Key West Races in ????? Hope Not
 

Go to www.keywest.com and click on "news". Seems that there is a problem with a Carnival ship being at the outer mole and the races on Sunday the 24th. This article was in this mornings Key West Citizen. The city, Carnival and APBA are all meeting. Now I know why I haven't seen more details about the race and events on the APBA web page. The city would be better off to pay Carnival $50,000 dollars to give passengers refunds and just skip Key West that weekend, with all the money we will spend there that week.

I hear Lee Mills was on the radio yesterday & said something like: If key west doesn't respond to what we want, we will cancel the race.
Sounds like another strong arm tactic with aANOTHER unhappy ending

Man!..it's one thing after another!! :rolleyes:

Give 50K to the passengers
 

Hey Chuck ,,,, while I agree with your thought process,,, fact is Carnival comes to town every week with a fresh load,,,, APBA come once or twice a yr .... MA needs to get his act together and do more, better planning. Just my .02

RHC

The way I read understand the article it appears the city forgot about their agreement with Carnival so those two should work it out. But I do find it amazing that these racing organization have so many problems with their events. They are run by what I suppose are succesful business men. How did they get that way if they were this disorganized or problem plagued. Not trying to start anything just my curiosity.

I'm sure they could adjust the course to stay out of the harbor and away from the ship if needed.

WOW! And with less than a week to go!
APBA is going to have to be the ones to work around the schedule probs.
Like RHC said, Carnival is there every week, year round & the article says KW makes 20K per stop just in landing fees alone.
I've been going to the KW races for many years & hane never heard of a problem before. Why didn't they just stick to Wed. & Sat. races like the other guys?

Ron, that would be the simple solution.

My solution,

Run all races on Saturday, spend money & party like hell Saturdaynite, enjoy yourself on Sunday, go home Monday

Eddie

The schedule shows them racing on Sat. and Sun.. Why not Fri and Sat? But I bet there is another ship or two on Fri. tied up at Mallory Sq. I have been going to the races since 1991 and just up until the last year if you saw a race posted in a magazine or somewhere you coukld buy an airline ticket and try and get a hotel and just show up and there would be a race event in progress. Sometimes in the past 7 years they may be cancelled for water conditions(South Padre) but at least everyone is there and you could still have a good time. Now days the race was on this morning and when I get there tomorrow it's cancelled. The first time I ever went to Key West was the week before the Cuban Boatlift. There were no buidings above 2 or 3 stories , no Home Depots, TGIFRidays and no cruise ships!!! Talked to Captian Tony at 10am shirtleess and barefoot and he had just gotten out of jail and was on his way th get married! tHOSE WERE DAYS THAT YOU COULD GET LAID BACK AND KEY WAISTED! Hope we all can still see each other in a couple of weeks down there.

my friend is leaving miami on the 21st on a cruise and the first stop is key west friday the 22nd 7am to 2pm

John and I are going anyway. Hope this gets worked out.

move it to saturday,like s.b.i. did .the article says carnival has a set schedule,like this was not a know fact,poor planning on apba's part. nothing like the last minute,if i ran my business that way I'd be out of business.the 50,000 carinaval said they would have to pay there customers,imagine whatt a.p.b.a would have to pay the fans.boat hauling for stus run,airfare,etc.Alot of people i know planned on it and if it don't go off alot of people gone be out alot more.MAKE A SCHEDULE AND STICK TO IT,AND CONFIRMWITH THE TOWN YOU'RE RACIN ABOUT THE LOGISTICS. WAITING ON SARASOTA IN APRIL,POKER RUN

Do it on Saturday! It gives everyone a day to relax, get home or do whatever they like.
Every time we raced there on Saturdays, we would pack everything up Sat afternoon & let the driver go.
Sat night, a nice meal and a bottle of wine.
Sunday was for a nice massage, on the beach , under the palm trees with a few frozen rum drinks.
Then, off to the plane Sunday night or Mon a.m.

