This was the first year of the 2010 Yamaha Outboard Championship and it was held at the Miami Beach Marina. There were 27 Boats that competed in this years sailfish tournament.
May 17, 2010 – Miami Beach, Florida - There was a lot of talk in around South Florida docks this sailfish season.  The talk was about the unique format of the Yamaha Outboard Championship, a sailfish tournament.  This tournament set out once and for all, to provide the most level playing field in the sailfish tournament world.  And it delivered just that.  
The rules were not much different than any other sailfish tournament with one glaring exception: all boats must be outboard-powered.  And to make things even more equitable, even if the outboard boats had towers, they were not allowed to use them.  Every team was as evenly matched as possible.

The tournament took place out of Miami Beach Marina and it was the perfect spot; situated in the middle of the fishing area.  The 27 boats departed early on Saturday morning for the one-day shootout. The reports came in quickly as “Captain Jack” released the first sailfish of the tournament at 7:10 a.m.  And the fishing was going to stay red hot all day for them and many other teams.  One of the unique features of the Yamaha Championship was the “Early Bite” and “Afternoon Bite” categories.  These categories rewarded the teams with the most releases from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.  The Morning Bite was won by “XXX Fishing Team” with 3 releases.  In the afternoon it was “Contender Mercy Snap” who had the hot hand with 6 releases.  But the story of the tournament was the day-long consistency of “MD 20/20” who seemed to be releasing sails every few minutes.  They fished on a 40’ SeaHunter boat powered by triple 350 Yamahas and owned by Adrian Laviña.   “The 15-20 knot winds made things interesting,” remarked team captain Carlos Lopez-Gottardi.  “Thankfully we were in a boat with the right motors that allowed us to move often to where the fish were.  It paid off having that speed and reliability.”  They released 16 sailfish during the tournament which was good enough for first place and the distinction of begin crowned the first ever Yamaha Outboard Champions.  In second place was “Captain Jack” who had 12 releases.  Third place was captured by “XXX Fishing Team” who had a great morning and a slow midday, but finished strong with a total of 10 releases.

 

Rank	Teams	Points
1	Vitamin Sea Too	106
2	Qualifier	85
3	Get Lit	79
4	De-Bait-Able	76
5	Sandman	71
6	Advanced Roofing	63
7	Rock Star	59
8	Wet Dream	55
9	Rude Awakening	51
10	Tagline	47
11	Team American	43
12	Team SeaHunter	40
13	Close Call	37
14	Team UA/Yellowfin	0
15	Titanium 5.0	0

 

Congratulations to Rock Star on beating out 17 professional sailfishing teams to clench the title of Sailfish Pro Series Champions during the inaugural 2008-2009 season.  Owned by Jorge Piedra, lead by Captain Scott Leon with Ovi Vento, Rudy Espinosa, Henry Jimenez, Joe Turner Greg Braswell, Rudy Espinosa, Jr., and Jorge Piedra, Jr., Rock Star released 13 sailfish during the final day match up to secure their win.

 

Team Get Lit dominated the World Sailfish Championship, the richest tournament of its kind in the world, with a tournament-record 22 releases in winning its third title in the million dollar event’s seven-year history.  Their first place finish earned the team over $340,000 in winnings.

Owner Kitt Toomey added to his championships in 2003 and 2007 - and a fifth place finish in 2004 - by leading the event for all three days.

 

Duck Key, Fla, (March 7, 2009)  The inaugural Sailfish Open at Hawks Cay concluded today with a grand total of 52 sailfish released by a 30 boat fleet.  Unfortunately, throughout the tournament there was no current, not even west bound.  The beautiful color change the past two days only grew tighter as the hours passed.  Although fishing was slow, the teams fought to get the bites.
 
The final lines out placed Advanced Roofing in first place with a two day total of six releases bringing home $107,915 followed by Screen Print Plus/Prize Fighter with five releases earning $75,610 and third place went to Rock Star with four releases winning them $41,350.

 

January 26, 2009, Miami, Florida - When most anglers think of double-digit billfish fishing they think of foreign destinations like Guatemala and Panama; each famous for their high catch and release counts.  But this past weekend demonstrated that Miami sailfish action is as hot as anywhere in the world as the Sea Vee Mercury Mayor’s Cup broke several records.

