Fort Myers Offshore Holiday Fun Run Made In The Shade With 92 Boats
With less than 24 hours remaining in December—and the rest of the year for that matter—it’s safe to say that most of Florida did not live up its Sunshine State nickname for much of this month. And true to form, yesterday’s inaugural Fort Myers Offshore Brian Connelly Holiday Fun Run happened under thick clouds, which combined with a steady breeze kept temperatures in the low-50s and had participants in the 92-boat fleet donning hoodies and sweatshirts.
The Nor-Tech crew was out in full for yesterday’s Fort Myers Offshore event honoring one of their own. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
But it couldn’t have mattered less to 400-plus attendees who made the trek from the Sanibel Island Bridge to the Village Brewhouse at Fisherman’s Village on Punta Gorda for lunch. Among those participants was Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats co-founder, Trond Schou who jump-started the designated Fort Myers Offshore scholarship fundraiser with a $5,000 donation from the Fort Myers-based company.
Schou made the donation in honor of Connelly, a 76-year-old Nor-Tech customer and dealer who died last month at his home in New Hampshire.
Some 20 Nor-Tech center consoles and one V-bottom joined yesterday’s fleet.
“Nor-Tech is honored to play a small role in the huge success of Fort Myers Offshore,” said Schou. “Spearheaded by Tim and Cyndee Hill and the rest of the Fort Myers Offshore board members, it was another terrific FMO event. Including our donation, I believe $15,000 in cash alone was collected for the club’s scholarship fund. A guitar signed by Kenny Chesney was auctioned off and brought in almost $5,000 from Chuck Stark, who will be adding it to his signed guitar collection. A 50/50 raffle also brought in $2,000 for FMO.
The generosity of Fort Myers Offshore members and backers was on full display during the event.
“It was especially nice to have so many friends of Brian Connelly there to celebrate his life including his sons Greg and Gary,” he continued. “Our own Terry Sobo, as well as Gary Robertson, who were both close, lifelong friends of Brian said a few words and that started the snowball of charity rolling.”
But the event wasn’t without its challenges for the Hills and their fellow organizers. They arose yesterday morning to four- to five-foot seas in the Gulf of Mexico and quickly decided that the group would make the trip on the protected Intracoastal Waterway. As of Friday, a mechanical issue with the helicopter they’d booked for photographer Pete Boden left them without a platform for speedonthewater.com’s lead shooter.
“Cyndee and I scrambled to find another chopper, which became an all-day event scouring south Florida for a bird,” said Hill. “We were able to secure a Jet Ranger out of Fort Pierce just 14 hours before the event.
Photographer Jeff Helmkamp joined Devin Wozencraft in his 32-foot Victory catamaran for the day.
“We had a ‘special guest’ in the air along with the helicopter, as one of our club members brought out his Russian MIG Jet and did some low fly-by passes,” he added. “He put on quite a show.”
Such are the problems event organizers face often, and the Hills make resolving them look easy. But the seamlessness of the event did not go unnoticed by speedonthewater.com contributing photographer Jeff Helmkamp, who joined the run with high-performance marine insurance man Devin Wozencraft in his 32-foot Victory catamaran.
Yesterday’s run wasn’t just Helmkamp’s first Fort Myers Offshore event, which boasted it largest fleet since Hurricane Ian blasted through Southwest Florida in late-September 2022. It was his first time boating in Southwest Florida.
Hoodies and jackets were the order of the day for those who made the run.
“It was a great run, very well-planned and executed, with a whole lot of boats,” he said. “And the raft-up was at Fisherman’s Village was a very cool sight to see.”
And no one was happier to see it than Tim Hill.
“As we usually do, we overwhelmed the restaurant and where probably well beyond capacity, but the staff did a great job of taking care of our members,” he said. “There are very few places you can arrive with an armada of big high-performance boats and flood a restaurant with 400 people simultaneously and not have some hiccups, but the Village Brewhouse handled our group in stride. This is the only location can accommodate 92 boats and our club members did a great job of rafting up as they always do.
“Cyndee and I are truly blessed to have such great board members and appreciative club members,” he added. “It makes all of the time and effort of raising money for our local students that much more gratifying. And having a media partner like Speed On The Water isn’t bad, either.”
Few venues outside Fisherman’s Village offers. enough dockage to accommodate such a large fleet.
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