If you’ve never been to or heard of the Bright House Clearwater Super Boat National Championship, you are probably wondering how exciting this could possibly be. However, these are no ordinary boats. These are multi-million dollar high-powered speed boats with sponsors such as Geico, Qatar Airways and STIHL. These impressive speed boats race around a 2.5 mile track in the Gulf of Mexico reaching incredible speeds up to 180 miles per hour. To say it is exciting is an understatement. To top it off, our VIP passes allowed us front row seats to the action, as well as access to the numerous parties going on all weekend.
We started the weekend off by attending the Baystar Race Village VIP Party at the Clearwater Harbor Marina in downtown Clearwater on Friday night. Because the VIP passes granted free use of the Jolly Trolley we took advantage of it. Unfortunately, by the time we made it downtown, the skies opened up and unleashed one hell of a storm. Umbrellaless, we made our way to the VIP tent to take cover, which happened to be just in time for the food buffet. We stuffed ourselves with Prime Rib, washed it down with a few beers and then headed out to check out the boats up close. With the rain not wanting to let up, we didn’t have a chance to capture any photos but we more than made up for it at the race on Sunday.
The VIP package provided many other perks as well, such as a free sailing or paddle boarding demo at the Clearwater Sailing Center the weekend of the race. Since we have never done either, we knew we wanted to take advantage of it. We headed to the Clearwater Sailing Center (across from the Sheraton Sand Key) on Saturday with the intention of trying our luck on the paddle boards. However, it happened to be a particularly windy day which does not make for a good paddle board day. It does, however, make a great day for sailing and that’s just what we did. It wasn’t a long ride, but just enough to convince us we definitely want to do it again in the future. Check out footage from our sailing in the video at the bottom!
We started our day at the Super Boat races at the Clearwater Hyatt on the 8th floor terrace. The view from up there provided spectacular views of not only the race, but all of Clearwater Beach. While anyone can view the races from up there, our VIP passes allowed us into the private party where they were serving up more food and drinks. What better way to watch the races than with a hotdog and a beer in hand on the 8th floor of the Hyatt?
That is, until we decided to move down to Pier 60 for the final race with the big boats to get some footage up close. When we made it to the end of the pier, we were blown away by the boats whizzing by us at massive speeds! While the Hyatt was great, you really couldn’t tell the sheer size and speed of these boats until you are up close and can feel the tension as they are flying past. This was by far the most exciting part of the day and we were glad we moved to the pier for the last laps. You’ll see what we mean in the video below!
If you ever make it out to the Bright House Clearwater Super Boat National Championship, we highly recommend going with the VIP package. The perks and benefits are well worth the $100 for the ticket, and there really is no better way to view the races than getting up close and personal with the boats!
A huge thanks to Clearwater Tourism for the opportunity to experience this thrilling event!
We are Brittany and Charlie - we traded the 9 to 5 and the so-called "American dream" to live our own dream and see the world. We sold all of our belongings and left the US in August 2013. For 5 years, we lived primarily in Thailand and built our online business and location independent lifestyle while we traveled to over 30 countries. We’ve had house sitting gigs on 3 different continents and we’ve even appeared on HGTV’s House Hunters International.
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