The fishing started of lightning fast. How fast?  In the first hour of fishing 101 sailfish were released. The pace continued as radioman Dan Kipnis struggled to keep up with all the calls.  “It was pure pandemonium,” he commented.  “It’s never been quite like this. This is historic.”  The hot bite continued all day as the teams were on pace to break the one-day release record of 403 releases set by the Sailfish Kickoff in 2005.  Of the 55 teams fishing, more than half of them had double-digit releases and 5 teams had 20 or more releases.  And what about the record?  It was smashed with 422 releases in one day! The top boat for Saturday was “Get Lit” with a total of 22 releases. “Advanced Roofing” released 18 sailfish on Saturday and led the outboard division.

 

Palm Beach Shores, Fla. (January 12, 2009) The inaugural Palm Beach Shootout finished in dramatic fashion with a come from behind victory naming Rock Star the 2009 Champion of this new tournament.  In 6th place after the first day of fishing with only 4 releases, Captain Scott Leon led Jorge Piedra and the crew to a 1st place finish with a two day total of 12 releases.  Close Call took 2nd place and Hostile rounded out the top 3, both with 11 releases.  A tournament total of 130 sailfish were release over the course of two days of close quarters fishing. 

Rock Star started out the day strong with the first release of the day gaining five bonus points for the Series’ overall point standings.  Their 12th release came in just after 2:30pm locking them into the lead which they held until lines out at 3:00pm.  

The Palm Beach Shootout is the second leg of the five tournament regular season of the Sailfish Pro Series similar to the NASCAR Series of races.  Teams earn points for standings in each of the five regular season tournaments.  The top five teams with the highest point totals at the conclusion of the regular season and one wild card team to be decided at the World Sailfish Championship, April 14 – 18 in Key West, will advance to the post season play-off to be held in May 2009 in Miami. 

After completing two of the five regular season tournaments, the overall point standings put Team Hostile, winner of the 2008 Sailfish Cup, in the lead with 206 points.  Second position is held by Team Rock Star with 194 points and Team Advanced Roofing is a close third with 186 points.  The three remaining tournaments in the regular season include the Ft. Lauderdale Billfish Tournament, the highly anticipated Sailfish Open at Hawks Cay and the World Sailfish Championship.  A full Sailfish Pro Series schedule is available at www.sailfishseries.com.

Mainland highlights of the weekend tournament include a Kick-Off Party held at the Jupiter Beach Resort Friday evening and a dockside party Saturday evening.  A dockside awards ceremony wrapped up the tournament Sunday evening with the presentation of the Waterford Crystal trophy to Rock Star. 

Pro Series tournaments provide a perfect venue to showcase products and network with the teams.  The Palm Beach Shootout was supported by the following sponsors Amerex, Thompson National Properties, Image Graphics 2000, Southern Wine and Spirits, Yacht Direct, Jupiter Beach Resort & Spa, Anheuser-Busch, Viking Yachts, Davis Yachts, Ocean Yachts, Yellowfin, Kohler, Columbia Sportswear, Mcfarlane, Ferguson & McMullen, Pure Fishing and MTU. 

Sailfish Cup – Miami Beach, FL November 10 – 12, 2008 – 1st Place - Hostile
Palm Beach Shootout – Palm Beach, FL January 9-11, 2009 – 1st Place – Rock Star
Ft. Lauderdale Billfish Tournament – Ft. Lauderdale, FL February 5 – 8, 2009
The Sailfish Open at Hawks Cay, Duck Key, FL March 5 - 8, 2009
World Sailfish Championship – Key West, FL April 14-18, 2009
FINALE-Post Season Fish-Off – May 1-3, 2009
Executive Adventures
Executive Adventures is a full-service event management company based in Clearwater, FL.  Founded in 2001, Executive Adventures has an extensive background in sports and entertainment marketing including work with Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the National Football League, NCAA, National Hockey League and American Idol.  Executive Adventures works with each client to tailor an activation plan making certain expectations are met.  Highly trained staff attends to every detail of each event from the initial concept through the completion ensuring a memorable experience. Executive Adventures is widely known in the sport fishing industry for the success of the World Sailfish Championship and the Sailfish Cup held annually in Key West and Miami Beach, FL, respectively.