From April 15th through 17th you will find a lot of fun in Cortez, Florida. This time of year the weather is perfect in Florida for sailing small boats, or any boats for that matter. The water can be a bit skinny, so stay away from the mangroves!
This Festival is the venue for the Traditional Small Craft Association annual membership meeting. It's mostly an excuse to meet friends and play in and on the water, but they throw in the business meeting so you can write it off on your taxes.
Just kidding. Since when do you get a tax break for joining the TSCA?
The TSCA is a non-profit organization so in fact, donations to the Association can be deducted. But that is not the intent of this message.
The real message is get out and have some fun on the water and what better place than Florida in spring?
Please enjoy this slide show from last year's Festival race. The best part is the "standing start" where skippers and crew can be seen actually standing in the water next to their boats. I said the water was shallow, didn't I?
Must be warm, too.
Apparently a contestant within 100 feet of the finish bell (which a finisher had to ring themselves) could jump ship and run for the finish. Any boat attempting to interfere with this maneuver could be thwarted without penalty.
The warmest boat festival of the new season, both in temperature and spirit.
FGCSCF is affiliated with the Florida Maritime Museum at Cortez, Florida Institute of Saltwater Heritage (F.I.S.H.), and Manatee County, FL.
Located on the sunny shores of Southwest Florida on Sarasota Bay just west of Bradenton where soft southern breezes will give your boat a gentle ride.
Photos by Ellen Thayer via Dave Lucas. Thank you, Ellen!
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3 comments:
Oh yes! I was there a few years back, in the warm, on the smoky blue waters, guest of Turner Matthews and Nancy. I have warm, smoky blue memories of the weekend, swanning around in Turner's Penobscott 17. Such nice, nice people, and lovely little boats. And today I am looking out over sodden field, seagulls flying backwards, rain coming in sheets. Psangsti! (the random word I am about to type in to validate this post)just about sums it up...
The folks in Cortez are very active with their boats. Warm water and sun have a lot to do with it, I'm sure.
I know them through my association with the TSCA and had hoped to make this event. (I would then have the pleasure of presiding over the annual meeting, as pres.)
But finances do not allow. This economic pit we dug for ourselves has changed a lot of things.
Here on the other side of the US we are experiencing weather very similar to yours. The occasional glimpses of the sun are rare and record amounts of the wet stuff blow in cyclonic torrents.
Florida sounds very good right now.
I'm from Florida, and I've never heard of Cortez before. Wow. I wish I had because this would have been a blast if I had still lived there.
The mangroves sometimes have gators. Yuck. Definitely stay away.
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