Ocean Cup Planning Assault On West Palm Beach To Freeport Record

Building on the momentum they established with last October’s Around Catalina endurance run in Southern California, the organizers behind the Ocean Cup Series are planning to lead off their 2022 season with an East Coast endurance event. The June 3-4-slated run will have competitors attempting to set new records in various classes. In the fastest categories, they’ll also be attempting to break the existing West Palm Beach, Fla., to Freeport, Bahamas, mark of 1 hour 3 minutes and 43 seconds for the 100-mile run set by Nigel Hook and Michael Silfverberg in SilverHook, a 48-foot V-bottom, in 2019.

If conditions are favorable, the Lucas Oil/E3 Batteries A77 team of Nigel Hook and Jay Johnson have an excellent chance of breaking the existing West Palm Beach to Freeport record that Hook set with Michael Silfverberg in 2019. Photo courtesy/copyright Daren Van Ryte/OC Photographics.

This time around, Hook will tackle the event with Jay Johnson in the Lucas Oil/E3 Batteries A77 Mystic Powerboats catamaran, which is powered by twin Mercury Racing 1550/1350 engines.

“We already have five teams interested,” said Janet Wilson, one of the driving forces behind the Ocean Cup Series.

The event can accommodate 12 teams spread across three classes—including the center console class introduced during the Catalina event—and will be sanctioned by the American Power Boat Association and Union Internationale Motonautique organization.

In addition to the historic West Palm Beach-to-Freeport contest, the Ocean Cup Series has three events on its 2022 schedule:

• August 21—Trinidad and Tobago
• September 30—Huntington Beach Around Catalina (Calif.)
• October 22—San Francisco to Marina Del Rey (Calif.)

For additional information, visit the Ocean Cup Series website.

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