Baltimore Grand Prix 2012

[steppinstone]

Well it looks like the City of Baltimore and Indycar have managed to work out the problems from last year and there will be another Baltimore Grand Prix this year. I'm wondering who might be planning to go this year by boat (or otherwise) and what your plans might be.

Also, having not recently used the public facilities available to boaters at the Inner Harbor, can anyone offer any advice? And for those of you who attended last year, did you watch or could you see any of the track/events from the water?

Last summer I went to the Pier Six pavilion for a concert and chatted up some of the folks tied up to the bulkhead adjacent to the pier and they all spoke very highly of that area. This seems like it would be a good area to tie up for the race weekend but I think they might have some limitations on how long one could stay. I also don't recall if there are any services available in that area. It might be better to reserve in a marina but I'd imagine that would put your farther away from the action not to mention cost significantly more.

Hope to see some of you there this year.

 

[Lady Ashley SR560]

go to the public dock near the hooters $1 per ft per night just like the wall is but you have water and power

 

[steppinstone]

Sounds great. Thanks for the info.

 

[Lady Ashley SR560]

The race goes right past the area. I was there maybe one week prior to it last year . knew nothing about it. I was wondering what the hell are they building in the streets... was the grand stands it turns out .. lol

 

[hack4alivin]

We went to the race last year and made an entire weekend event out of it staying Thursday through Saturday nights. We used the Inner Harbor East Marina, for several reasons, but mainly because it is centrally located (Race, Little Italy, Fells Point….) for everything we wanted to do in the area.

I can tell you there is no view of the track from the water, so staying on the boat and watching any part of the race is not an option. Grand stands are spread out over the entire track and it is a bit of a walk around the entire area, but if you can handle the walking it is a lot of fun to scope out the different areas of the track, especially during the practice and preliminary laps. The look on the Admirals face when she saw the first car come down Pratt Street at over 170 mph was priceless! There was a lot of negative publicity for last year’s race, but I can tell you we had one hell of a good time the entire weekend, Baltimore Inner Harbor has a lot of great spots when you get to know them.

As far as the marinas go, anytime there is a big event going on in the harbor area all will require a several day minimum stay and most will ask for a non-refundable deposit. Taking a chance on getting a slip without an early reservation for big events like this is risky, and we generally make plans very early for big ones like the race, or in this year’s case the Blue Angles over Fort McHenry.

We do a lot of weekend cruises to the Inner Harbor every season, just because I love the city so much. In fact on May 4[SUP]th[/SUP] we are coming down to Inner Harbor East for the weekend and going to the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert on Pier 6.

If you are thinking about going to the race all I can tell you is plan early. I know we just had a lot of fun that weekend. I have pictures on our clubs website
http://www.freewebs.com/gunpowdercove/apps/photos/album?albumid=12259856