Fort Myers Offshore Opens Registration For 2025/2026 Season-Opener, Announces Start-Procedure Change

Created: October 10, 2025

Heading to Marco Island for the first time in four years, Fort Myers Offshore launches its 2025/2026 season on Saturday, October 18. Registration opened this morning and Fort Myers Offshore members in good standing will want to act quickly. Thanks docking limitations at the Marco Island Yacht Club destination, the event is limited to 40 boats.

With a couple of new wrinkles, the 2025/2026 Fort Myers Offshore season kicks off next weekend. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Like all Fort Myers Offshore runs, the event itself is free of charge and participants are responsible for their own lunch tabs. But there is another important wrinkle that members headed to the new venue need to know.

“The Marco Island Yacht Club is a private club and does not have the means to track and process payments of attendees’ meals,” Tim Hill, the president of the club, explained in an email sent this morning to club members. “Therefore FMO will require all participants to pay for their lunch via the FMO website.”

Per Fort Myers Offshore tradition, the 46-mile one-way run to Marco Island will start promptly at 11 a.m. But the club is breaking with tradition for its longstanding green-flag start.

“There will be no paceboat and no flagged start,” Hill explained. “Instead, we will utilize the helicopter to indicate when you should start to get on plane.

“Once the helicopter circles a few times and then starts to head south this will be your indicator that you should get on plane at your leisure and run at a conservative pace as a group,” he added.