Mount Dora, Florida

March 2006

Here's a teaser of the helicopter shots...will keep you posted on the distribution of 'em.

Thursday came before you knew it. The Jersey Boys with Sir Alter Ego JS-11, Witness the Quickness JS-72, Lickity Splitter JS-33 and Pure Adrenalin JS-12 were here since Sunday. They knew the lake and were getting familiar with the area like true Floridians. Still not knowing what the weekend would bring kept us on our toes. The skiffs put in at Tremble Park and what a great idea that was. We had the ramp for ourselves to test and put the boat on the trailer, make adjustments and test again. Julian Rucki was busy making adjustments for some skiffers most of the day. Charlie Boland in his new skiff "Suds" was in and out of the water all day getting adjusted also. We haven't mentioned Charlie as one of the Jersey Boys only because he kept a low profile. Charlie had borrowed seats from Doug Whichello which arrived Thursday morning. Charlie made the best out of them and was able to run the weekend. Another Jersey Boy down for the weekend was Huck Saunders and his "Cloud Nine". Huck's brother Jamie lives in Florida.

 Tremble Park is one lake over on Lake Beauclaire and five minutes from the show. The water is usually calmer and the skiffs could run and not bother anyone. The Jersey Boys spent lots of time there getting dialed in. Trevor "Witness the Quickness" is a maniac! Ya have to love him, to see his boat, one might think it's gonna fall apart. We tried parking him between mine and Sir Alter Ego and hopefully some shine would rub off for him, and speed for us. I heard Lickity Splitter borrowed two hotel lamps and a sawsall to chop part of his plate one evening! Still waiting for the picture. They entertained Marcy and Freddie Zbranak all week. By the way, before the week was half over, they put the chain away and were convinced, their boats wouldn't get stolen.

By Thursday evening almost all the skiffs were here. We had 41 in the water and 4 on land. I worked the ramp at Tremble for the day and everything went as planned. Next year hopefully the park will be as gracious, and we will have use of it again.

Thursday Night Early Arrivers Party at the Crazy Gator

We all have been planning for the Mt. Dora Boat Show for quite some time.  One of the items Marty and Claire organized was the Thursday Night Early Arrivers Get Together at the Crazy Gator in Eustis.  Months before reservations were made for the back room for 40 – 45 people. 

The party was planned to start at 6:00 pm.  There were a few early arrivers and attempts were made to play skiff CD’s on the TV’s but with no luck – turns out we didn’t need it because we all had plenty of talking, meeting and greeting to do!

The group quickly grew from 20, to 30,  to 50 and by the end of the night the management let us know we couldn't count, 118 people stopped by for a drink a quick bite and also to meet all the long lost fellow skiffers.