Offshoreonly.com - The Key West OS WORLDS are a GO, by Lee Mills!!

Key West, September 17, 2003

We are very proud to be entering our third consecutive year of producing the Key West Offshore Worlds November 17-23, 2003, a tradition in Key West for over thirty years.

We do NOT cancel our events and never have! This is the cornerstone of our corporate mission statement. It is critical that our race team participants, sponsors, fans and media know that they can all depend upon us fulfilling our obligations, without excuses.

We are delighted to hear from so many race teams in the last two days who have expressed their strong commitment to participate in this year’s Worlds here in Key West. Please visit our website www.keywestosworlds.com to see the complete schedule of events and parties which have been planned for all of you.
The preparations have been in the works for over 10 months and are either completely dialed in or in process of completion well before your arrival here in Key West.

As a matter of policy, we normally do not respond to rumors and misinformation disseminated by a very small group of people. But at the urging of so many race teams in the last few days, we felt we should honor their requests by issuing this release to clarify a few false and misleading rumors.

We have been seeking over the last two months, in good faith, to negotiate a fair and reasonable sanction agreement with the management of APBA Offshore. We are very disappointed that their position was both non-communicative and intransient. I suppose that this is their right, but it represents a cold and insensitive attitude towards the race teams and event promoters they should be looking out for. We saw this coming a few weeks ago and accordingly established our own independent website and instituted a direct mail marketing campaign to keep the race teams, fans and sponsors informed.

The United States Navy is currently spending twelve million dollars to update and vastly improve the area which we will be using for our race village, including the dry pits, wet pits, hot pits, winners circle and spectator viewing area. We are in touch with them on a weekly basis to coordinate all of our efforts to insure that upon your arrival the race village will be up to our standards. In fact, I’m happy to report that the demolition of certain structures have created additional property available for our use and the resurfacing should greatly reduce the issue of dust, something that we have had to contend with in prior years. The hot pits, tech inspection area and wash down area are all together and can accommodate a larger number of boats. The parking lot can now accommodate nearly one thousand cars. We are setting up a special race team parking lot for your vehicles in the actual dry pits to reduce the distance you’ll need to walk. We will shortly be posting on our website a site plan of the race village with all these various locations identified. You will be able to call ahead and reserve your spot in the dry pits as opposed to finding out where you will be when you show up.

With respect to our permitting, the process began in January with specific requests submitted in July. The City of Key West does not require an assembly permit to hold an event. For the use of public property, like the closure of Duval Street for the Friday evening block party, permitting is a fairly routine matter which is handled by our City Manager.

We have been working closely with tom Oosterhoudt, the city commissioner in whose district the OS Worlds will be held. He has issued the following statement for use in this letter:

“I am delighted on behalf of my district and the entire city of Key West that the OS Worlds will be held here November 17-23. It is a full week of exciting events, and Lee and I have been closely coordinating the permitting activities and other requirements surrounding the production of the OS Worlds. I look forward to seeing you at the races.”

Although we have invited race teams from around the world to participate in this event we are adhering to the format, class structure and model which the APBA Offshore participants have been used to this year. Additional classes, such as super stock will be offered to accommodate teams which have not raced with APBA Offshore. Your team will not be placed in five or six broad categories, as some rumors have suggested.

We will be updating our website www.keywestosworlds.com on a frequent basis to provide you with the latest information regarding every aspect of this event.

If you have not made your plans already, we would urge you to do so, as the hotels will increase their rates as we get closer to the event.

We are all looking forward to seeing you back in Key West for a week of racing, excitement and parties at an event that continues to be enhanced with activities for everyone to enjoy in the Southernmost City.

Lee A. Mills
Chairman and CEO, The Worlds

Contact: Lee A. Mills @ 305 293 5115