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The Wind At Their Backs

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By JOHN TISCHNER

For The Suncoast News

Published: January 30, 2009

They can zoom along at up to 80 mph and venture into wet territory where most watercraft cannot go. They are airboats, a growing recreational, albeit expensive, hobby in Florida.
Tarpon Springs resident Joyce Rondos, who moved to Florida from Ohio in 1983, got the airboat bug from her late husband, Steve. He worked for an airboat manufacturer in Tarpon Springs before the owner moved the business to Inverness, in Citrus County.

The Rondoses built their own airboat, which is stored on the waterfront in Tarpon Springs. It has a super-charged Lycoming 480-cubic-inch aircraft engine that can hit 80 mph.

"We take it out in the Gulf but it is much nicer to ride on the rivers like those in the Everglades," she said. The airboat runs on aviation fuel available only at airports, which now costs about $5 a gallon. "We didn't run it much lately because of the expense," she said.

Early on, Joyce Rondos worked as a graphic artist for the now-defunct daily newspaper The Clearwater Sun. So it was a natural transition when she started the national Airboating Magazine last year with husband Steve, who died in August.

"It is like Full Throttle," she said, referring to a motorcycle publication. "We saw an opportunity for a niche magazine."

There had been a similar publication that went out of business, she said.
Rondos tapped her friend Laurie Hauke, who was a business consultant and an Internet technology professional, to help with the business end, she said.

"We put a plan together."

The slick, 72-page bimonthly magazine proved to be a success. Hauke serves as editor.

Many communities have noise ordinances that require airboats to be off the waterways by 10 p.m.

"Despite reports of some communities that airboat noise is excessive," Rondos said, "it is not really any louder than 90 decibels at 50 feet."

The average leaf blower measures 70 to 75 decibels at 50 feet, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Airboats can be functional as well as recreational, such as for search-and-rescue missions.

In September, airboats were used to hunt for a missing child in the Orlando area and in 2004 helped rescue residents in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. One such group, the FL-3 Airboat Search and Rescue group, based in Tampa, is composed of law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians. The group recently launched Bark Ark, an emergency pet and animal flood-rescue program.

Airboating became popular in the 1940s and '50s in the Florida Everglades, Rondos said, when smaller boats were used mainly for frog gigging, using a spear to catch frogs for their legs, considered by some as a delicacy.
Rondos said airboat use now is more prevalent in Central Florida, near lakes Kissimmee, Wales and George, and in South Florida.

Other popular areas are Nebraska and Michigan where there are many lakes, Rondos said. "It's even big in Alaska and Canada."

"It's a lot of fun. I enjoy being on an airboat. There is a lot of beautiful scenery that can be seen in areas that regular boats cannot go. It is something like having a Harley, but with a boat," she said

Tom Jeffords owns Jeffords Airboats in Lake Wales. He has been building airboats since 1988. Prices start around $15,000 and top out at $75,000 for a custom boat, Jeffords said.

That $75,000 will get you a top-of-the line product with a 540-cubic-inch Lycoming aircraft engine. The engine alone costs $60,000, Jeffords said. The engine predicates "not how fast they go but where they go," said Jeffords, referring to areas such as shallow and low-lying waters, which regular craft cannot navigate.

Not everyone has that kind of money, Jeffords said, so "there are lots of auto-engine boats being built today." The engines are redesigned; "It's not the engine that comes out of a car. It's big-time modified," he said

Patti Kowalski lives in New Port Richey and works for Pasco County government. She developed an interest in airboating around three years ago when she took her first ride. "It was incredible," she said. "You get to see beautiful parts of the country that you wouldn't see on a regular boat. Of course, there is the thrill of the speed," she said with a chuckle.

Kowalski calls airboating "adventurous." "I go anytime I have the chance," often two or three times a month, she says.

Airboating requires ear protection, life jackets, flares, paddles and a license from the Coast Guard.

AIRBOAT ABCs

For information on airboating, visit:

www.airboatingmagazine.com

The Florida Airboat Association at www.florida airboat.org

West Coast Airboat Club at http://westcoastairboatclub net/

Jeffords Airboats, e-mail jeffordsairboats@verizon.net

Another local airboat group, the Suncoast Airboat Association, is forming in the Pasco-Pinellas area. Contact Mary Beth at mchodil@ tampabay.rr.com.

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