The spring of 2009 finds us on our annual spring break trip to Siesta Key, FL. After surfing yachtworld.com for a considerable period of time, the time has come that we thought it might be a good idea to actually look at a few of these boats live and up close. Where to start….

We opened the only sailing magazine that we brought with us to Florida and turned to the back to locate a yacht broker that might be nearby. We called one such broker who was in the Tampa area, just a 1 hour drive away from Siesta Key. We called and scheduled a day and time while we were in Florida to come over and see some boats they had for sale. We spent about 3 – 4 hours looking at 3 boats, all Island Packets. We looked at 2 Island Packet 380. One was “The Belle of Virginia” and the other was “Likeke” We also looked at an Island Packet 420 “New Harmony”. The owner was aboard the 420 and we found out he was from Minnesota, how awesome!

This trip has given us alot to think about, hmmmm….we kind of like those Island Packets.

Since we were in Florida and liked what we saw with the Island Packets, we took another day and did a factory tour of the Island Packet factory in Largo, FL. It was very educational to see them building boats with all the various stages of completion.