< Previous20 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuNe 2022 PHOTO: CO u RT e SY COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuNe 2022 21 FEATURE NEED FOR SPEED Kemah powerboat team thrives in death-defying races story by JOHN WAYNE FERGUSON G rant Greytok likes to go fast. You might even say he has a need for speed. For the past two years, Greytok, 55, has been strapping himself into a boat capable of going 85 mph. The speed racer skips over the waves, and in every race, he’s hoping not just for a win, but that the engine doesn’t blow up or he doesn’t flip and crash. Greytok, a League City resident, is the boat driver and founder of GNS Motorsports Offshore Racing, a powerboat racing team, based out of Kemah. Together with his throttleman, William “LilBill” Reeves, Greytok races a 40-foot Velocity racing boat, equipped with two 725 horsepower motors in death-defying races hosted by the American Power Boat Association. Powerboat racing isn’t the most popular or well-known sport. It takes a special kind of person to want to field a team, Greytok said. “It’s not because it makes us money,” Greytok said. “We’re a group of friends who got together for the camaraderie and the love of the sport. When you get to the races, it’s just one big family.” Kemah-based GNS Motorsports Offshore Racing competed in the Offshore Powerboat Association’s 2021 race series across the eastern seaboard of the United States. The team took second place in the Roar Offshore National Championships in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. (Right) GNS Motorsports team members, from left, Grant Greytok, Sherri Greytok, Eddie Jacobs and Bill Reeves display their 2021 Race World Offshore Key West World Championship flag at the team’s headquarters in Dickinson. ST u ART VILLAN ue VA22 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuNe 2022 FEATURE “It’s not because it makes us money. We’re a group of friends who got together for the camaraderie and the love of the sport. When you get to the races, it’s just one big family.” GRANT GREYTOK (Left, from top) Sitting in the GNS Motor- sports powerboat, team driver Grant Greytok describes the roles of the two-person crew during a race. Greytok is in charge of steering the boat, while his partner William “LilBill” Reeves controls the throttle and trim; Greytok and Reeves compete in a 40-foot Velocity racing boat, equipped with two 725 horsepower motors. (Below right) Although they can go faster, powerboats race at a top speed of 85 mph. It’s an au- tomatic disqualification if a boat goes faster than 85 mph for more than three seconds. PHOTOS: ST u ART VILLAN ue VA COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuNe 2022 23 Or maybe it’s simpler than that. “I guess we’re just crazy,” he said. A veteran racer, who professionally owns a home-building business, Greytok returned to racing alongside Reeves in 2019. “It took me about 15 years to convince my wife to race again,” Greytok said. GNS Racing is one of just two American Power Boat Association teams based in Texas. It can take up to $80,000 to run a compet- itive team. To cover costs, the team recruits sponsors and has a small corps of volunteers who help drive the boat across the country to the event. Greytok’s life long has involved water thrills, he said. He bought his first boat when he was 11 years old and was a water-skiing performer at Astroworld in Houston when he was 16 years old. Reeves is the owner of Victory Marine in Dickinson, the boat shop where the team’s bright yellow and orange boat is tuned up and improved in the weeks between races. Although it’s a relative new kid on the block, GNS Motorsports is a force in the racing association. In 2021, the team came in second at the Roar Offshore National Cham- pionships in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. The head-to-head races happen just off beaches around the United States, mostly in Florida, but also in Missouri, Michigan and Indiana. More than 200,000 people attend race weekend and another 100,000 people watch the races on livestreams, Greytok said. Races also are broadcast on CBS Sports and Fox Sports, he said. The boats race at a top speed of 85 mph. They actually can go faster, but race rules put limitations on speed. If a boat goes faster than 85 mph for more than three seconds, it’s automatically disqualified from the race. That leads races to be something of a game of chicken, when drivers and throttle- men try not only to beat each other to the line but to bait each other into breaking the speed limit. Greytok is in charge of steering the boat, while Reeves controls the throttle and trim. They have to work together to win the race. Inside the boat, Greytok and Reeves are se- cured in padded pods while wearing matching orange helmets. They don’t really sit down, because it’s easier on the knees to be in a standing position. He and Reeves almost have been thrown from the boat twice, he said. Nothing is flat on the water. The team’s boat is relatively light, so it skips across the water when it’s going. If the water is choppy, the waves can batter the boaters and the people who are in them. “They beat us up pretty good,” Greytok said. Like any motorsport, powerboat racing carries an inherent risk. There are deaths in the sport almost every year, Greytok said. Rescue helicopters are required to standby at every race to fish competitors out of the water if their boats flip or sink. The team has managed to survive, and thrive, so far and is participating in all eight races on the American Power Boat Associa- tion circuit this year. The team on June 2 will race on the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri Point, Missouri, and on June 30 it will be in Florida for the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix. PHOTO: CO u RT e SY409.977.HOME THEGAIDOGROUP.COM Summer