Tampa Bay · Treasure Island
Gaff-rigged topsail schooner sailing from Treasure Island out through John's Pass into the Gulf. Suncoast Horizon is 55 feet, built in 2000 to a Merritt Walter design, certified for 28 guests and held to about 21. Sunset and day sails by the seat, plus private charters.
Suncoast Horizon is a two-masted schooner drawn by Merritt Walter and built in 2000 by A & M Manufacturing of Old Town, Florida, on the Suwannee River, steel over traditional lines, 55 feet overall and 44 on deck, drawing four and a half feet, gaff-rigged with a topsail and seven red sails hoisted by hand. The operator’s vessel page gives that provenance, calls her the last schooner built to Walter’s 55-foot Merry Rover design, and describes her as a working replica of the schooners of old with modern comforts: commissioned by Capt. Joe Stumpf of Kemah, Texas, and launched as Capt Kidd, she worked Galveston Bay out of Kemah and Seabrook from 2000 to 2021 before coming to Florida late that year. She is Coast Guard inspected for 28 passengers and the company caps her at roughly 21, which is the difference between a certificate and a comfortable afternoon. Her nearest relatives sailing in Florida are Walter designs too: Schooner Freedom in St. Augustine, the first Rover passenger schooner, and the Jolly II Rover in Key West.
Trips of about two and a half hours leave from the company’s own dock at The BoatDega on Gulf Blvd, check-in in the orange building attached to the north side of the Waffle House, and run out through John’s Pass into the open Gulf with Madeira Beach and St. Pete Beach either side, or stay in Boca Ciega Bay when the Gulf is rough. There are no sandbar or swimming stops. Parking on site is included, water is provided, and guests bring their own drinks or buy them from the ship’s store. The company, which opened in Treasure Island in 2019 and led the fleet into Tampa Bay for Tall Ships St. Pete in 2023, also runs burials at sea, and keeps a second boat, Suncoast Escapade, a 44-foot Whitby 42 centre-cockpit ketch of 1976 taking up to six, for smaller trips with founder Capt. Richie Mahoney aboard. Mahoney holds a 1600/3000-ton Coast Guard master’s licence, started sailing at four on the lakes of northeast Tennessee, and has been taking guests out for more than 25 years; two further licensed captains share the schooner’s helm.
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Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound bareboat operator working out of Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral. Sister to Florida Sailing & Cruising School, whose ASA courses run on the charter boats as well as on a school-only Beneteau 38.
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Gulf-front beach rental on Anna Maria Island, family run for forty years and, by its own account, the only place on the island renting sailboats. Hobie Wave and Hobie Getaway catamarans by the hour or half day, first come, first served, with a short lesson for first-timers.