How To See The Shootout If You Don’t Have A Boat

It's the Lake of the Ozarks boating event of the year. The Lake of the Ozarks Shootout is something everyone or lives or vacations here ought to experience at least once. In addition to the thrilling sights and sounds of fast boats, the air show is always a hit, and many people attend simply because it's a perfect reason to tie up and enjoy a long day of doing not much at all, on a float, next to the boat on a sunny August weekend.

But not everyone has a boat. So we were recently asked, "How can I still see or experience the Shootout, if I don't have a boat?" Never fear, boat-less LakeExpo reader, there are ways! Here are six:

1. Hop Aboard With A Friend

There’s nothing quite like experiencing the Shootout from the water. So if you live or vacation at Lake of the Ozarks, scroll through that Facebook friend list and look for somebody whose profile photo shows them on a boat. If you offer to bring the beverages, maybe they’ll let you join in the fun.

But maybe you don’t have any friends with a boat (or none of them want you aboard), or you just don’t want to get out on the water. You can still enjoy the Shootout. 

2. Take A Celebration Cruise

The Celebration cruise yacht offers a great view of the Shootout, as it idles along behind the massive boater flotilla. Celebration cruisers get the added benefit of air conditioning with a big-screen TV for watching the boats close-up, a full-service bar, and lunch and snacks for purchase.

To get aboard, you’ll need to park at Captain Ron’s and meet the shuttle at the docks, where you’ll be ferried out to the Celebration yacht.

The cost is $75 per person for the whole day. Or spring for the VIP package: $500 for four people, includes reserved seating inside in the air conditioned portion of the cruise yacht, lunch for 4 guests, a bottle of wine, and priority boarding from the dock to the yacht. Boarding begins at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Click here for more info: cruiselakeoftheozarks.com 

3. Watch From Captain Ron’s

(TIP: Bring cash for parking, and if you’ve got agoraphobia skip to #4. There are lots of people at Captain Ron’s on Shootout weekend.)

You can’t really see the Shootout racing from Captain Ron’s. If you stand at the end of a dock and look out of the cove, you can see the massive flotilla of boats extending along the channel. You can see racers coming off the course, idling over to the docks at Ron’s, and racers idling away from the docks toward the start line. And you can hear the roar of a powerboat with an open throttle across the channel.

But you can watch the Shootout from Captain Ron’s: in the watching tent. The video feed (managed this year by Benne Media) will be playing on screens beneath a giant tent on Captain Ron's beach. So grab a seat and watch fast boats to your heart’s delight. Plenty of fans stand around the area, talking and watching; sometimes the friends or family of a specific racer will gather to watch their boat on the screen.

Most folks don’t just sit and watch the Shootout on a screen all day, though. The fast boats are cool, but much of the fun of Shootout is the experience. Stroll through the vendor village, go mingle with racers on the docks and take a peek inside the boats. Bring your kid (or borrow one), and a racer might even offer to let you climb inside the cockpit!

Grab a drink inside or (more likely) at the outside tiki bar, and go for a swim in the protected swimming area complete with sandy beach. You can even see the high-flying acrobatics of the air show. Plenty of people enjoy the Shootout by land at Captain Ron’s every year, and in fact, seem to prefer it!

4. Tune In

The Shootout will be broadcast over radio, TV, and the Internet. So if you’d rather avoid the water and avoid the crowds, and just casually watch or listen to the races and accompanying commentary, here’s how:

Shootout Online

LakeExpo.com -- a live-stream player will be embedded on our homepage and our Shootout page.

Lake TV Webstream

Lake TV Facebook Live Stream

Shootout On The Radio

Cool 102.7 FM

Shootout On TV

The CW - Ozarks (KSPR - Springfield)

KRCG-TV Jefferson City Columbia Lake of the Ozarks

MediaCom MC22

Charter Spectrum Channel 197

Co-Mo Connect Channel 90

KPLR TV St. Louis

KMCI Kansas City

Lake TV Roku Channel - Featured Travel Channel

5. Call (Or Make) A Friend With A Well-Placed Home 

Residents on the Lake’s west side, whether in a home or in one of the two condo complexes that line the race course, have a killer view of the event. So if you have a friend at Royale Palms Vista Condos, Windsor Bay Condos, or with a house on the west side along the 33-34 Mile Marker, here’s another opportunity to offer to bring food and drinks. 

6. Buy A Boat

There’s probably still time. Pull the trigger and buy your dream boat, and take it to the Shootout.

Start shopping the hundreds of boats for sale at Lake of the Ozarks right here on LakeExpo.com’s exclusive boats-for-sale site: xBoats. Can't afford a boat that costs more than a house? We started the search for you: there are more than 200 boats under $10,000, for sale right now.