is a The real estate market in Galveston is booming and there has never been a better time to sell your home! The warm weather invites more buyers to come down to our island and explore the market, which means more competition for homes. Homes listed during the summer months sell faster and for a higher price than those listed at other times of the year. And with the 2022 market as hot as it is, the likelihood your home sells for more than you ever thought it would is off the charts! If you’re thinking of selling your home, don’t wait – we’ll get you started with our Market Measure Analysis! GET A MARKET MEASURE ANALYSIS OF YOUR HOME WITHIN 3 DAYS!to Sell Sweet Time Call, Email or Scan the QR Code Today! Did you know the average home value in Galveston is now over $565k? ... which means if you purchased your home last year, your home value has likely increased by over 14.5%! Avg. Home Value 2022 $565k Avg. Home Value 2021 $493k26 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuNe 2022 HOOKED HERE’S TO A SALTIER SUMMER A dry spring has hungry fish moving deeper into bays and estuaries story and photos by CAPT. NATE SKINNER A s summer begins along the upper Tex- as coast, anglers this year will find much different water quality and conditions. This spring lacked any major floods like those occurring during the previous several years. Although the typical inflow sources still are supplying estuaries with freshwater, this runoff has not been anywhere near what we’ve seen in recent years. This means the salinity profile across our bay systems is much more balanced. There’s more salty water available for gamefish to thrive in, and the playing field of options is wide open. Fish along the upper Texas coast tend to migrate toward freshwater inflows, except in extremely wet years when speckled trout and redfish are forced to stack up in the salti- est areas of bay systems.With more balanced salinity in bays along the upper Texas coast, anglers can plan to hook up with game fish just about anywhere they can cast a line. (Opposite) Fishing near the mouths of freshwater inflows can produce big results.28 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JuNe 2022 In drier times, the fish spread out across estuaries. They can be found in the far, up- per reaches of bays in areas that have been off the table for several summers because of immense freshwater runoff. Salty water cleans up a whole lot faster than freshwater does. That means anglers can expect to find fishable water near the mouths of creeks, rivers, bayous and other freshwater runoffs this year. This was not the case last summer. For the first time in quite a while, we are kicking off June without the déjà vu effect. Things are different for a change. There should be plenty of options for anglers this summer, and that’s pretty exciting. At the time of this writing, salinities along the upper parts of our estuaries were higher than they had been at this time of year in a long time. Barring any unforeseen floods, this should afford anglers good fishing al- most anywhere they can cast a line. Trinity Bay, in the northernmost region of the Galveston Bay Complex, has been almost not worth mentioning or thinking about during the past several summers because it had received tremendous freshwater inflows from the Trinity and San Jacinto rivers. This year, anglers should plan to explore the open waters of Trinity Bay with the ex- pectation of finding salty water with decent clarity and plenty of hungry reds and trout. The well pads along the middle portion of Trinity Bay always are excellent starting points, and stretches of water along both Jack’s Pocket and the Anahuac Pocket also are great choices. The west shore of Trinity near the spillway also is worth checking out, as well as the en- tire east shoreline from Double Bayou down to Smith Point. Sabine Lake is another estuary upper coast anglers should put on their radar this summer. For the past several years, Sabine Lake has held mostly off-colored water with extremely low salinities. Most folks fishing the Sabine area in recent summers spent most of their time along the southern end of the lake and along the Sabine Pass channel on out to the jetties. This year, many areas in the main lake should offer good opportunities for quality catches. The crowds likely will still stack up along the southern part of the lake and in the channel, leaving the northern half wide open. Finding fish on Sabine Lakecan be as easy as looking for signs of activity. Swarms of shad and pogies along the surface, terns and seagulls diving over stretches of water, streaky looking water and fresh slicks all are things that can indicate where the fish are concentrated and feeding. Mouths of bayous along the Louisiana shoreline of Sabine Lake always are worth checking out, especially during an outgoing tide. On the west side of the lake, the north and south levee walls are hotspots as well. Chocolate Bay, in lower West Galveston Bay, is another estuary that should provide anglers with plenty of options, as long as we avoid any major floods. The satellite bay receives freshwater from Chocolate Bayou, and it’s littered with oyster shell. Spoil islands off the main channel run- ning through Chocolate Bay are great areas to target. Schools of fish often can be found under working birds in the open waters of the bay’s southeastern reaches. It sure is nice to be kicking off the sum- mer without having the thought of, “Here we go again!” I would never curse the rain, but it’s refreshing to not be dealing with a surplus of freshwater runoff. It looks to be a salty summer, indeed. Take advantage of the increased acreage of fishable water, and get out there and try something new. HOOKED The upper reaches of bay systems should afford quality catches this summer because the water is saltier than it has been in years.Next >