Heath Daughtry - The Florida Skiff Challenge 2019 Winner

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Cold Open: The Route and the Plan

Heath Daughtry: So we're gonna meet up there. And then on April 2, at some time during the day, they're going to start the the event and we're going to navigate the waters from the Panhandle all the way across to the Gulf Coast, all the way down the Gulf Coast, all the way to Key West, around the southernmost point, all the way back up to Keys. We're gonna do a media stop in at Gilbert's in Key Key Largo, and then we're gonna go up the East Coast, and we'll do about close to about 15 fourteen hundred, fifteen hundred miles, and we're gonna end in Jacksonville, and first team there wins. You know? So, you know, we're gonna you know, no matter what the weather is, whenever they say go, you know, you and I will be in the boat. We'll be, we'll have two guys in the truck, and we'll pre plan our stops. We've got some we're already starting at the shop, which I'm gonna share with you today some top secret things that we've we've got going on. Yeah. And and, you know, we we we plan out our stops as as a team. We plan for the unknown. We have a backup for the backup. This is Heath Daughtry, and this is the Tom Rowland Podcast.

Introduction From Tom

Tom Rowland: Welcome to the podcast today. This is a special one. I am in Bradenton, Florida and just met up with Heath Daughtry. He runs the small boat division for Yellowfin, and he has also made some big changes in his life and has really embraced the physical culture. He took me to his gym, Fit Crew, loved it at 05:00 this morning. It was fantastic. They have just a great community, great culture, loved it. And Heath has gotten himself in really good shape. So that was fun. Great way to start today. And now we're gonna do this podcast where, for the first time, really, in public. I haven't really said that I'm gonna be doing this, but I'm really excited about it. Heath asked me to be his partner in the upcoming Skiff Challenge, which is going to be on April 1, so we're getting ready for that. Part of getting ready for that is obviously being in very good shape, because it is a grueling, long really, it's an endurance contest. It's it's a very I've never done it, but I know enough about riding around in a boat that I know that driving a boat from Flora-Bama around the southernmost point of Key West and all the way up to Jacksonville is going to be something that no matter what kind of shape you're in, it's gonna be difficult and probably painful, but the better shape that you can be in on the way, will make the race just that much easier or maybe allow us to actually finish it. So Heath is is all in. He is in great shape, and, it was fun to work out with him this morning. So stand by for a awesome podcast with Heath. Learn about the origins of the Skiff Challenge and where it's headed in the future.

A 5 A.M. Workout at Fit Crew

Tom Rowland: Alright. Heath. Man, how's it going? Going great, man. I'm so glad that you could,

Heath Daughtry: you could do this. We started our

Tom Rowland: day in the best way. Absolutely. Yeah? Yeah. So you have, you took me to your place, Fit Crew, in Bradenton, and, we had an amazing workout there. It was fantastic. I love the whole I love the whole vibe. Like, I like to go visit different gyms.

Heath Daughtry: Mhmm.

Tom Rowland: That one was really good. One of the one of the better ones.

Heath Daughtry: It's definitely the best thing I've ever done. I've been to a lot of gyms. And one of I think one of the hardest things is when you walk through the door, you know, there's there's certain ways to do it. You can be the guy that that has the, the motivation, the dedication. You're gonna go in there and you've got a little bit of education, on how to work out. Maybe you've hung out with some friends. Maybe you get a group of guys. You know? Maybe you do it in your driveway. Mhmm. But, to me, I like going there. I like the intensity. I see, you know, 55 year old women doing things that I I know I can't do. You know? One legged pistols off a, you know, off a, you know, a jump box. And I'm just like, man. You know? I know how difficult that is. Yeah. And so it's challenging, you know. And every morning you walk in that place, I have no idea. It's it's almost relaxing because I put it into their hands and I could be doing the most oddball stuff. I could be just hitting the weights. I could be all cardio, but I know that I'm gonna have a great time, and it's a positive people all the way

Tom Rowland: around me. How did how did this start for you?