Here it is again another A.P.B.A. screw-up. This is getting rather old. I'll be almost certain that the pro-A.P.B.A. following will be on my azz but, the fact remains poor planning and bad luck have played a pretty big part in their business. It would be a complete shame if the race is canceled because of something that could have been forseen at anytime. From my PERSONAL standpoint, it does not look as if the strongarm tactic works very well for a sport the is suppose to be about fun and entertainment.

Thanks

P.S. Hope I don't have to cancel my plans because of sanctioning
bodies lack of planning.

MY OPINION

wanna bet?
 

I say the race goes off without a hitch! APBA or SBI - any organization has it's challenges - It's just hard to put on a offshore race! What other popular motorsport has to deal with cruise ships , manatees , weather issues , turtles and race on public water ways? Hang in there race fans - See ya in Key West! BH......... (For the love of the sport)

Race? You mean there is going to be a boat race the week that I'm going to Key West? Wholy ****, that's great.:p The same thing happened to SBI two years ago and we just jumped in the truck and went to Fort Zackery to watch the race, only thing is you can't take ANY alcohol into the park:( . If this does happen i'll take the boat out to turn three and watch from there :D . Better water out there anyway. It kinda sux for everyone that bought a hotel room planning on watching the race from the room, but two years ago when SBI ran into their trouble, the Ocean Key House called me and told me two months in advance that the boats would not be coming into the harbor, and if I wanted to cancell there would not be a penalty, and I haven't heard a word from the Key House, so..............Lets' ALL just have fun in Key West, so there's a boat race, that's just an added attraction :D
Robert

Were Getting packed and Final finishing on the Boats.
Boats Leaving from SoCal Sunday
See Ya there.
Mike J.

MikeJ
I thought ya'll would want to race in those 35' seas that ya'll had out there? WoooooooooooHooooooooooo. and count to 35 beforew you land! :p
Robert

Looks like there will be 3 days of racing after all. Appears the parties involved have come to some sort of agreement and the Carnival ship will a V.I.P viewing area for the military ,gov't and celebrities. Works for me !!

I'm not sure how APBA can get blamed for this one. It sounds like a Key West screw up to me. :confused:

At least they worked it out and the race is on!!! :)

I'm with Cowgirl on this one. I mean it's not the APBA's fault or responsibility to look up Cruise ship schedules. The APBA approaches Key West about races on such and such dates and and times and the City said fine, no problem. It's on the city's onus at that point to make sure there are no conflicts.

Anyway, the important thing is that the races are on and it's going to be a great weekend! WooHoo...Can't wait! :cool: :cool:

I think if you read the article, you'll see that it was an error on the City of Key West. They booked the dock for APBA and it was approved long ago.

Then they they discovered that over a year ago, they had booked the SAME dock last year. It was an oversight by the City Council. Now the City is scrambling to find a solution.

The City messed up. Not APBA.

The APBA World Championships were scheduled and then approved by the city in April 2002, and soon after the conflict was discovered, he said. The cruise ship schedule had been agreed to by the city at least a year before.

http://keysnews.com/276271586163991.bsp.htm

go to this local acticle
http://keysnews.com/276271586163991.bsp.htm
this is the latest

Well, at least it looks like the city is trying to get things worked out :) . I hope that they get it taken care of, but it sounds like Carnival is not willing to budge. They should just let everyone one the ship to watch the race :p . Yea, like that is going to happen. See ya'll in Key West :D
Robert

A train wreck has been averted!

VIP's and celebrities will watch the race from the ship (a boat-load of potential cruise customers for Carnival?), and Carnival vacationers get to see a great boat race too! In turn, the City makes a $ BUNDLE $!

It's a WIN WIN situation for everyone.

:)



Deal reached to keep powerboat races in Southernmost city
‘Pride’ to be VIP viewing area if deal goes through

By Tim McDonald [email protected]

This time last year, Key West was awash with powerboat races, with back-to-back November events competing for public interest. This year, it seemed as though it would be left with none.

But last-minute discussions on Friday appeared to be heading in the direction of a compromise that would allow the American Power Boat Association to run its World Championship in Key West Harbor later this month, after all.

