Florida 120

[John Bell]

The fourth annual Florida 120 small boat raid starts on Thursday, May 17th running through Sunday, May 20 in the waters around Pensacola Bay and Santa Rosa Sound. We're expecting 40-50 boats this year, with maybe half being home-built. The weather looks OK for right now, maybe a little light for my tastes. But we'll sail in the weather we have.

The FL120 is different kind of animal compared some other small boat events in Florida. The objective here is to cover a roughly 100-120 mile course in 4 days. It's not a race like the Everglades Challenge, it's not a hang around on the beach and go for a short sail like Cedar Key, and it's not sail 5-10 miles per day and and party all afternoon and into the night event like the B.E.E.R. Cruise. It's kind of a hybrid of all these events. There's plenty of sailing like on the EC, plenty of time to hang out on the beach and check out the boats like Cedar Key, and plenty of time to party if that's your thing. It's really a mobile messabout.That we're doing this in the lovely clear blue waters and sugar white sands of the Gulf National Seashore is a real bonus.

The average length of the boats we've got signed up is 17', with the smallest at 8' and the largest at 26'.

I plan on starting a day early, launching late morning Wednesday from Pensacola. I plan to have my Spot tracker running, here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/d6f39bt

It's not too late join us, even if it's just for a day. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FL120 for all the details.

[kenjamin]

Really wanted to crew with Mike Monies on the famous Red SCAMP for the Florida 120 but circumstances dictated otherwise. Just days before the Florida 120 I had had a very rough time of it returning from a sailboat delivery from Key West to St. Augustine. That trip took more out of me than I had ever imagined. There was the normal sunburn, a full day seasickness, but the head cold I caught is still kicking my butt. Sure want to participate next year as it sounds like a great event. Maybe my SCAMP will be able to race Red in the event next year. I sure hope so. That would be a blast! And yeah, no more boat deliveries for me. I'm not near as tough as I thought I was. It was a humbling experience for this old guy. I'm glad Mike was able to find another crew guy on such short notice. Look forward to seeing pictures of what I missed.