Atsena Otie Key, the daily rallying point at the meet, lies a short distance out from the town of Cedar Key.
Messin’ About in Small Boats— Cedar Key Boat Meet By Bruce Matlack Photos by Marty Noble Cover: Dale Nieman taking a break on Lively, a Core 17 built by B+B Boats, at the Cedar Key boat ”meet.” Photo by Marty Noble.
C
Ione, a wood sailing canoe, meticulously built by William Clements. 50
July 2009
SOUTHWINDS
edar Key is one of the oldest ports in the state, and when Florida’s first railroad connected it to the east coast, it became a major supplier of seafood and timber products to the Northeast. Once, wood pencils were a mainstay of the town. Today it has become a tourist town, haven for artesans and authors who find the unspoiled, uniquely “old Florida” seaport inspirational for their work. Each year, for the last 23 years or so, on the first weekend in May, small boater enthusiasts that number about 100 from all over the country gather to enjoy each other’s company, ideas and small boat creations or manufactured specialty craft. Rumor has it that it all began years ago as a strictly Sea Pearl event, and even today, the trusty six-inch, shallow-draft Sea Pearls dominate the event. I had my first sail on a Sea Pearl at this year’s event as a guest of longtime fellow windsurfing competitors, Kent and Barbara Bleakly from Tarpon Springs.. The accompanying pictures in this article tell one story, but the meet is about people and their stories, as much as it is about their craft and lifestyle. There was local sailor Mike Miller’s friend with an Ensenada 20 who told me a story about running a crab boat in the Pacific Northwest, and how he lost the overloaded crabber instantly on one death roll and spent the next five days in a life raft drifting off the Oregon coast hoping to be rescued. He told me his worse threat—after having no warmth, food or water—was a giant sea lion or sea elephant who had marked him for a meal. He described how the huge sea mammal would take a run at him from below and rocket him and the round raft five to six feet in the air trying to knock him in the water. I told him that famous cruising boat architect Lyle Hess designed his Ensenada 20, and that it was no doubt inspected www.southwindsmagazine.com