- Committed to National Fundraising Agenda
Another objective with the King of Clubs 390 Sport is its commitment to a national fundraising campaign. We intend on donating “poker-run experience” rides in order to raise money for various charities. People will be able to bid on or buy these during fundraising events.
Off to a solid start, merely days after its FLIBS 2024 debut, the King of Clubs Poker Run Edition headed south on the 32nd Annual Key West Poker Run where guest riders raised over $10,000 for local 5019(c) charities! That weekend, the 390 Sport was displayed on its matching MYCO trailer inside the FPC Poker Run Village at the Conch Republic hosting venue. Kicking off its 2025 mission, just last week Nor-Tech hull No. 500 returned to the Keys for the Winter Fun Run. Kudos to the club for putting safety first... we're in full support of its "support" boat!
With the name King of Clubs it's not hard to guess that milestone build number "500" of the Nor-Tech Hi-Performance 390 Sport went to Florida Powerboat Club founders Stu and Jackie Jones. Since its 2011 launch, the model transformed itself into the Cape Coral-based boat builder's most-popular seller.
This particular center console, the 390 Sport Poker Run Edition, is special in its own right. It's the club’s official support boat for the 2025 season and STRESSES SAFTEY ABOVE ALL! We sat down with Jones for a serious discussion to hear about how the boat, powered by triple 400R outboards, was spec'd for its potentially life-saving role.
Safety-First Initiative
"Safety management is paramount to the success of poker run events, especially the bigger ones, and we are going to play that role. One of those things is to become a chase boat, which is exactly opposite of a pace boat. The difference is a chase boat follows up the rear of the path and is able to react and respond to incidents that take place after take-off. Typically this is when the worst accidents will happen in the first half hour to hour of the event because everyone is running in a group setting close to one another with a lot of congestion. It also tends to be when everyone is trying to show off and speeds get higher," says Jones, prior to outlining its key features.
1- Equipped for Service Dive Rescues
You have fire fighters and you have paramedics. We always have a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue team on board. Fire fighters have the ability to surface swim and do rescues in the water, so just in case they don’t have everything they need, I have two sets of dive snorkels and air in short-term one-liter bottles that allow 20-minute dives up to about a 20-foot depth. If anyone was ejected without a life jacket and is unresponsive and not swimming, they will float for a bit but will sink because of being unconscious, so that’s the first thing.
2- Outfitted with Floating Backboard
The second thing is once you get close enough to establish you have a rollover... we have a 16-inch-wide floating, medical backboard/spine board with a 200-pound capacity. This allows you to strap in a person with internal traumatic injuries or broken bones and safely float them back to the boat. The 390 has a factory stock side door with an 18-inch opening, so I made sure the board was narrower to easily fit through.
3- Inclusion of 250-Piece Trauma Kit and AED Defibrillator Onboard
We always have a trained medic on board which has access to a 250-piece trauma kit that has everything needed to address open wounds and bleeding. If someone goes into cardiac arrest, there's an easy to use Philips HeartStart AED defibrillator. It's the same used on an airplane or in an ambulance, just wrapped in a portable case and not as technical.
4-Speciaizedl Electronics and Lighting
We’re not using flags anymore. They’re too hard to stay up. When going fast they fall out of the rod holders and shred from the high wind. We’ve switched to amber lights. I have a 48-inch emergency light bar on the rooftop bought from a special lighting company that supplies military and law enforcement agencies. It's what you put on a tow or rescue boat. It's extremely bright but there's no red or blue LEDs, just amber and white. We might add green which is recommended by the Coast Guard for command and control boats. I can change the intensity and it's visible for several hundred yards to a mile in daylight and three to four miles at night. For communications, there's a siren and PA address system with high-quality audio integrated into the Garmin to hear my broadcast also heard by monitoring Channel 16.
5- Committed to National Fundraising Agenda
Another objective with the King of Clubs 390 Sport is its commitment to a national fundraising campaign. We intend on donating “poker-run experience” rides in order to raise money for various charities. People will be able to bid on or buy these during fundraising events.
Off to a solid start, merely days after its FLIBS 2024 debut, the King of Clubs Poker Run Edition headed south on the 32nd Annual Key West Poker Run where guest riders raised over $10,000 for local 5019(c) charities! That weekend, the 390 Sport was displayed on its matching MYCO trailer inside the FPC Poker Run Village at the Conch Republic hosting venue. Kicking off its 2025 mission, just last week Nor-Tech hull No. 500 returned to the Keys for the Winter Fun Run. Kudos to the club for putting safety first... we're in full support of its "support" boat!
