Guntersville Set For 2018

GUNTERSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Tourism officials in Marshall County are gearing up for a special kind of boating season. Guntersville is being added to the professional hydroplane boat race schedule beginning in 2018.

Officials recently returned from a trip to Seattle as they prepare for the professional competition just more than a year away. Now they're all about promoting it.

On Monday, tourism and race competition officials informed the local Rotary Club of what's to come.

It's being dubbed "Guntersville Lake Hydrofest" and will take place June 22 to 24, 2018.

Chairman Larue Kohl said it will be a two to two-and-a-half-mile course in Spring Creek.

Kohl said residents will get a sneak peek this June when some of the boaters arrive for a test run of the proposed course. The test run is expected to take place June 14.

“We're going to set the course up. We are going to survey it, having it done correctly, and make sure everything is right. The boats, three or four of them, are going to make runs on it. And they can tell us what's right, wrong, or indifferent. The officials will be here as well so we can tweak it and do all that,” said Kohl.

Kohl said the best viewing location will be from the levee.

Officials said 1986 was the last year for professional boat racing in Guntersville.