How Heath Turned His Health Around

Heath Daughtry: I think, well, I'm I'm sure we'll get into it. But a couple years back, I had a really tough Skiff Challenge. And I think in a podcast that we had talked about before

Tom Rowland: decided to use a tiller?

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. No. It was, it was after that. It was, basically, I sandbagged. I'd, you know, I'd had one or two up under my belt and, life was just getting hard. Work was this and that and, you know, you have this event coming and I just sandbagged it. I just said, hey. I've done this a couple times. I'm gonna go out here, you know, I'm gonna do it. And we finished it, but I could not move for probably a good three days. I mean, my core, my legs, my back, I just got rocked. And, probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I came home. I healed up a little bit. Started kind of evaluating where I was. I got two young boys, eight and 12. You know, if if they run, I gotta beat them. You know? So, my wife had had actually been and introduced me to Ray, Ray Gardner. And it just so happens that he was at Fit Crew. Went in to meet him one day, set up a schedule, figured out what my work you know, what I could do. I like mornings. The earlier, the better. Mhmm. I like prepping. So it fit kind of my little bit of a militant type background. And we started hammering out. We started small. I mean, we started really small and I just started to feel better. And the more I did, the other things just kinda fell in order. You know, like we were talking earlier, diet. Diet is the biggest thing in the world to me. I mean, I've lost 40 right at about 44 pounds.

Tom Rowland: Wow.

Heath Daughtry: And, yes, I've been going to the gym and I've been doing this, but it's mostly the diet. The more I go to the gym, the more I work out, I can't eat pizza. Right.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Heath Daughtry: You know, it just it doesn't make it it doesn't sit well with me.

Tom Rowland: There's a huge, thing. Like, I'm a morning workout guy, and my group is a morning workout thing. And I've seen people have amazing results like you have and and even even more. And part of that like, I've thought about that. Like, what is it that's going on here? It's probably somewhat the exercise. It's probably somewhat the camaraderie that happens there that makes people continue to come. But a big, big, big part of it is that it's really early in the morning. And so that on its own changes so many things, even if you're not worried about your diet. Like, if you go to the, the gym and you throw up at 05:00 in the morning, which is pretty easy to do if you had a huge meal the night before, a couple of drinks, whatever. And all of a sudden, people aren't like, man, I really wanna eat that. God, I wanna eat that so bad. It's like they look at something like a giant lasagna or, you know, a few glasses of red wine and a lasagna, which you know, that would have been fine. That would have been fine. But now they're like, that's gonna be painful.

Heath Daughtry: That's gonna hurt.

Tom Rowland: That is going to hurt tomorrow. And it's all about that early morning thing. I I really believe that because, you know and that that kind of gets people to just get the real crap out of their system, like too many drinks at night, too much, really junk food or bad food, eating too late. And and the morning workout just clears all that up because you just don't wanna throw up. Yeah. You know?

Heath Daughtry: It's the it's the accountability. Right. You know, you're self accountable for, you know, you know, when I show up to, you know, to the gym in the morning and and Ray is sitting there welcoming it welcoming me in, I'm held accountable. Mhmm. You know? Right. And and I know that I've gotta do my best.

Tom Rowland: Right. Try. Yeah. Yeah. You know? That's a that's that's I love the group the group thing. And that that's you know, you're doing it as much for Ray, your trainer, as you are for the people that are in there with you or the whole class or whatever. But, that morning, that's been that's been really a big thing for for people to get a lot of, results. Because like I said, they they just clear up that diet part on their own, and then they start feeling better. And then it's like, oh, how can I even do better? And then there's these stair steps, like, okay. Now I'm gonna really watch what I'm eating, and that's when that's when things really start to happen. Like, 40 pounds down, that's that's pretty awesome. How old are you?

Heath Daughtry: 46.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. So a lot of people don't think that I mean, you're 45. You're out of shape. A lot of people don't think you can turn it around, but you you can. The human body is amazing.

