Sailboats, luxury yachts and boats dropped anchor in Port Arthur to celebrate the Fifth Annual Spring Fling Pleasure Island Rendezvous on Saturday.
The three-day Memorial Weekend event brought sailboats and power boats from Lake Charles to Galveston including Port Arthur and Beaumont.
Jerry Simoneaux, cruise captain with the Texas Mariners Cruising Association which hosted the event, took a seat at the covered food tent to talk about the Spring Fling as a drone took flight nearby snapping photos of the numerous boats.
“The biggest boat out here is 70-feet and the smallest that was sailed here is 27-feet. The owner sailed it by himself,” Simoneaux said as friends stopped by periodically to greet him. “This is our fifth year to have Spring Fling and second to have it in Port Arthur. This year has record attendance. It was a hard sell, not because of Port Arthur but because some of these boats draw 6-feet of water.”
Luckily club officials showed that the Pleasure Island Marina and the area has enough depth for the larger vessels to travel.
The nautical visitors had lots to do while at the event. Besides making new friends and visiting old friends their were also numerous boating seminars with topics ranging from marine electronics and rules of the road to boating medical, sail and canvas repair and maintenance and anchoring held at the Port Arthur Yacht Club.
The food tent was also a place to hang-out when not on the water. A number of seminars were held here also including a wine seminar.
Christina Fontenot of China, Texas and friend Lucy Leger who lives on Pleasure Island enjoyed their walk along the floating docks visiting with boat owners.
“I think it’s great,” Fontenot said. “They need to have more events out here.”
The duo were joined by friend Mike Gill who owns a Catalina 320, 35-foot sailboat named Burchard’s Bounty.
Simoneaux enjoys coming to Pleasure Island.
“It’s a premium marina and one of the most beautiful from Corpus to Lake Charles,” Simoneaux said. “There’s a beautiful setting and community and the brand new boat docks which are made for every kind of boat from small motor boat to 70-foot yacht.”
The TMCA is a social boating club and nonprofit organization based in Clear Lake.
E-mail: mary.meaux@panews.com
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