Miami To Key West Boat Poker Run
The Key West Offshore Poker Run is an almost 400-mile roundtrip poker run from Miami to Key West. This year the event has over 200 poker run teams from all around the world that are participating.
- Please see below for a complete list of 2020 speedonthewater.com stories presented by Performance Boat Center from the Key West Poker Run hosted by the Florida Powerboat Club (jump to stories here). Unfortunately, the Race World Offshore Key West Offshore World Championships was cancelled this year ( jump to stories here ).
- I was fortunate this past week to be a part of the Miami to Key West poker run put on by the Florida Powerboat Club. We were also in Key West for the Superboat International Races to watch our buddy compete in the Superboat Vee class. He ended up taking the World Championship and the entire experience was amazing. Here are some teaser pics.
Florida Powerboat Club‘s premier event, the Key West Poker Run, will kick off on Wednesday with the first of two departure days from Miami to Key West, according to the group’s leader, Stu Jones. The event encompasses six days of fun, sun and speed.
Jones told Powerboat Nation that about 70 teams are expected to run on Wednesday, with an additional 195 teams enjoying the adventure for the Thursday run. “These numbers are epic in proportion to previous years for this 27-year event, and we are very thankful to all the FPC members and our featured sponsors, who continue to support this event every year,” Jones said.
He added that the strong economy, coupled with the general growth in the performance boating sectors, has caused the popularity of poker runs to grow exponentially. “People are finally starting to get it—that poker runs are fun, full of adventure and camaraderie, and there’s no better way to enjoy the powerboating lifestyle than to do poker runs,” he said. “The Key West Poker Run, beyond any other experience, captures that true spirit of performance boating. It’s a great platform to see the Florida Keys and really enjoy a few bursts of adrenaline. You get to meet people from all around the world and watch the powerboat races all in one bang-up weekend.”
One major challenge of FPC’s growth is dealing with the huge amount of participants. For example: What venue can serve so many people lunch at one go? “We’re happy to report that we figured out the solution,” Jones said. “With so many boats on the Thursday run, it just amounted to finding good lunch stops for some of the larger manufacturers. So what we’ve done is, the Nor-Tech owners will have lunch at Sundowners in Key Largo. Meanwhile, Cigarette owners will have lunch at the Playa Largo Resort in Key Largo. And the majority of MTI owners have decided that the Faro Blanco Resort would be their chosen lunch stop. That represents more than 100 boats that have selected to go to those three locations, and takes care of half of the fleet right there.”
In other venue news, Jones said that the popular Gilbert’s Resort in Key Largo have had their docks redone and are capable of accommodating larger groups, especially in conjunction with using the docks from the Anchorage resort next door. “There’s a few hundred feet of docks across the canal between those two locations, and they can accommodate at least 80 boats,” Jones said. “That’s going to take care of the bulk of our lunch needs going down on Thursday.”
Well-planned safety management is paramount to the success of any large-scale poker run event, and FPC will has recruited all of the major law-enforcement agencies to patrol and support this effort, including USCG, Florida FWC, City of Miami, Miami Beach and Bal Harbour marine patrols to join in this effort. Once again, Miami Dade Fire Rescue will have a strong presence on the course, with their Fireboat Fleet, along with MDFR rescue teams on board volunteer boats. Jones extends his thanks to Team SeaKeeper, which will be joining the Safety Management effort, by volunteering the SeaKeeper Boston Whaler to transport a rescue team for the Wednesday Run.
With a record number of 265 registered teams, and all the leading manufacturers on board to support this event, Jones asks the general boating public and non-participant boaters, to please understand that FPC has reserved “special event” docking at all of the major waterfront restaurants in Key Largo and Marathon, and we will be posting signage at those locations. “We need these facilities to support our poker run logistics during peak times of noon to 2:30 p.m. at these key locations, and ask for your cooperation as we move this massive fleet from Miami to Key West,” Jones said.
COMMENTS
Stu Jones, leader of the Florida Powerboat Club, says he is “picking up all the pieces” following his epic Key West Poker Run that took well over 200 teams from Miami to the USA’s Southernmost city for six days of fun, sun and Race World Offshore‘s Key West Offshore World Championships. Jones also revealed his group’s 2020 schedule, which will closely mirror this year’s itinerary. (See below for the complete schedule.)
Miami To Key West Boat Poker Run Free
Jones said the 2019 poker run season outpaced previous years, and credited the strong economy for the growth.
“This year turned out to be really successful, in that we launched a lot of new events and we set records on some of our bigger events, like the Key West Poker Run,” he says. “I think it reflects the state of the economy being at a very high level. The sport continues to grow, just because it’s a great sport and a great way to enjoy performance boating. We’re getting more people coming into this sector, and that’s why these events have become more successful. Seeing Key West go to record numbers, and going off without a hitch, was a real highlight.”
It’s been just about a decade since Jones operated his ubiquitous pace boat, 39′ Nor-Tech King of Clubs, which was a familiar fixture on FPC’s numerous runs through the years. This year, Jones could be seen driving his Project 1080 Cigarette (showcased in the May issue of Speedboat Magazine) during nearly every one of his group’s events, which was another red-banner moment.
“We put in 150 hours on the boat from January to November,” he reports. “That was a highlight for sure. The fact that I could start enjoying these poker runs in my own boat put a different slant on it for me and made them more enjoyable. Certainly one of the reasons it made my Key West run more fun is that I was able to drive my own boat all the way there and all the way back, and I haven’t been able to do that for a long time.”
The Cigarette project boat celebrates the club’s 25th anniversary and perfectly captures the whole spirit of what the poker runs are for Jones. “It was truly special for me,” he says, “and I think it was one of the reasons I really enjoyed the 2019 Key West run.”
Miami To Key West Poker Run
Jones says that the international participation at his club’s events continues to expand, “not only from Canada, which has always been strong, but European boaters are making transatlantic crossings, putting their boats on freighters and bringing them over here for the season to enjoy,” he says. “We had about 10 teams this year from European nations—all of them had brought their boats over for this event.”
With more participants than ever, the onus was on FPC to give away a colossal amount of shirts and other goodies. “It all goes bye-bye at Key West—we finish it off there,” he grins. “There might’ve been a few things left over. Smalls and mediums.”