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. One little one little step at a time. You know, my my cousin just started working out with us. You may have him this morning. And he's, I mean, he's he's gone from one one level to another whole plateau, you know, just in the self confidence that, you know, show up. Just show up, you know, and and give it a 110 try.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Heath Daughtry: You know? And, you know, that that makes you feel good. You know, you become even though we're family, it doesn't matter. You know, it was something I wanted to share with you. Right. You know, it's it's it's the camaraderie that we have together there and the teamwork,

Tom Rowland: you know,

Heath Daughtry: which I really like.

Tom Rowland: So the change that you made in your life was because of the Skiff Challenge pretty much. Like, you decided I think that was the This hurts too bad. I've gotta make you something.

Heath Daughtry: That yeah. Hey. You know, you're not getting any younger. You gotta do something. At the time, you know, my partner was Chase Mhmm. Who's, you know, quite a little fit and not his self. And, it was, it was challenging to to to keep up with him. And at the same time, you know, the the type of pain that I was going through and competing in it. So

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, he's quite a bit younger.

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. He's younger, you know, and and he he lives by the code. So that's, you know, it was, you know, I could again, being held accountable. That was my partner. I couldn't do that. Within the next year, with the the next time we ran it, night and day difference. Really? And the and the weather was just as bad or just as rough. And I hopped off the boat and, you know, didn't have a a pain, one. Was sore a little bit, but nothing nothing like the year before. You know, I dropped some weight, had really focused on my core for, you know, five, six months leading up to it. You know, tried to try to get my back, you know, put back together and, you know, you know, strengthen that up. And it it it paid off. It paid off. It's, you know, it when you do that challenge, there's a whole other conversation you can have about the obstacles you'll face, but the last thing I wanna do is is face, you know, fatigue and failure within myself. Mhmm. So there's other things that can happen.

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Heath Daughtry: And those those are just they're gonna be the roll of the dice.

Announcing Tom as Heath's 2020 Partner

Tom Rowland: Well You know? So this is our really, our first meeting, to talk about the fact that we're gonna team up for the Skiff Challenge, which I'm very excited about and also very scared about and nervous. And, I mean, I'm I'm nervous and scared about it because, like, I have enough boating experience to understand what it is that I've signed on for.

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. Well, I I think I think the within our little community of the Skiff Challenge, competitors, people have known. But I don't I don't think we've really put it out there to the general public that Right. You know, you're you're coming on board with Team Mills.

Tom Rowland: I know. And this is this is Yeah. This is it. This is the end. Everyone else now. Yeah. Well, they will when this goes out. But, yeah, man. I'm excited about it. But I know that, you know, we're gonna need to talk a lot more about preparation because it's a Yeah. I mean, tell a lot of people might not know what it is. So explain what the Skiff Challenge is, and you started it.

What the Skiff Challenge Is

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. Like Yeah. We started it. We take a lot of pride in that. Basically this coming April, on April 2, you and I or probably April 1, you and I are gonna meet at, Florida, Alabama and, the little place well known, Flora-Bama line up there. Captains for Clean Water will be hosting the event. We'll have, we'll see how many competitors we have at that time. It's an open door. I think we're up to six and they're limit limiting it to eight Really? Manufacturers.

Tom Rowland: Okay.

Heath Daughtry: So we're up to six.

Tom Rowland: Why would they limit it? Just because there's too much liability or

Heath Daughtry: I think just the coverage. I mean, it it becomes to a a point to where you, you know, you're gonna have a lot of teams spread out. And they did a really great job last year covering every single team. Now

Tom Rowland: they being Captains for Clean Water?

Heath Daughtry: Captains for Clean Water. So we're going to meet up there and then on April 2, at some time during the day, they're going to start the event and we're going to navigate the waters from the Panhandle all the way across to the Gulf Coast, all the way down the Gulf Coast, all the way to Key West, around the southernmost point, all the way back up the Keys. We're gonna do a media stop in at Gilbert's in Key Key Largo. And then we're gonna go up the East Coast, and we'll do about close to about 15 1,400, 1,500 miles. And we're gonna end in Jacksonville, and first team there wins. You know? So and, we're gonna you know, no matter what the weather is, whenever they say go, you know, you and I will be in the boat. We'll be we'll have two guys in the truck, and we'll preplan our stops. We've got some we're already starting at the shop, which I'm gonna share with you today some top secret things that we've got going on.

