Originally Posted by vintage chromoly

Awesome man! Just awesome!
All your hard work payed off, that's for sure.

Originally Posted by Stormrider

Great work and a fun thread to follow.

Originally Posted by ziemer

Glad to hear you made it out with no issues! Weather turned out to be perfect for the run. Didn't see you but I'm sure we passed you as everyone seems to hammer down on that last but up the manatee and it gets a little chaotic. Haha. We actually ran much of the run next to your boats prior owner in his 28 OPA boat.

Originally Posted by Nmbr1GMfan

Well ladies and gentleman, with the unexpected rain the past couple days I had a tough road ahead the last couple evenings. Working all day and fitting in parts runs when I could, then working till 10-11pm it was close..... But we made it. I had engine trouble 24 months ago on Jan 1st during the Joey Gratton Memorial fun run, unfortunately for me my time for projects is limited but we made it to this point and I was nervous but excited for today. I have no intention of running WFO for 20 miles but I did want to participate, here was the plan. Drop in at about the 2/3 point of the run, make it 5 or 6 miles to the mouth of the river anchor off with a buddy and watch them scream through. I want to put in about 11am in case I have any issues as they will leave Sarasota at noon and be to me (about 15 miles) around 12:30, well I'm running late because of a few things I had to tidy up on the boat this morning. I launch at 12 noon and we head out and it was rough when we get into Tampa Bay heading into the Manatee River, I make it to within a mile and decide to stop to open the hatch and give it a look see, well by the time I can get going we see rooster tails bearing down so we slid outside the marked channel to let about 15 blow by, VERY COOL. Fired up and ran up to my buddy, he's anchored outside the channel right near land and the boats are coming by 30'-100' off the bow. Awesome showing with around 70 participants, I ran back with no issues and loaded up head out to clean up. When I was leaving the shop I could hear everyone running through Sarasota bay so my daughter and I ran to the 10th st ramp and watched a few load up. The Popeye's Cougar was outrageous!