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!

Tremendous Visibility for our Community via American Magic's Time in Barcelona (And PENSACOLA Featured Prominently on the Sail!)

Pensacola, Florida is prominently featured on the American Magic's team sails which will be utilized over the next 16 months in Barcelona as the world awaits the next America's Cup race which will be held in Barcelona in 2024

 

The county, city, the Tourist Develoment Council, and state have worked diligently to help support  Pensacola Bay as the training center for America's Cup contender "American Magic."  Based out of the New York Yacht Club--the American Magic team has been practicing in the Pensacola Area for the last three years for the next America's Cup sailing race.

A group of elected officials were given a tour of the American Magic sailing facilities late last year, and I have met the skipper of the boat and many of the crew members on a number of occasions over the last year and a half.

Recently, the county, city, the tourist development council,and state have joined forces to put together a funding plan to make Pensacola Bay the permanent training center for the American Magic.  An $8.5 Million dollar project was  announced last month to fund a state of the art training and sailing center for American Magic's team at the port of Pensacola.  This project will bring more than 100 good jobs to our area paying an average of more than $100K per job. That project is moving forward.

Meanwhile, the American Magic team has now made their way over to the site of the next world cup, Barcelona Spain.  the race will not occur until late 2024-- so the team will be there for the next 16 months training and preparing for that race.

After that, they will be back in Pensacola.  The future of sailing in Pensacola is really looking strong and a lot of folks are going to know about Pensacola because as the American Magic team races, practices, and prepares for the America's Cup race over the next 16 months--they will be utilizing sails that prominently feature "Pensacola" on these same sails--like the one above (found at minute 2:00 of this video from yesterday chronicling the team's time in Barcelona)

What great visibility for our community--what a great advertisement for the Pensacola area!

DeSantis Visit to Port of Pensacola and American Magic Team Was the Big Deal Meeting before the Rally

Area elected leaders and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tour the Port of Pensacola, 11-1-2022.  (from left, Escambia County Commission Chairman Jeff Bergosh, Pensacola Mayor-elect D.C. Reeves, Governor Ron DeSantis, Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson, and Escambia County Commissioner Robert Bender)

Prior to the election hoopla of the political rally at Pensacola's Fish House Restaurant downtown yesterday, an even more important and profound visit occurred at the Port of Pensacola.

Don't get me wrong, I was at the rally and it was fantastic.  You can all read about it here and here.  DeSantis hit all the high notes of the campaign, contrasting Florida's better approach to a number of hot button-issues (NO sex-change surgeries for adolescents, NO school lock downs, NO community lockdowns, NO mandatory masking, NO mandatory vaccines for children, NO vaccine passports, better tax policy, more intelligent budgeting, better public safety, better infrastructure, etc.) than that of his opponent's platform, the President's agenda, or any of the big blue states' current policy.  And he's right, by the way, Florida has it right.  And DeSantis  will win next week by a 9-point margin, that is my prediction.

But the big visit before the rally is/was more important than any political speech delivered after.

Locally elected leaders and area businessmen as well as the team from American Magic met at the port and saw the plans for a world class sailing facility for Pensacola where our bay and area could potentially be the premiere sailing and training facility in the nation.  That is the big deal.  There is a Triumph Gulf Coast ask in the works to help fund this endeavor--which would be a massive win for our area.  The County and City are already benefitting from over $4 Million dollars in direct spending from the more than 100 personnel from American Magic who have been here for the last several years training for the upcoming America's Cup race in Spain in a few years.  The team's presence here will have a financial impact of more than $8 Million dollars total in just the next 18 months.  Your can read all about the team, their goals, and their vision for their future Pensacola area plans here.

The tourist development commission, a board upon which I sit,  voted overwhelmingly to recommend to the county commission that we spend $500,000.00 to support American Magic's training here from bed tax revenues, and the BCC voted this forward--which represents a great return on investment.  

Going forward, the next steps are to solidify our area as the official training grounds for the American Magic via the committment of space at the port and some funding to match private funding and Triumph money which will allow for the construction of this modern, state-of-the art training facility here in Escambia County.  

If area leaders can make this happen--we will have a brand new industry here that will benefit youth, the sport of sailing, and the entire community for years to come.  

So yes, it was great to see the Governor get geared up for the ride on American Magic yesterday on Pensacola Bay on a perfect weather morning.  I'm sure it was a pleasant departure from his hectic campaign schedule and the blur of meetings, greetings, speeches and campaign stops.  I know one thing:  he won't see any more sophisticated sailboat racing equipment and sailing team members anywhere else he goes in the state.  We have a lock on that here in Pensacola Bay!   That--and the economic impact of a relationship between Pensacola/Sailing/American Magic/State Leadership---is why the meeting before the rally was so much more important.  See the additional photos from yesterday, below.