Tom Rowland: Not for this Not for not for discussion Yeah. On on a recording.

Heath Daughtry: And, you know, we we we plan out our stops as a team. We plan for the unknown. We have a backup stop.

Tom Rowland: There there are mandatory stops and then there are There's

Heath Daughtry: There's only one mandatory stop. The mandatory stop is in Gilbert's.

Tom Rowland: Okay.

Heath Daughtry: And that's a media coverage. So that's where all the media has a chance to actually interview you and I.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Heath Daughtry: And at this point, we've we've pretty much gone all the way across the Panhandle. We've gone all the way down the Gulf Coast at night. We've made our you know, the ideal thing is we're going to pull into Marco and refuel. And depending on the weather, we either have to keep going through Florida Bay and go down or we can make the jump from Marco straight to Key West in open water, which is about a hundred, hundred and ten miles.

Tom Rowland: But you actually have to go on the ocean side of the southernmost point.

Heath Daughtry: You have to you have to take a picture at the southernmost point. And, there'll there'll be there'll be, spectators there. I can guarantee it. They're always there waiting on us. So and everyone that's following us, that's something else. They'll be tracking us with a, with a device, a GPS, where Captains for Clean Water has a page up. So, you know, it's shared, it's live, and so we know where everyone's at or they do. You and I are gonna be focused. But, if we wanted to check on other dates, we could check. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Heath Daughtry: We could check.

Tom Rowland: Well, I know one person will be watching that for the entire 1,500 miles, and that'll be my wife. Oh, yeah.

Heath Daughtry: We'll have to give her Jen's number. So yeah.

Tom Rowland: She she's already, a little apprehensive about about this because she knows that wait. It's a race? Oh, boy. Like, that means Yeah. A lot of things to her immediately.

Heath Daughtry: Every year, my wife gets a little, you know, uneasy when it comes time, but very supportive. You know? Love the little text messages I get every now and then, especially if you're in the lead.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. You

Heath Daughtry: know? Don't don't stop. Get it over with. You know? So

Tom Rowland: So last year, did they did they also do a bigger boat division?

Heath Daughtry: Not yet. So we've we've brought it out. I think their their captains is concentrating on the skiff level right now. Our owner, Wylie, has basically said that, you know, he's going to do it in a bay boat for time. So we're, we're going to put a 21 together for him this year. He'll be up there. He's going to put the boat in the water and he'll just do a time run and he's gonna do the whole whole thing. Gonna be a lot faster than us. Yeah. And he'll have to have his own chase crew and stuff like that. But, you know, he'll put he'll put a time down and then, you know, we've got a baseline for it. Doing a bigger boat, some of the obstacles is basically it's going to be hard for Captains for Clean Water to actually get coverage. Right. It would have to be some more mandatory stops, just so you could, you know, collect data. A lot of the a lot of the content that you and I will get from the race is basically just from GoPros or something mounted in the boat. Mhmm.

Tom Rowland: And

Heath Daughtry: then when we pull into our our refuel stop, the guys from the truck, well, that's kind of like the NASCAR stop, They'll take the battery, they'll take the card, they'll put a new battery, put a new card in, start the camera. And then once they get in the truck, they they can download all the content and then they'll share it with captains so they can get you know, they'll see us.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Heath Daughtry: And it's hours upon hours of you and I just basically bobbing around, but they'll they'll take what they need from it.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. We're gonna try to make an episode out of it as well, depending on what kind of footage we get. I don't know if it'll be a segment in an episode or a full episode. I mean, it's hard to say now because you have no idea what you're gonna get.

Weather, Safety, and the 2019 Lightning Storm

Heath Daughtry: But Well, I mean, every year, it's it's it's drama. It's suspenseful. It's you know, last year, I think, was one for the books, you know, just everything that happened. The weather was just beyond anything you would even go out your front door in, you know? And we got we're sitting out there and FWC and the governor and everyone's looking at us and and, you know, that that day when I woke up in the hotel room and looked out onto the beach and then, you know, they had this flag. I actually took a picture of it, and it's just I mean, not even waving. It is just like, it's got

Tom Rowland: Like, goes up.

