It's All About Personal Relationships.......

I was honored to bring remarks on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners to Monday's lease signing between the City of Pensacola and the American Magic sailing team.  

Monday's signing ceremony between American Magic's sailing team and the City of Pensacola at the Port of Pensacola was the culmination of years' worth of work by lots of individuals and carried to fruition due to the generosity, hard work and determination by a host of entities.

To much press fanfare and celebration, American Magic's skipper Terry Hutchinson joined current Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and a raft of elected officials and other dignitaries on a chamber of commerce weather day at the port to formalize a 10-year agreement.

It was a huge day, and the event was covered in multiple press outlets.  The American Magic webpage celebrated the deal as transformational.  It was a massive win-win of epic proportion.

And it all happened due to a long standing friendship between area Icon and surgeon, Dr. James Andrews, and members of the American Magic team, chiefly Terry Hutchinson(skipper) and Doug DeVoss (principal).

Often times in life, when good things happen, there is a story behind the story......And just as ofter--It's all about personal relationships.

This story is no different.

The DeVoss family and Dr. Andrews all enjoy competitive sailing.  Dr. Andrews competed in numerous America's Cup races over the years, and had a boat named Abracadabra.  A number of years back, Dr. Andrews was building a boat in Maui and the DeVoss family lent a helping hand to finish it up.

Years later, as American Magic was sailing in Key West and had run into some bureaucratic hiccups with the local government down there---a call went out from the team up here to Pensacola.  To Dr. Andrews specifically.

"You all need to come up here to Pensacola" was Dr. Andrews' advice to them.

Shortly thereafter, in early 2018, Dr. Andrews spoke with his good friend and then Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward.  The conversation centered around the port.  Could they use space at the port?  was the question.

Ashton enthusiastically supported the idea, the team sent a contingent up to Pensacola, and they began sailing here that year.  And their presence has grown here every year since.  And each successive mayor has carried forward the baton of this project.

A few years later, in 2021, local restaurantier Collier Merrill and Commodore Tom Pace from the Pensacola Yacht Club began to publicly advocate for an expanded presence for American Magic here in Pensacola.  They approached me with the idea after a TDC meeting and I encouraged them to come the very next day to the regular Board of County Commissioners meeting to gain additional support.  Which they did and which support they did gain.  Then the Tourist Development Council, a board upon which I sat and still remain a member of  supported the project, then Triumph Gulf Coast, then the Governor's Job Growth fund and Escambia County and the City of Pensacola.

Everyone got on board, and this lease happened Monday.  It will be an enormous win for our area and will make Pensacola, Florida, the sailing epicenter of the United States.

But it didn't happen in a vacuum, and it wasn't a one man show.

Lots of folks carried the water, pushed and made it happen.

And none of it would have happened had it not been for a personal relationship that was nurtured and maintained over decades of time--interspliced with other overlapping personal relationships.

Because it's all about personal relationships. Life, governance, sailing, and team building, too!