Florida Powerboat Club Teaming Up With Speed On The Water For Invitational Miami Boat Show Bash
For years, the Florida Powerboat Club’s Miami Boat Show Bash was the place to be on Friday night during the Miami International Boat Show, which is set for February 15-19 this year. Show-going club members in town for the following weekend’s Miami Boat Show Poker Run and their special guests mingled with high-profile marine industry types, offshore racers and various well-known members of the high-performance community at South Beach haunts such as the Raleigh Hotel and the Clevelander, The annual party became something of an opening celebration for the the poker run to come and a “social mixer” for the show itself.
As Stu Jones proves every year during the Key West Poker Run, the Florida Powerboat Club throws one heck of a party. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
With the show’s move from South Beach to Virginia Key—just south of downtown Miami proper—a Friday night celebration became a logistical nightmare for potential party-goers as well as an organizational migraine for Stu Jones and company at the Florida Powerboat Club. So the club discontinued the once-cherished Friday night affair.
But now, thanks in large part to presenting sponsor Doug Wright Powerboats and its trio of new majority owners, the Florida Powerboat Club Invitational Miami Boat Show Bash—being co-produced with fellow backer speedonthewater.com—is coming back. Also sponsored by Waves And Wheels, Graphix 1 Custom Paint, Maryland Offshore Performance Marine Center and Wozencraft Insurance Agency, the Thursday night (February 16) event celebration will be hosted at the Sagamore Hotel in the heart of South Beach.
Doug Wright Powerboats is the presenting sponsor for the Florida Powerboat Club/Speed On The Water Miami Boat Show Bash.
As noted in the title of the event, the party is “invitational,” meaning that it is not open to walk-ins from the general public. Current Florida Powerboat Club members and sponsors with active status will receive invites via email, although attendance is “usually limited to locally based FPC members and those visiting the Miami Show from out of town,” according to club president Stu Jones.
The party venue is limited to a few hundred guests. Each sponsor will have an allocation of tickets for its guests, as well as its own VIP cabana.
Located on Collins Avenue, the Sagamore Hotel will be home to the first Miami Boat Show Bash in years.
“When the show returned to the Miami Beach Convention Center and Sea Isle Marina (now the Venetian Marina and Yacht Club) last year, we started thinking about bringing back our invitational Saturday night celebration,” Stu Jones explained. “The Speed On The Water guys hosted a few smaller, invitation-only gatherings in downtown Miami when the show was on Virginia Key, and they did a really nice job with those. They also do the big bash in Key West every year. So when Doug Wright Powerboats reached out to them about potentially sponsoring a Key West-type of party in Miami, we all decided to work together.”
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