Heath Daughtry: Like it's just got starch, heavy starch in it just sitting there like this. And then we didn't leave until probably three or four in the afternoon. So all day you just have that suspenseful, you know, anxiety coming on you because you're you're trying to prep and you're watching the weather and you change clothes six times, you know. And felt like I wanted to

Tom Rowland: throw

Heath Daughtry: actually, I think I did throw. Yeah. You know, just from being nervous. And, but once they say go, that's where it just all of a sudden, it's it's it's just quiet. You just and Chase and I would go hours and not speak.

Tom Rowland: You

Heath Daughtry: know? I mean, that's we just go hours. Just there's no reason to talk. Right. Let's just run it. You know? So and, you know, this year, I think it's still gonna be there. I'm excited to compete against Chase. You know, we've been team, teammates for five years. He's moved on. He's with, Cayo now and they'll be competing. So, you know, much love there. I'd you know, I welcome the competition.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Heath Daughtry: So it's gonna be fun. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: Well, there's another person that knows what it takes. I mean,

Heath Daughtry: that's Well, he's gotta put his team together too.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. I mean, but still, there's an experience level of knowing how to prepare. There's an experience level of having completed it. How many times has he completed it? Or you completed it? We've together, five.

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: I mean, that's a lot of experience. So a new team coming in, tough to tough to go up against that. Now you're split. So there's there's two teams with that. How many times I mean, there a lot of times when this Skiff Challenge happens and you'll have to forgive me if I don't if I'm not as into it as I should be, but not everybody finishes. Right?

Heath Daughtry: There has there has been times where where teams did not finish. You know, and

Tom Rowland: Because of mechanical or because of, like, physical?

Heath Daughtry: Both. Yeah. Both. And, there's been times where teams have had to pull out and, you know, put the boat on the trailer. And once you put the boat on the trailer, you're disqualified. Right.

Tom Rowland: That's one of the rules. Like, it can never leave the water.

Heath Daughtry: It can never you can do whatever you need to do to the boat. You just have to do it you know, you have to pull up on a sandbar, shove it in some mangroves, whatever you need to do to to fix whatever you have. But you cannot put it on the trailer. You put it on the trailer, you're done. Mhmm. So boat comes out of the water, you're done. Last year, team's hell Hell's Bay, you know, the perfect example, they had a jack jack plate just just come in two, you know, split right down the middle. And, they pulled into John's Pass over in Saint Pete, backed the boat in, put the motor down, unbolted the motor right there.

Tom Rowland: Really?

Heath Daughtry: You know, guys are holding the boat. Everything stayed up, and I think they were in and out in twenty three, twenty seven minutes.

Tom Rowland: Changed out the jack plate.

Heath Daughtry: Didn't even change it. Just bolted the bolted the motor right back to the back of the boat. Wow. Yeah. Just took the jack plate off. So, you know, I'm sure that hurt their performance because they probably are like us. They had the the motor set at a certain height.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Heath Daughtry: You don't do a lot of trimming. You don't do a lot of adjusting. You you get your wide open max, you know, setting, and you push the throttle all the way down and you leave it.

The Prize, the Speeds, and the Competition

Tom Rowland: And, I mean, part of that is because there's a 70 horsepower restriction. Right? Correct. Yep. So, I mean, it can only you can only go so fast with a with a 70.

Heath Daughtry: You'll be surprised. Last year, we we we had some new teams come in and, you know, the speeds the speeds increase every year. The average I mean, I remember when the average speed used to be about 28 to 31 miles an hour to do the whole race. Now even with bigger swells, worse weather than we had the year before, we're averaging about 38 to 39 miles an hour doing the whole thing. That doesn't sound very fast, but in a little 17 foot boat

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Heath Daughtry: Doing 1,500 miles, every mile per hour

Tom Rowland: counts. Certainly.

