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, steel over traditional lines, 55 feet, gaff-rigged with a topsail. The operator’s vessel page gives that provenance and calls her a modern boat built to look like the nineteenth-century coastal schooners that worked this water: flush deck, bow sprit, wood trim and belaying pins, and rigging a guest can ask the crew about. 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.
Trips leave from the docks at The BoatDega on Gulf Blvd, 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. Parking behind the restaurant is included, water is provided, and guests bring their own drinks or buy them from the ship’s store. The company also runs burials at sea, and keeps a second boat, the ketch Suncoast Escapade, 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.
Featured Tampa Bay · Cape Coral
Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound bareboat operator working out of Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral. Sister to Florida Sailing & Cruising School. The same fleet runs ASA instruction one week and bareboat charter the next.
Featured Daysail Tampa Bay · Naples
Naples's longest-running sailing catamaran by its own account, a 53-foot Gold Coast cat carrying 44 passengers from the Naples City Dock since 1991. Daily sunset, shelling and sightseeing seat sails and private charters. The company's Sweet Tiki is a motor boat.
Tampa Bay · Bradenton Beach
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.