7th SE Aquasport gathering

[RickK]

I realize it's a little late but it was a struggle for me to decide where to hold the gathering.
We will hold this gathering in Sarasota and I have 2 places in mind:
1) Lido park in Big Pass (south of Longboat Key and also south end of Lido Key) Has a launch ramp at 10th street about 1 - 1.5 miles away.
2) Beer Can Island (north end of Longboat key)  Has a launch ramp just north of Longboat pass (5 minutes away)

I think that Beer Can will be good for the northern members but I think Lido might be better for the southern ones - about 11 miles difference.
If anyone else knows of another good place to hold it I'm all ears.  We could go south to Venice but there isn't much in the way of hangout places there - Snake Island is almost washed away.

[RickK]

I voted for the 7th but am ok either weekend.

[RickK]

Here is where Beer Can is in relation to the pass


Here is Lido Park and the closest ramp (nice - has 6 ramps)

[Circle Hooked]

The 7th sounds good, but as beercan island goes if anyone has young children, there is a fast current that rips through that pass.

[striper 17]

Theres a lot of great fishing around johns pass , as far as the strong current theres a little area on the backside that has little to no current. I plan on joining the event hopefully there will be an early morning tide.

[RickK]

John's pass is farther north - Treasure Island area.

[14cwater]

If we do beer can island just make sure everyone is there early because that place gets packed on the weekends.

[RickK]

Never can guarantee that anyone will be early except me and that's because I camped there the night before (Oh ...and CuSnookin is always early too   )
We can only hold so many spots before people muscle their way in.

[striper 17]

Longboat pass is what I meant to say guess I was just thinking of other places . I seem to get confused alot. Good place though.

[cusnooking]

Ha Rick did you get the 17 running. The 7th looks good for me!

[RickK]

Ha Rick did you get the 17 running. The 7th looks good for me!

Yup, amazing what a grand will get you.  Based on what I can see, some of the stuff I didn't "think" was necessary, actually helped.  What I mean is I hate 'troubleshooting by replacement' and it seemed like they were doing just that. I used to have excess un-burnt fuel/oil running out by the skeg of the lower unit in front of the prop.  I was told by several people it was that - unburnt fuel.  The shop replace the "recirc" valve or something that sends this stuff back "somewhere" (to be burned again?) it solved that problem.
They also found bad head "seals", adjusted the carbs and then finally the powerpack was the culprit.  They put in a used one of those.
The boat runs great now.

I'll more than likely bring the 230 unless Dave backs out at the last minute - we'll be camping out somewhere near the gathering for a few days. He says he has an old buddy that wants to hang with us this time, bringing his own boat (I assume an AS), so that makes it 4 boats at a minimum.  

Are you going to run down or tow it? Beautiful run down the ICW - just crossing TB can be a b*tch if it whips up..... especially in a 170 (been there done that).

[cusnooking]

I'll be towing to 10th st, I hope the weather holds.

[RickK]

I'll be towing to 10th st, I hope the weather holds.

I still haven't decided the gathering spot but 10th st is a good ramp and as early as you get there, you'll have no problems with the crowd.  There seems to be a few "rushes" of crowd there - the early morning rush which fills a lot of spots, then they all come back in around noon and another rush shows up to take the parking spots around that time.
I forget, do you have a chart plotter on your boat?  Reason I ask is even though Sarasota bay is for the most part 6+ ft deep there are some areas you can get into trouble - a chart plotter would help you there.
Also, Sarasota Bay is known to whip up pretty bad too if the weather gets snotty - the bay is pretty big, like a mile+ wide and about 8+ miles long.  We'll keep our fingers crossed for good weather.  This is the time for northerly winds though which can make for a long trip in the bay.  If it looks like it's going to be less than perfect weather, Lido park is the place to go because it blocks the north winds.

[LilRichard]

My vote is beercan, only because I can get there from Tampa Bay easily (assuming now big cold fronts).  Date does not matter.

[14cwater]

I vote for beer can.