Cedar Key Redfish Tournament

[hillrunnerfl]

I read an story last week in the Cedar Key Beacon about the way the airboats took over the beach during the tournament.
A lot of people living in Cedar Key, and those visitors using the beach the Sunday of the tournament are really pissed off at the way the boat drivers handled the whole deal.
Several of the boats pulled up on the beach at the beginning of low tide and ended up beached when they tried to leave for fishing. The boats blew sand and other debris all over a lot of people. Several boats had a lot of trouble getting off the sand.
It seems like everytime I think we are making some headway in getting along with non-airboaters, something like this happens.
Everyone that was down there knows what happened. Those guilty parties know who they are, but probably don't realize the damage they did to the airboat community.
Keep it up and we will all be planting flowers in our boats.

 

[CaneFan]

You see it all the time " guns don't kill people, people kill people". Well the same holds true here. Airboats aren't killing airboating, people are killing airboating. It all comes down to common sense and common courtesy. When our dad was teaching us how to run airboats he was always most concerned that we had situational awareness and we understood how our actions with the boat affected people and things around us. You can't always avoid blasting someone with prop wash but you should at least give them some warning. I'm sure if the boaters in question would have said to the others on the beach, " I've gotten myself into a bind here and getting myself out is going to be loud and messy you might want to stand clear" allot of the hard feelings could have been avoided.

 

[curdog]

Well said WP. I was running a couple of weeks ago and came across a group of kayakers. I went way out of my way to avoid them. I could tell the were Yankees on vacation and I sure did not want to blow them around. I wanted them to think of Airboaters in a positive light.

 

[Anonymous]

Since this was a sponsored event, why didn't an event coordinator assist both the boat operators & the bystanders? Was there an area of the beach posted off for backblast?
When I see a Yankee standing behind an airboat, I attempt to educate them before the boat powers up.

We all gotta think before we act..........Common courtesy........

 

[muffled500hp]

Guys, I was a spectator watching the start of the fishing tournament. There were a couple boat accidently beached because of the tide. But, I can assure you there were not anyone sunbathing on the beach at 7:15am. The whole beach was roped off for the fishing tournament that morning, so no one that was not part of the event was allowed within 150 feet of the beach. In the afternoon at weigh in, boats were only allowed to drive up to the section that was roped off for the tournament for a short time (just long enough to weigh their fish).

I did get to talk with that reporter for the Cedar Key Beacon and personally I have never met someone so negative. Not just toward airboaters, but on every issue we discussed. From the fishing tournament to motorcycles to airplanes, if it were left up to him none of these things would ever be allowed in Cedar Key. This guy is just a selfish person and a very bias reporter. I guess that explains why he works for the Cedar Key Beacon and not CNN or Fox News.

 

[CaneFan]

That is very unfortunate that people like that are given jobs where their only motivation is to foward and champion their own crusades. Sounds like the kind of guy that would complain about a good, well you know about anything.

 

[becktc2004]

I was at the tournament the other day.There were a few bad apples,but over all every one was courteous.GTO put on a great tounament,if the bad apples would have came to the captains meeting then they would have heard Norm stress DO NOT SRAY SAND ON THE BEACH.The tournament brings alot of money to cedar key.I think about 60 boats were in it,two person average,that adds up to alot of gas,bait,drinks and hotel rooms.I would think that the reporter should be commiting on the good not the bad. Also norm and the guys from GTO could improve on the handling of the rules.The waiting in line to have your boat checked
in the morning causes undue stress on the captains and all the other boats waiting in line to go fishing.This causes animosity between the airboaters and the regular boats.Also this in turn caused a back up of boats on the beach waiting to launch when the tide went out.again the simple solution to all this would be safe light launch and be back by four.
As to people getting sprayed on the beach,there was nobody on the beach

 

[Anonymous]

Hummmm.
If the reporter is reporting a bunch of bias BS, post the article & lets write the paper a few letters about their distortion. This action seemed to have worked for the Ocala Star Banner last year.

 

[I Roll]

Never argue with a man that buys ink by the barrel.

 

[Anonymous]

Everyone that was down there knows what happened. Those guilty parties know who they are, but probably don't realize the damage they did to the airboat community.

Were you there?

Sounds like there might be some exageration on the part of the "Cedar Key Beacon"