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!
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.
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.
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
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…
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.
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…
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.