Florida Powerboat Club Doubling Down With Hawk’s Cay Visits To Start 2024 Season
Among the most idyllic hotel properties in the Middle Florida Keys, Hawk’s Cay Resort on Duck Key will play a role in two Florida Powerboat Club events to kick off the club’s 2024 season. The posh locale just outside of Marathon, Fla., is the destination for this Saturday’s 27-boat Florida Powerboat Club lunch run from the Playa Largo Resort in Key Largo, the host venue for the club’ season-opening Winter Fun Run.
Florida Powerboat Club participants will experience the run to Hawk’s Cay Resort twice early in the 2024 season. Photo courtesy/copyright of the Florida Powerboat Club.
And come February 22-24, the club will return to Hawk’s Cay Resort to stay for its three Miami Boat Show Poker Run.
Though club president Stu Jones likes to change host hotel venues for the sake of variety, the move to Hawk’s Cay was out of his hands for the Miami run. Holiday Isle and the Post Card Inn, which returned to its longtime host-venue status in 2023, is closed for renovations until this summer. Yet he Jones the change as an opportunity.
“I think this Saturday’s fun run from Key Largo to Duck Key will be ideal, because it offers about a 100-mile round-trip for our attendees through protected waters to Hawk’s Cay for lunch,” he explained. “Many of our attendees will see Hawk’s Cay Resort and Marina for their very first time, and this plays well into our February agenda where we will be returning there for the annual for the Miami Boat Show Poker Run.
“Plus, with photo helicopters flying on Friday from Miami to Key Largo and again after the lunch stop on Saturday, all teams are certain to get excellent video and still-photo coverage,” he added.
Though Jones said he appreciates what both venues bring to the club, he has yet to determine which one he will choose to host the 2025 Miami Boat Show Poker Run.
“Honestly, I have asked myself the same thing over and over and I want to see how things turn out at Hawk’s Cay,” he said “The issue, I think, at Hawks Cay’s is that it is limited to 60 boats but the rooms and everything are great. If there’s a way for me to get more boats in there, I think Hawk’s Cay’s has a good chance of surviving.
“But it will be interesting to see how Postcard Inn manages their renovation project,” he continued. “I’m sure it will be nice but I still don’t think there’s anything they can do about its marina, which has its limitation that force us to raft-off 30 to 40 on the outside. And just isn’t cool with anyone given the value of the boats. But we’ll have a better idea in a few months.”
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