Key West Report
 

As of 2:00 p.m. today, I counted 25-30 boats for the race. The weather is perfect today, rain expected tomorrow. Unless a lot of teams show up today, the race may be a little lame. I will try to keep you all posted.

Please do

Do you know how big the seas are ?

I got a report of 18 - 20 boats and seas 4 to 6 feet.

Drivers meeting going on now...more accurate count later

In the pits today (4 pm), I counted 28 boats. Seas were choppy, but only 3-5 ft with a SE wind at 15 Kts or so.

Spectators know this:
the Mole Pier is closed to EVERYONE (navy construction work for another year or so).
The only land viewing areas for the race will be Mallory sq /Hilton/Ocean Key House/ Pier HOuse/ Hyatt/ The Galleon.

A guy that works with me was coming back from West Palm today and told me he saw many boats headed towards KW.

That's the same thing I heard. No Outer Mole. Bummer, I guess. :rolleyes:

How many P3 boats are there? What time do they race?

does anyone know how amny boats today 11/19/2003

I just S/W Jamie Russell and he counted just over twenty boats and 4 to 6 foot seas. He was on a boat and taking pictures in rough conditions!

I watched the races yesterday afternoon - I'll wager a guess and say 25-30 total between the two races.

WHM rolled yesterday and ripped the canopy right off. Fortunately - word is that the crew is ok.

Seas were ROUGH! We were out near turn 4 in a 30 Concept. A little sore today!

THE JACK AND COKE SHOULD TAKE CARE OF IT,KEEP DAVE AND CHARLIE IN LINE AND SELL DAVE A TOP GUN.

Crazy Charlie & Reliable Ray were the only 2 of my crew that didn't bail on me! Everyone else said 'BUH-BYE!" hahaha

Your cohort SUPER DAVE had the opportunity to go out with us but bailed as well. We picked him up on duval in the dually as we were heading back to shower and get into some dry duds. We all called him a PUSS but in actuallity he was smarter than the 3 of us! hahahaha

I'm taking him for a demo ride in the 30 concept this weekend!

race update
 

The first race was cancelled. The afternoon race started in very windy conditions, lots of big waves offshore. A lot of boats didn't finish due to equipment failure. Team Pantera in F-2 looked really strong, as well as Ettore. WHM flipped (crew is ok), and Spiderman didn't finish. The local paper reports that 20-25 more boats will arrive for Fridays race, and the 3 supercats that are here will stay and race this weekend. A cold front moved in yesterday (65), but today is sunny and cool! Also, the parade looked really good on Duval street, the rigs were all looking good!

If 20-25 more boats are expected, then how do those people expect to compete when they missed the first race? Or does Mills do some funny scoring, like best 2 out of 3 or something like that??? :confused: Maybe draw straws or flip a coin to crown the World champ.

We shall see.

update
 

As of Friday night, I haven't seen any other race boats arriving here. Rumor has it that the promoter (Mills) is offering $1,000 to any poker run boat that wants to race. This means that the rules are out the window!
Can you imagine watching poker run boats competing with race boats? If this happens, I am thankful that I am here to watch it! The block party on Duval was awesome last night! Lots of fun, a big crowd, T-Shirt sales were incredible, long lines at Cigarette and Spiderman! Today, there is 1 race at 11:00. Tomorrow, 2 races are scheduled. Also, the Florida Powerboat Club members all arrived yesterday, lots of big Nor-Techs, Outerlimits, Cigarettes, Skaters, etc. I have never seen so many awesome poker run boats in 1 place! I think over 100 boats made this run! Later, I off to the races!

All in all, people are having a good time and making the best of the situation. Keep in mind many already had reservations, and were looking forward to this trip. The parties have been a hoot, Duval Street is crawling with fans, and the weather's been relatively good since Thursday morning. By the way, the 1st race was cancelled to allow sea turtles to clear the course (no joke, it's in the local papers).

A lot of poker runners made it in last night before dusk, after a long trip from Lauderdale. The Chesapeake Bay is well represented for your DelMarVa natives, Keyed Up, K&B Auto, Artemis, Cancun Cantina and a few others are here.

Gotta go, time to refill my margarita glass!! :D