Fort Myers Offshore Turkey Run Turnout Sets New Record

Two things kept Tim and Cyndee Hill from leaving their boat at the docks behind their Cape Coral, Fla., home yesterday and traveling by car to Riviera Bar and Grill in Punta Gorda for Fort Myers Offshore’s annual Turkey Run lunch. First, they didn’t have their boat at the docks—their 32B catamaran from Skater Powerboats, which they recently brought back from its summer home to the north, isn’t ready to hit the water. Second, as the leaders of club, the optics of their arrival by car rather than boat for a boating event, the second of the nonprofit scholarship fundraising organization’s 2024/2025 season, would not have been great.

Fort Myers Offshore president Tim Hill bundled up and gutted-out yesterday’s chilly Southwest Florida weather. Photo courtesy/copyright Duane C. Adams.

So they bundled up and rode to the venue on his friend and fellow club-member Ryan McClaran’s Sunsation Powerboats 32 CCX center console.

But they were tempted.

“The weather sucks,” Tim Hill told a reporter as he headed from Orlando to the waterfront lunch stop by car. “You were smart to drive.”

Mikey Boyle and friends enjoyed the run in his MTI 390X catamaran. Photo courtesy/copyright Duane C. Adams.

Not everyone shared the Hills’ resolve to come by water on what was, by Southwest Florida standards, a chilly morning. Of the event-record-setting 55 registered boats, 42 made it to the Riviera Bar and Grill docks. Had Erik and Julie Breckenfelder not lost the starboard Mercury Racing ROS outboard on their 28-foot Skater cat along the way, 43 boats would have been there.

In this case, the verb “lost” is more than a figure of speech. The 28-footer’s port outboard snapped of the transom while they were running to the lunch spot at 90 to 100 mph. Only the tie bar between the outboards kept the engine connected to the boat. Neither Breckenfelder was injured in the frightening incident, and Erik plans to reinstall the ROS engine once it comes out of “pickling.”

Escorted by their friends Don and Amanda Gardener in their 36-foot outboard-equipped Skater cat and towed by fellow Fort Myers Offshore member Brian Manning, the couple headed home to Cape Coral.

One moment Erik and Julie Breckenfelder had two working ROS outboards on the stern of their 28-foot Skater catamaran, the next they had one.

An engine-bolt failure most likely led to the scary incident.

“It’s possible that we hit debris, but I really can’t say,” Breckenfelder explained. “When the engine let go, it felt as if the boat was violently being yanked from each rear cleat at opposing times. It was unnerving.

“The fact that we had the best equipment—Latham hydraulic steering, a Latham tie bar and STR outboard brackets—likely kept us safe,” he added.

By the time the last boat docked at the Riviera venue, everyone in the Fort Myers Offshore fold knew the Breckenfelders were safe. And that meant the show, which included a 50/50 raffle that earned the winner more than $1,000, could go on.

Well-known club members on hand included Chuck Stark, who arrived in his new-to-him MTI 390X catamaran equipped with Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines and STR principal/namesake Shaun Torrente, who will soon repower the boat with 500-hp outboards from the Fond du Lac, Wis., company. The crowd included Fort Myers Offshore stalwarts such as Eric Belisle and Bill Forenski, and industry types including Shaun Peters of MTI, Devin Wozencraft of Wozencraft Insurance Agency and Miranda Doan, the marketing manager for Avalon Pontoon Boats.

As for Tim Hill, he was already thinking about the club’s next event, the Holiday Fun Run set for December 28.

“I don’t have a destination for that one yet,” he said. “I’m still working on it.”

Hill paused to survey the group, then smiled. “But look at this turnout.” he said. “It’s just incredible.”