The problem is there are too many ships in the harbor. In particular, the cruise ship Carnival Pride is scheduled to be at the Outer Mole Nov. 24 – the final day of the scheduled races.

Race promoter Lee Mills had maintained the ship would block the VIP viewing area, and wanted it moved. But a lot of money is at stake – the city could lose $20,000 in disembarkation fees.

Now, however, it seems the ship will be the VIP viewing area for government officials, celebrities and others, allowing the race to go on. And ship passengers will be able to come and go from the Pride as they please, to see the city as well as the races.

"We need to run it by the Coast Guard, but it seems this is going to work out," Mills said Friday, following discussions with city and Carnival Cruise Lines officials.

Earlier this year, John Carbonell, owner-operator of Super Boat International, canceled races planned for Key West waters this month.

According to city officials, Mills knew of the scheduling conflict with Carnival in April, but elected to go ahead with plans for the race.

"I guess he felt that with the backing of the lodging community and the restaurant community, he would be able to have that changed," said City Manager Julio Avael.

Mills said he was told by city officials in March that there would be no cruise ships in port for the three days of planned racing, Nov. 20, 23 and 24.

"So we posted it on our Web site, printed it on our material and announced it on our TV shows," he said. "The sponsors committed to it, the hotels committed to it and the vendors committed to it."

Officials from all three camps – Mills, the city and Carnival Cruise Lines – have been negotiating for weeks trying to find a solution. That apparently came Friday.

"We have every hope and expectation that it will be resolved," Mills said.

Mills had rejected the idea of squeezing the race into two days, Nov. 21 and 22, which are open. He also rejected alternate areas for hosting corporate sponsors for the event.

Sponsors pay Mills $15,000 to $20,000 per tent on city-owned land.

Previously Mills suggested the cruise ship could dump the passengers off in the morning, anchor offshore and serve as a "turn boat" in the race, a marker for the powerboats to navigate. It could then return to the Mole after the races,
pick up its passengers and disembark. But the cost and logistics would be prohibitive, the cruise line said.

"Your guests want to come and go from the ship as they choose," said Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher said. "We’d have to have continuous tender service. We’d have to pay a harbor pilot. If it [were] practical, we’d do it, but it’s just not practical for us." Gallagher said moving the port of call to another date would also be expensive. The cruise line is required to pay $20 compensation per passenger for missing scheduled ports.

Obviously APBA is held to a higher standard than everyone else in the motorsport world. Maybe if some folks didn't immediately point fingers and attach blame to APBA for anything and everything, those folks wouldn't have to worry about APBA followers being on anyones azz.
Funny thing, although APBA was not at fault, everyone expected APBA to come up with a fix.
Fact is, APBA was the one that got involved and helped find the fix, which bailed the city out of a jam. Now, the Key West World Championships will have the worlds best grandstand!

So, I have a proposition...
Let's all agree that putting on a race, in any city, regardless of sanctioning body, is a huge task. Things will always come up unexpectedly, and **** will always happen that is beyond the control of the event producers &/or sanctioning body.
Sanctioning bodies will make mistakes. Let's try to get some facts before we start pointing fingers and screaming nanny nanny boo boo's at the other side of the fence.

Glad to see it all worked out!

Enjoy all! :D

Just a question...Who was the genius who came up with the plan to combine the two?

What a fabulous outcome.

And just think of the potential that could grow from this connection...

Whoever is responsible, please post their name(s). They certainly deserve a round of praise.


Now I only wish I could go. :(

I think it's great that they got it all worked out, but it kinda sux for the people that wanted to stand at Mallory Square and watch the race. If my memory( which ain't to good) serves me right, the ship will be blocking the view from one of the best places to watch the race.

Gordo,
I agree with you about finding out all the facts before starting to point the finger :) Look forward to seeing you in KW :p

Robert

Can anyone buy the VIP packages? Might be worth it in this instance. Or I could bring my mask and swim down and pull the hull plug on the Cruise ship. Then we would have a great view. See everybody there.

Shawn