Gallery Of The Week: Friends And Family Converge

The driving force behind the Joey Gratton Memorial New Year’s Day Fun Run, Ryan Beckley has been nudging me to come to the Southwest Florida event for years. Now that I’ve been to the annual gathering, I won’t miss another one if I’m anywhere near the Sarasota/Bradenton area.

Nowhere is Ryan Beckley more at home than between Blake and Brock Gratton at the Joey Gratton Memorial New Year’s Day Fun Run he organizes each year. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Because the Gratton event, which celebrated its 13th anniversary on Monday at Caddy’s restaurant in Bradenton, is a friends-and-family-style happening in the performance-boating world, and one with the most laidback vibe imaginable. The run itself from Sarasota to Bradenton is short yet pretty, but the socializing is as good as it gets in the Sunshine State go-fast boating scene.

In the space of two hours—that was all the time I had—I caught up with everyone from my friends Priscilla Gratton and her sons Blake and Brock to offshore racers Chris Hopgood, Reese Langheim and Bill Grannis.

A bit later, while I talked shop with Lucy Nicandri, my favorite former offshore powerboat race organizer, speedonthewater.com contributing photographers Pete Boden and Jeff Helmkamp talked shop at a waterside table with their friends Devin Wozencraft and Skater Powerboats devotee and Seriousoffshore.com online community owner Paul Rose.

You couldn’t turn your head without seeing the likes of Julian Maldonado (Langheim’s throttleman) and his wife, Madison, and Jay Muller (Hopgood’s racing throttleman) and his partner, Leah Linebach.

But there was one person I didn’t see before I left. Ryan Beckley. Somehow, we kept missing each other.

But I’ll be back, Mr. Beckley. I’ll be back