Fort Myers Offshore Closes 2024/2025 Season With A Sporty Fan-Favorite

Despite the seemingly endless number of waterfront restaurants in Southwest Florida, only a fraction of them can accommodate 50 boats arriving at the same time. The means Fort Myers Offshore frequents a lot of the same lunch-run venues each. Like the members of the club, organizers Tim and Cyndee Hill would, of course, like to visit a different spot for each event.

It simply isn’t possible.

Fort Myers Offshore member Brandon Burgess was grateful for every inch of his 36-foot Skater catamaran in yesterday’s rugged conditions. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

But in the case of the Riviera Bar and Grill in Punta Gorda, familiarity breeds contentment. The nonprofit scholarship fundraising group had already visited the place twice during its 2024/2025 season and returned yesterday for its finale presented by Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats. Complaints about the destination from the 52 club members—from Mikey Boyle of New Jersey and Michigan’s Dave Burgess to Chris Fisher and Christy Foote of Vermont—and their guests were nonexistent.

Either the Riviera is just that cool or the sporty-plus water around Sanibel Island had the group just happy to be anywhere but offshore. Most of the fleet headed for the Intracoastal Waterway when presented with the rowdy conditions in the Gulf, but they still had to deal with some rough stuff in transition.

With just 52 registered boats for yesterday’s event, finding space at the Riviera Bar and Grill was a relative breeze.

No stranger to sporty water, Florida Powerboat Club head president Stu Jones, who ran his Nor-Tech 390 Sport center console with his wife, Jackie, and Nor-Tech chief operating officer Henrik Margård, offered a simple assessment of the conditions and an even simpler strategy for comfortably tackling them.

“It was rough,” he said. “So we just tucked in everything, slowed down and hunkered down for the ride.”

The ever-joyful Mikey Boyle didn’t miss a Fort Myers Offshore in his MTI 390X catamaran during the 2024/2025 season.

Of the lunch runs produced by Fort Myers Offshore this year, three had the Riviera property on the shores of Alligator Creek as their destination. The prior two set attendance records. The club’s Turkey Run in early December 2024 attracted 52 registered boats, though cool weather knocked the total turnout to 43 boats as a lot of members chose to come by car.

But the club’s Holiday Fun Run a few weeks later eclipsed that mark with 107 boats registered and 91 that actually made it to the Riviera docks.

Brandon Mayer and company had plenty of boat for the conditions in his Mystic C4000 catamaran.

That kicked off a string of record-setters in 2025 including the 62-boat fleet that made it to Miller’s Dockside event, the 79 boats that arrived for the Naples Hyatt House affair and the 56-boat fleet in the run that traveled to Three Fishermen restaurant, a record that is sure to be broken as it was the club’s first visit to the Fort Myers venue. 

But back to yesterday’s happening.

Florida Powerboat Club head Stu Jones made the run in Nor-Tech 390 Sport center console No. 500 with his wife, Jackie, and Nor-Tech’s Henrik Margård.

Though I planned to ride with the Jones duo and Margård  from the Westin Cape Coral Resort, I backed out at the last minute when my ancient car died on the way to the hotel docks. My best guess is some sort of massive electrical issue, but as anyone who’s ever watched me handle a wrench call tell you I’m no mechanic. I do know, however, that whatever fix is required for the fix will be expensive, as repairs on a 13-year-old BMW with 142,000 miles on the odometer don’t come cheap.

Despite a long Uber trip after waving people around my deceased ride for 30 minutes, I made it to the Riviera in plenty of time to enjoy lunch with the Jones duo and Margård. And during the mea, we agreed that we felt privileged to join the Fort Myers Offshore group for its final lunch together until next season.

It’s remarkable group.

Enjoy more images in the slideshow above.

“Everyone is super-laidback,” Hill said. “For the most part, there are no egos. There are no cliques. Everyone gets along. Everyone comes to have a good time and raise some money for a great cause.”

By May, most of those fine folks will be back in their homes in the Upper Midwest, the Northeast and Canada for the summer. Come fall, they’ll be back in Southwest Florida and ready for a good time on the water.

The protected waters of the Intracoastal Waterway provided relief from the sport conditions in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hassle that they were, my automobile woes saved me from a mild offshore beating, something I appreciated skipping as I just took one last weekend during the Florida Powerboat Club Tampa Bay Poker Run. (A few of my parts still remind me.) My days of “enjoying” rough-water rides—much less pretending to—are long gone.

But spending time with members of Fort Myers Offshore group? That never gets old—regardless of the destination.

The 2025/2026 Fort Myers Offshore season will begin in October and the Riviera Bar and Grill will be on the destination list—likely more than once.

Coverage of the 2024/2025 Fort Myers Offshore 2024/2025 Season
Fort Myers Offshore Season-Finale Leaning Toward Lighter Turnout
Cayo Costa Softly Kills It
Fort Myers Offshore Going Extra Casual At Cayo Costa
Nor-Tech Returning To Back Fort Myers Offshore Season Finale
Three Fishermen Venue Hooks Fort Myers Offshore
Another First-Time Destination On Tap For Fort Myers Offshore
Fort Myers Offshore Naples Lunch Run—79 Boats, One Lesson And Two Thrashings
Fort Myers Offshore Naples Run Already A Record-Setter—With A Week To Go
Fort Myers Offshore Maxes Out Millers Dockside With Ease
Fort Myers Offshore Bound For Millers Dockside—At Last
Fort Myers Offshore Holiday Fun Run Roars To Record-Setting Life
Fort Myers Offshore Returning To Riviera Venue For Holiday Fun Run
Fort Myers Offshore Turkey Run Turnout Sets New Record
Fort Myers Offshore Pivots To Junkanoo Lunch-Spot For Season-Opener
Fort Myers Offshore Enters 2024/2025 Season Undaunted