Offshore racing fans will have plenty to choose from both sides of the Sunshine State this weekend. Photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image. (Click image to enlarge.)
Here’s my plan for this coming Sunday, which as it happens will be the third day of a much-needed weeklong family “vacation”—a loosely defined word in my world (for as my friends see it, my job is a vacation)—on the California side of Lake Tahoe. First thing in the morning, I’m going to head out for a little recreational boating fun with the kids, courtesy of former offshore racer Rick Bowling. His 37-foot Gone Again canopied catamaran won’t be anywhere in sight. Instead, we’ll be running his outboard-powered Chris-Craft runabout. We’ll head south from Carnelian Bay to Emerald Cove for a laid-back lunch on the water, then head back before the wind picks up as it tends to every afternoon on the pristine lake in Sierra Nevada Mountains. That’s the plan, anyway.
Meanwhile, back in Southern California my speedonthewater.com colleague Jason Johnson will be tuning into the livestream online from the Super Boat International offshore powerboat race in Marathon, Fla. (Note to self: Let Johnson know he’ll be doing that.) At roughly the same time, a couple of our correspondents in Sarasota, Fla., will be catching the action—and reporting it back to us—at the Sarasota Grand Prix Powerboat Festival sanctioned by Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix organization. By the time the day is done, we should have a wrap-up with images from each event.
and then