Skiffheads Meet in Stuart

By Nancy Bryant

The hot, hot weather couldn't keep the skiffheads from rallying in Stuart the weekend of Aug 13-14. Paul & Donna Nowack, "Heartbeat," hosted the event. Thanks to veteran skiff racer and Stuart resident Doug Whicello for all his work on promoting the event. The weekend rally was featured in the sports section of all Treasure Coast newspapers. The publicity created quite an audience at Sandsprint Park where we put in at 9 a.m.

Those attending were; Roger Harris in Breakin Water, Bill & Nancy Bryant in Falcon, Sandy & Marguerite McGugan in Hops a Lot,  Doug Whicello & Ron Gage, (board member of the Maritime Museum) in Big Bad Banana, Mark VanWinkle and Chris (Doug's son-in-law) in Star Ship, Bill Oakley  & sidekick Kermit the Frog in Wo Jo, the Nowacks, and Paul Kornalius in the chase boat. Claire & Marty Ferry showed up, without Puppy Love, and spent the day looking over the countryside! Don & Sharon Jocham along with Sandy & Jim Messina and a couple other ACBS members showed up at the ramp for our sendoff.

By 10am the skiffs were all fired up and raring to go. We headed north on the Intercostal Waterway then veered to the left to cruise up the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. It was dead calm and hot but what a beautiful ride. Fishermen on the banks would holler and give us the 'thumbs up.' The best fun was 4 or 5 of us running abreast at full throttle. Wow, what a rush! At the 'no wake zones' we'd idle back, put up our feet, enjoy the scenery and toss down the water. We thought ahead and brought a big golf umbrella for shade against the Florida sun. On the way back, Big Bad Banana overheated and had to be towed back to the ramp. Thank goodness for the chase boat.

By mid afternoon the group was ready for some ice tea and air-conditioning. Lunch at FINZ in Port Salerno was a brilliant choice. I'd highly recommend this place for outstanding food. Mmmm!  Afterward the skiffs blasted out of the Manatee Pocket heading north for a fast ride up to Ft. Pierce. Oops, where's Roger?? He missed a turn and was heading out to sea. Soon he rejoined the group running circles, cutting across wakes and entertaining the other boaters. Lightning in the clouds north of Jensen caused us to turn around. By 4 pm we were at the ramp. The men left with the skiffs to go to Paul's skiff garage to do wash downs and hang-out while the women left with Donna to prepare dinner at their waterfront condo. Wings, salads, roast pork, lasagna, beverages and deserts, what a spread. ACBS members and Port St. Lucie residents Sandy & Jim rejoined us that evening for the fun and storytelling. What an end to a tremendous day of skiffing.

The majority of us opted to skip Sunday's agenda to go through the locks to Lake Okeechobee. As an alternate we invited everyone to join us at the Pelican Yacht Club in Ft. Pierce for lunch and an afternoon cruise on our 65' Hatteras S/F Apache.

It was another fantastic weekend. Thank you Paul, Donna and Doug for all your planning. Watch for details about a skiff outing in Ft. Pierce in August 2006. 

Webmaster notes:

Thank you Nancy & Bill for the Sunday outing, it was FANTASTIC. I still would really like to go blue fishing off the stern! A successful event first time out. We look forward to another event in 2006. Claire & Marty