Six Teams Set To Tackle Gateway Marathon

From a 52-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran with twin 1,350-hp Mercury Racing engines and a full canopy to a 38-foot Fountain Powerboats center console with natural air-conditioning and triple V-10 400-hp outboards from Mercury Marine, the six-boat fleet for this Saturday morning’s Gateway Marathon race from Palm Beach to West End, Bahama, is decidedly eclectic. The open-to-all-comers nature of the Ocean Cup offshore endurance racing series—the 128-mile Gateway Marathon is the first of four Ocean Cup events this year—is a big part of its appeal.

A 52-foot Mystic catamaran, Ocean Cup is the largest entry in the upcoming Gateway Marathon. Photos courtesy/copyright Ocean Cup.

Among those who will compete in the upcoming event are Tony Adams, Allen Bellinghausen and Steve Seaton of Northern California in Patriotic Duty, an Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats 47 GTX V-bottom powered two Mercury Racing 1350 engines. The trio of longtime friends currently is on its way to Palm Beach via commercial aircraft where the open-cockpit 47-footer powered by two Mercury Racing 1350 awaits them.

“This one is a long way from home, but we’re ready,” said Seaton, who is planning an attempt at the San Francisco to Long Beach record this fall with Adams and Bellinghausen. “We are going as three friends to have some fun and try to break some records.

“We want to do all the Ocean Cup events this year,” he continued. “It’s a bucket-list kind of thing.”

The Patriotic Duty team plans to run all Ocean Cup events this season.

On the canopied side of the V-bottom fleet, Andy Copeland and Jeff McCain will run Copelands Raymarine, a 42-foot Fountain. Also in the Fountain camp are Simon Williams and John Lynch, who are running the previously noted 38-foot center console.

The founder of the Ocean Cup series, Southern California’s Nigel Hook will be joined of the aforementioned 52-foot for the Gateway Marathon by Nick Pjatikin and Tim Pattison of Satcom Direct. (To improve the Ocean Cup experience for fans, the organizers are implementing real-time Satcom tracking technology.) Vintage raceboat fans will want to keep their eyes on Lorne Leibel, Bob Latham and Ryan Beckley—all well-known figures in the offshore racing community—in Liebel’s 47-foot Apache V-bottom (hull No. 1) with Sterling Performance engines.

Running a 28-foot LaveyCraft dubbed Revelation Racing, the father-and-daughter duo of Michael and Kristal Drury will have the smallest boat in the open-ocean mix.