Keys Island Runners Islamorada Run Including FPC Boat Show Exhibit Welcome Party

With a go-fast powerboat and products show incorporated into his annual Florida Powerboat Club Miami Boat Show Poker Run, set for February 18-21, organizer Stu Jones is encouraging attendees to come by water or land. Thanks to a collaboration with Daniel Garcia, III, the Key West, Fla.-based founder of the Keys Island Runners group, arrivals by water should be particularly strong—at least on the day the exhibit opens.

Starting with a welcome party at Gilbert’s Resort thanks to the Florida Powerboat Club, the annual Keys Island Runners Key Largo to Islamorada Fun Run will have a few more wrinkles this year. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

As it did last year, the FPC event shares dates with the Keys Island Runners Key Largo to Islamorada Fun Run. On Friday, February 19, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., the club is hosting a welcome party for the group at Gilbert’s Resort, the Key Largo host venue for the FPC’s in-water and on-land displays.

To handle dockage limitations at Gilbert’s without creating logistical nightmares, Jones and the FPC crew have created a transient docking reservation form on the FPC website where Keys Island Runners participants can sign up and secure space. (Jones has already distributed a few printed forms to Garcia but moving forward would-be attendees should use the online form.) Slip cost is one dollar per (boat) foot. Advance sign-up is required for attendees who want to use the docks at Gilbert’s.

“We already have 10 reservations in and it’s going great,” said Jones. “The link is in a red box on the right of the FPC Miami Boat Show Poker Run page.”

Garcia and company will follow up the FPC-hosted party with a 5:30 p.m. raft-up in Buttonwood Sound Basin. Starting at noon the following day, the Keys Island Runners group will head from Buttonwood Sound Basin to the Islamorada “Tiki” Sandbar for its daylong raft-up, which will be followed by an evening bash at Hog Heaven Sports Bar and Grill in Islamorada. Garcia also has booked a block of rooms for Keys Island Runners participants at the Post Card Inn. (Reservation information and booking are available through the group’s Instagram account and additional information on the event is posted on its Facebook page.)

Said Garcia, “I don’t know what to expect for the event—it’s only a fun run—but usually 100-plus boats show up if the weather isn’t bad.”

The famed Islamorada sandbar is the focal point of February’s Keys Island Runners event.

Keys Island Runners Islamorada Run Including FPC Boat Show Exhibit Welcome Party

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