Every year, a mountain of money is raised for charity at the Super Cat Fest Live Auction, which takes place during the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout weekend every year. This year’s auction takes place on Saturday evening, Aug. 29, and among the unique items up for grabs is a truly unique item being donated by speedboating icon Win Farnsworth (onetime owner of the legendary 50′ turbine-powered Mystic Low Altitude).
Farnsworth is auctioning off a very special weekend vacation to his private property located along South Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, “what many call the Venice of America,” he says. “We get all kinds of boat traffic and great people watching.” The winner of the auction will be picked up at the Hollywood-Fort Lauderdale airport, taken to Win’s home, and then be treated to a cruise to Miami in his 80′ Sunseeker M/Y 007. The weekend will include a watefront dining experience at one of Miami’s hottest restaurants on the water, additional dining at some of South Florida’s premiere restaurants, VIP dining service right on the boat, a day at Boca Lake for swimming and snorkeling, bar hopping, and exotic car cruises. “We invite you to come see how we live in South Florida, all expenses paid,” he says. (The winner will be responsible for the flight to Fort Lauderdale.)
Farnsworth told Speedboat that he and his girlfriend, Sara, are planning to stay home during this year’s Super Cat Fest—a tough decision, to say the least. “We love the event—it’s our favorite of the whole year,” he says. “Missing it was never something we ever intended to do. And not being able to help Alvin Heathman of Supercat Fest was going to be a problem for us. He asked if we’d be willing to auction off a trip down here. It’s a beautiful home on the water; we’ve got some really nice collector’s and performance cars, a nice yacht. There’s nothing quite like going out for a sunset cruise on the yacht or going to lunch in a GT3 RS. So we’re offering a chance for a couple to come down for a weekend and just have a blast.”
Sara, his partner, is equally disappointed not to be attending LOTO this year: “We’re just super bummed out that we couldn’t make it, but we’ll be there in spirit,” she says. “We hope we can raise some money, and give somebody the opportunity to enjoy what we do down here in Florida. Things are finally opening back up and are getting back to normal, which is good. We sold our Statement and our Wright Performance 420, then purchased the 80′ Sunseeker and ended up loving it. Then we decided to get a tender for it, so we bought a 34′ Airship RIB (rigid inflatable boat) week. We have all of our dive tanks aboard it as well.”
He says the winning couple can do any combination of land and water travel. “If they don’t want to go out on the big boat and just want to hang out, we can go to dinners or run around in cars,” Farnsworth says. “If they want to go on the boat every day. It’ll be a fun time with a lot of flexibility.”
After selling their Statement center-console, as well as the Wright Performance catamaran, will Farnsworth ever own another traditional powerboat? “Oh, I’m sure I will. I always say I won’t, but I probably will,” he laughs.
Live auction items will include:
• A full centerfold feature story in Speedboat Magazine (proceeds to benefit the Michael Pierce family).
• Floating Metal Lake of the Ozarks sign by Earth Born Traditions.
• Diamond Prop Necklace.
• Key West House for 8 days/7 nights.
• American Ethanol Prop, autographed in a case with photo of boat run 2019 (Onken family donation).
• Large (48”) Metal Tattered Flag Art (Onken Family donation).
• Large artwork/photo of Key West boat crash with drivers signatures and pieces of the race boats.
• Wave Armor PWC Drive on Lift (Poly Lift donation).
• 6-Step Wet Steps, color of choice (Wet Steps donation).
• 1971 Mustang Mach 1 Muscle Car (by Marine Concepts).
• 1969 Camaro COPO Clone Muscle Car (by Marine Concepts).
Silent Auction items:
• Key West Championship Flag by Wake Effects (donated by Rusty Rahm).
• 20’ Maui Water Mat (donated by Marine Max).