When I caught up with Performance Boat Center co-owner Brett Manire yesterday afternoon, he was upbeat. And he had cause. After the busiest season in the Osage Beach, Mo.-based dealership’s busiest season to date, which ended last weekend with its record-setting Fall Fun Run, he can exhale for a few days.
Now is an ideal time to be in the Florida Keys. Photo courtesy/copyright of the Florida Powerboat Club.
Plus, Manire departs from St. Louis early this morning for this weekend’s Florida Powerboat Club Fall Fun Run to Hawks Cay Resort in the Middle Keys.
“We’re going to run a Sunsation 32 CCX to Hawks Cay,” he said. “We’re looking forward to it.”
Florida Powerboat Club head Stu Jones also finds refreshment—a least a degree of it—in this weekend’s trek to Hawks Cay. His outfit’s Key West Powerboat Week happens November 3-9. Key West isn’t just the perennial FPC season-finale. It’s club’s busiest and most labor-intensive event.
So this weekend gives him and devoted club members a chance to recharge before charging into Key West next month.
“It’s a really good time of year to be in the Keys as they’re not so busy right now,” Jones explained. “People are free to move around, and you don’t encounter any issues getting a nice dinner table somewhere. Plus, the rates at Hawks Cay Resort are about half of what they are in the high season. To be able to stay in a three-bedroom luxury villa overlooking the marina for $429 a night is outstanding. You can’t get anything like that anywhere in South Florida.”
The Hawks Cay home-base for the weekend is another big draw for participants, he noted.
“Hawks Cay Resort really is a turnkey destination property—you don’t have to leave it once you get there because there’s so much to do on-site,” Jones said. “And if you want to venture out, the boating in the area is first class. There are so many different directions you can run and so many great places you can be by boat within 20 or 30 miles of the place.
“If the weather is calm, you can run down to Key West in an hour,” he added. “That that’s a nice bonus to have.”