Florida Skiff Challenge - Locals This Year

Has anyone checked out the Florida Skiff Challenge before? Yellowfin started it years ago, racing small skiffs around the entirety of Florida, from Pensacola to Jacksonville - 1300 miles in 2 days and no sleep.

This year both Sea Pro and Key West have thrown their “hats” into the ring and will be competing. It’s all done to raise money for Captains for Clean Water - go give them a like on FB and follow the action, it’s always fun to watch! These guys beat the snot out of these little boats for 2 days straight!

https://captainsforcleanwater.org/skiff-challenge/

Mikes 1720 is looking pretty awesome, ready to see how they do. Go team Key West!

Be cool to see what kind of entry Billy Freeman could come up with!

https://keywestboatsforum.com/1720-will-compete-in-the-2019-florida-skiff-challe-t8831.html

Should be pretty interesting at the least! They have a good set-up going for some first timers… I’m pulling for em!

Fishing Nerd

“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”

When I was building my B-Craft, Jessie Marlowe and I worked together. We joked about how cool it would be to do this in the Bentz-Craft, or in the KW…now here we are a few years later and I’ll be (**()ed if he ain’t doing it! Very cool and I wish them all the luck.

Wadmalaw native
16’ Bentz-Craft Flats Boat

You guys should check this thing out! They started last night at FLA-AL line in a bad storm!

Key West got behind, they decided to go out and cross out in the Gulf instead of riding the shoreline!

Wadmalaw native
16’ Bentz-Craft Flats Boat

https://share.garmin.com/cfcw

Our Key West boys are getting beat on… tough race and tougher weather. Takes guts to even be doing the stuff they are doing!

The ‘01’ and ‘02’ are the redundant GPS trackers in each boat, the ‘CC’ is the chase car/truck that follows on land to meet at landings/marinas to refuel.

Fishing Nerd

“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”

They are catching hell… this is a c/p from one of the Key
West Captains, Jessie Marlowe.

15 minutes ago #420

Status update

I have not read any posts

We are leaving Steinhatchee

Broken items
~Silly sound bar
~VHF antenna
~Garmin monitors (fixed)
~FLIR
~Rigid lightbar (fuse)
~USB charger
~Yamaha gauge backlights
~Mast light

That all shook loose in Port Washington, hence our lengthy stop

We thought we’d try to make up time hitting open water. The waves and wind were so fierce, I feared for my life, so we backtracked. Whoops

I’ve been driving nonstop since 6pm. The crossing from Apalachicola to Steinhatchee was 3-4 footers, and took 5 hours. Despite this, I almost fell asleep at the wheel. Turns out, the Skiff Challenge is challenging

Sent from my T-1000 using SkyNet

Fishing Nerd

“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”

Tie wraps and a boxers mouth piece and I’m game. Thanks for the coverage.

The ENTER-NET Fisherman

Team Hell’s bat is at a boat landing removing their jackplate and hard mounting the engine to the transom live on Facebook…got guys sitting on the bow to get the stern out of the water enough to work on it backed up to the ramp…

Wadmalaw native
16’ Bentz-Craft Flats Boat

How about that 83.99 mph for the yellowfin??? Couple of others in the 80 mph range…ina skiff!!!
Kinda tough on your baits.

The ENTER-NET Fisherman

Think they got mixed up with the chase crew transponders or something! Maybe a low battery issue?

Anyway - Yellowfin KILLED IT - 46 hours. HB in and Sea Pro about 20 minutes out.

Key West should be in in the morning 7AM or so pending weather. I sure hope they keep pounding it out and finish strong. They caught hell the first couple of legs.

Wadmalaw native
16’ Bentz-Craft Flats Boat

quote:
Originally posted by mdaddy

How about that 83.99 mph for the yellowfin??? Couple of others in the 80 mph range…ina skiff!!!
Kinda tough on your baits.

The ENTER-NET Fisherman


That’s fast for even I-95…

Well they came in 4th but still finished a grueling 50+ hour trip around the Florida Peninsula! Way to go Team Key West Boats!

Fishing Nerd

“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”

Jessie just posted an update detailing their trip…sounds EXHAUSTING and I’m absolutely amazed those little boats can float so well carrying around two sets of balls that big in each boat…

Wadmalaw native
16’ Bentz-Craft Flats Boat

Well said Leadenwah!!

Fishing Nerd

“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”

I’d like to see those boats in cross section to see what damage was done to the hulls from beating the stool out of them.

The ENTER-NET Fisherman

These pics tell a story for sure. This is the Atlas Micro Jacker (Same one on my Bentz-Craft) that Hells Bay had to remove at the ramp - crossing the gulf did this. And this is a STOUT piece of machined aluminum, not a casting.

Wadmalaw native
16’ Bentz-Craft Flats Boat

Makes me wonder if they are an inch shorter than when they started[:0]??

Had to be some spinal compression going on…

NN

quote:
Originally posted by DoubleN

Makes me wonder if they are an inch shorter than when they started[:0]??

Had to be some spinal compression going on…

NN


Most of them ran in captains chairs with suspension on them…

Team KW ran with two (one behind helm and one behind that), some teams had one and a bean bag…but they def needed every bit of it on those crossings!

Wadmalaw native
16’ Bentz-Craft Flats Boat