Ok all you distance moguls,

last year as I spoke to many of u, many wanted more than 300. I know I do. And I think eventually the Florida 300 will get there, as the committee continues to build this race.

But yeah, I want it now, and maybe you do too.

So this year, there is the possibility of an extension, up front, call it a pretension.

It may not be an official part, it wont be part of the official primary 300 scoring, but it will have some significance.

The plan is as follows. The Florida 300 leaves from Islamorado on Wednesday. The Stock Island 200 Mile Pretension will leave from Islamorada on Sunday, Mother's Day, and Sail to Key West (Stock Island Actually) and overnight there, returning the next day. Leaving Tuesday to return and rest before the main event. If you really want to sail like crazy, we can plan something local on Tuesday informally as well.

Several things:

1) The distance is only really about 75 miles, so in tune with the rest of the race, moderate not crazy.
2) The planned location in Stock can only really accommodate about 5 boats, so please PM me right away if interested (2 spots taken so far). If we have a higher response rate, we can consider a location shift, but we need commitment for this earlier if a shift is gonna happen.
3) The five entry boats can have free overnight accommodations if they so choose, it will be cool, trust me.
4) We will do some kind of free/group food thing.
5) If I have my druthers, there will be no or minimal charge to enter this portion, but there may be some fee.

Bottom line, if you need 500 to make the trip worthy, here it is, let's go.

thanks,

Larry

Just to confirm... as discussed... I'm in. In fact, I plan to secure a commitment from my crew this weekend at Tradewinds. I cannot imagine a better way to get tuned up for a 300 mile race, or a better stretch of ocean to sail. Great idea Larry and thanks for your efforts on this.

Turtle Mojo

Great! 3 spots left, who will be the lucky ones?

Wait, wut? You talked Domingo into this?

Yes we need to chat. You may not have considered the toll it will take on your body to hold that carbon fiber tiller for 150 miles :-)

See you at the grassy knoll in mere hours!

Granddude,
Were you able to convince the old dude?

I have had my boat in dry dock for the last year. Getting closer to getting the boat back on the water. I am thinking of sailing it down to Miami for the Miami-Key Largo race then after the race to the Islander for the "200 Mile Extension".

The MKL and the Key West 200 "foreplay" are all part of our warm up for the 300. But being older and wiser as we are, it has been agreed to keep it as a warm up and not have he throttle pinned the whole time.

MKL is a finish and return to the club, which works better logistically but is a 100 mile day. Setup for MKL is the weekend before which includes shakedown cruise and **** at the club. Trailer down and I'll help you rig at the club.

Our plan also includes leaving the ground crews at the Islander which is important for me because keeping the ground crew happy makes for a much more pleasant trip north. Grandude is a heck of a deal maker and I like the way he thinks. I'm also itching to find out his secret to smoking a reach in breeze :-)

Looking at running from Singer Island all the way down to Key West then back to Islander before putting on trailer to run the race.

I'll come down an do the first 200, full throttle, just to push the old guys into submission before the rest of the 300 Agreement not to go full throttle WTF?!?! You guys are soft!!!
And before Ding mentioned that he's crewing, I'm going to put it out there that there are many good reasons why I drive and I'm not ashamed of it.

Skippers... I absolutely support your decision to full throttle the 200 miles south. Just because you're in front is no reason to slow down because you know I'm going to say, "I thought your lead would have been more, did you have boat issues?". Make sure you hit the gym because you don't want your hand cramping up from having to hold that very heavy carbon fiber hot stick for hours at a time. It would be unfortunate to lose you half way through the 300 due to crippling hand cramps.

Back when we did the Tybee we pushed full throttle the whole time! I'm willing to bet the Worrell guys did too!!

You'll get no argument from me on that point. You did read that I fully support your decision to sail the 200 miles to Key West and back very hard, right?

How you gonna feel when the old guys are chillin' on the beach and you come smokin' in at full throttle. I said we were part throttle... not slow. So... I guess that first 200 is all you do?

Great to get the smack going this early!

Well, it is Todd R. we're talking about here.

First 200? While I don't nearly have the miles Jake and etc have, I've done enough to be satisfied.
That being said, if you guys can figure out how to do a 1,000 in April I'm in.

You said "I'll come down and do the first 200 full throttle, just to push the old men into submission before the 300". You didn't indicate that you were going to push as hard for the next 300, so Dick took the opportunity to make it look like you implied that you'd only sail hard for the first 200.

It's a lot less fun when the trash talk has to be explained. Try to keep up Todd. Oh and get used to that phrase you're going hear it a lot in May. Just in case you missed what I'm saying there, I'm saying you're slow.