November 11, 2019





*Photo by TDC

39th Annual Key West Offshore Racing World Championships

This year marks the 39^th time that Key West has hosted World Championship powerboat racing which allows falls in the schedule a couple of weeks after Fantasy Fest in early November. It is always the biggest annual sporting event held annually in Key West and draws crowds who line the shore to watch the slate of racing that is held each year on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday of powerboat week.

 

 

 

This year, I once again went down to the local VIP party held on Wednesday, the first day of racing. I arrived just after what was apparently a spectacular double boat accident which saw two of the powerboats collide and flip at the same time. Thankfully only a few minor injuries occurred to the boat pilots in what was a scary moment. I was bummed that I did not get a photo, but someone did and the photo below by an unknown photographer spread like wildfire on social media as it caught the boats mid-flight.

*photo by unknown

This year marks the first year that the powerboat races were organized by Race World Offshore, who won the contract from the city last fall. I must say that I was less than impressed. There just were not very many actual powerboats on hand and the races suffered for it. The top class only had three boats and many of the lower classes only had a single entry, meaning the term racing really did not apply.

 

The look and feel of the powerboat village and sundry events was pretty much the same, in fact the new organizers did a good job adding new twists like a victory podium celebration to the event, they just need more boats to enter. The races that had a decent number of boats were fairly interesting. The power and speed of the massive boats are pretty cool to see.

 

Scott

I only caught a couple of the races on Wednesday and skipped Friday due to my work schedule, but on Sunday I went to join my friends the Ford family at Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park. They always arrive early to snare a great viewing spot and set up a pop-up tent for shade and a number of beach chairs and make a day of it. They always have a plethora of food and drinks and it is always a great time hanging out with friends no matter if the races are all that exciting.

 

  

 

Tom

Unfortunately the races themselves were rather anticlimactic. Due to a shortage of boats in some classes they had to reduce the total number of races from the four scheduled down to just three and while the races that did go off were fairly interesting, I thought as a whole the event lacked energy and was kind of boring at times. Thankfully we had a great time in spite of all that. 

 

Just spending an afternoon at Ft. Zach is pretty awesome in itself. The weather was sunny and breezy, not quite as hot as some past years, but still pretty toasty especially in the direct sunlight. Having that pop-up tent was a necessity. There was a few cool iguanas lurking among the rocks along the shore that were almost as much fun to watch as the powerboats. People watching is also fun as a large contingent of fans is always on hand to watch the action. 

  * photo by Sheelman