Hanna and Prime Plus perform well at Suncoast Race Week

Published 4:16 pm Monday, May 1, 2017

MOULTRIE – Frank Hanna will turn 84 on Aug. 1, but he is still a competitor.

And not a sedentary one either.

Hanna and his 12-member crew led his 45-foot Beneteau “Prime Plus” to an impressive performance in the recent Suncoast Race Week regatta.

Prime Plus finished first on both the first and second days of the three-day competition that started at Davis Island and finished in Tampa Bay.

On the third day, Hanna and his crew were just a minute out of first place.

“We did excellent,” said Hanna, who moved back to Moultrie two years ago after having spent the previous 16 years in Shell Point. “We’re definitely the people to beat.”

Hanna has been yacht racing for some 30 years and has raced Prime Plus since 1997, earning Boat of the Year honors “six or seven” times, he says.

The 39th Suncoast Race Week race is one of some 12 events sponsored by the Suncoast Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) and is one of the biggest.

The race started on Friday, April 7, at the Davis Island Yacht Club and finished at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

The following day, the race went from St. Petersburg to Bradenton. On Sunday, April 9, the final day, racing was from Bradenton to the finish line in Tampa Bay.

The course is about 21-22 miles each day, Hanna says. Prime Plus competes in the racer/cruiser class.

The race finishes the season, which runs from September through late March or early April. Of the 12 races this season, Prime Plus and its crew missed just one, Hanna says

Most of the Prime Plus crew is from the Tampa Bay area, although several are from Tallahassee.

“I really appreciate my crew,” Hanna says. “We have a great time. And they do so much for me.”

When he lived in Shell Point, Hanna would often “single-hand” his boat down to Clearwater, where races often started.

“My wife says I’ve done that enough,” he says. “But I’ve had a good time over the years.”

Hanna keeps the boat in Redington Shores and will take friends out while awaiting the next racing season.

And at an age when many have long since given up the competitive aspects of sailing, will Hanna come back for another season?

“My crew hopes I do,” he says. “I’ll go as long as I can. I’ve been a lucky man.”