Putting The Band Back Together In The Garden State
Once the model for a thriving regional go-fast boating group, the New Jersey Performance Powerboat Club released its agonal breath six years ago. But as Garden State rock-star Bruce Springsteen wrote and sang in his gritty ode to Atlantic City, “Everything that dies someday comes back.” And so it was with the NJPPC—at least in reunion form—in late June.
O.G. members of the New Jersey Performance Powerboat Club reunited in June and plan to do it again next year.
That the group reunion happened in Atlantic City was poetic beyond the song reference, as the Golden Nugget Resort and Casino there was the destination for the club’s most popular event. The weekend-long Atlantic City Poker Fun was the outfit’s signature event. No other reunion destination would do.
The reunion was organized by Dave Patnaude, a soulful and nostalgic gentlemen who ran the club his late father, Raymond, founded after the senior Patnaude retired. As with any group that eventually breaks up, NJPPC members mostly went their separate ways after the club shut down in 2020. But the memories of good times on and off the water and the many of the friendships built through those shared experiences remained
Some 40 to 50 former club members made it to the June event.
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