Heath Daughtry: And, wave restriction is your biggest thing, with that motor. You get a lot of, a lot of resistance. Your RPMs go down. It has to wind back up, you know. So, even though you might think that you're not going very fast, it it the time that we're doing this fourteen, fifteen hundred miles is just getting chopped in half. You know? It it it literally has. I mean, I remember first time we tried to do it, it was, like, ninety six hours. Now we're completing it forty one.

Tom Rowland: So is that partly because when you pulled into a rest stop, you're kinda stretching, eating, kind of doing, you know, whatever, and now it's now it's like NASCAR?

Heath Daughtry: Now it's the competition's come in, you know. Before you were doing it and we're shaking hands with everybody and they said, you know, Hey, let's compete. It's all about finishing it, which it is. You're going to compete against yourself. Your team is going out to showcase your product, showcase your electronics, showcase your motors, showcase your boat, and navigate it and figure it out. And your team might have different challenges than my team might have. Whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen and that book's gonna gonna, you know, tell its own story for each team. You don't know. You have no idea when they say go. You have no idea what's gonna come. You could run a perfect race and no issues whatsoever. We've only done that one time. And it wasn't a perfect race. We just persevered through some of the worst things we've ever seen before.

Tom Rowland: And Like weather wise?

Heath Daughtry: Weather wise. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Yeah.

Heath Daughtry: It was the it was the night that we left out and it was I think we had twelve or thirteen hours.

Tom Rowland: Was that last year?

Heath Daughtry: That's last year. Yeah. Okay. Just straight heavy sideways pellet rain just coming down lightning. They at the end of the event, they they showed me something that, Chase and I went through and all the teams went through. But some ungodly thousands of lightning strikes around us, like, 1,500 lightning strikes around us as we were moving through this front that was coming through. And the idea was we were gonna either be behind it or in front of it. It didn't work that way. It just sat on top of us and we just all moved together all the way across the Panhandle. And, when you come out of Apalachicola, you got two choices. You either make the jump to Steinhatchee, Cedar Key, or you've gotta, you know, you've gotta go up and kinda, as we call it, run run the rim, run the armpit, you know, Florida, which is a lot of time. Yeah. And, when there swells and this pitch blackout and, you know, it's it's hairy.

Tom Rowland: It's hairy.

Heath Daughtry: I mean, I don't care how experienced you are. There's things that we've all been in, even in 40 foot center consoles where we turn around and go, that was smart. You know? We shouldn't be out here, guys. You know? And every time we do this Skiff Challenge, it's one of those things where we look at each other and say, what are we should not be out here, but let's go do this. Mhmm.

Tom Rowland: You

Heath Daughtry: know? But there's a lot of safety involved. You know, last year, again, credit to Captains for Clean Water, with them hosting the event, I mean, we had FWC on watch for us. Every team, every person had a personal EPIRB. I mean, just the the safety that goes into that is is is very high in what it used to be from what it used to be.

Tom Rowland: Right. So,

Heath Daughtry: having captains host it and having them organize it really, really is they're doing a great job.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, I would imagine as it gets more notoriety, people other people start stepping in like Captains for Clean Water, then there are insurance requirements. Like There's a huge should probably have have a lot of insurance on this. And in order to get certain insurance, every person's gonna have to have an EPIRB. We're going to have to have, like, FWC or whatever. Like and all of a sudden, it starts stepping up. And then what's scary is that Wylie is gonna set this benchmark for as fast as it can be run, which, obviously, people are gonna try to beat that, like, immediate next year. Right? So, I mean, then the bar keeps getting raised higher and higher. It's it's very interesting to see something that starts kinda real grassroots like this and just everybody shaking hands. You pull in, maybe you get a burger, like, you know, and then the next thing you know, it's like, everybody's got a pit crew and, and and it just gets faster and faster and faster, all for, a Yeti jug like I have right there. Like, one of those half gallon jugs. That's the price.

Heath Daughtry: Right? Right. Yeah. No money. You know, you just get to pound your chest if you want to for, you know, 364 days. And, you know, it's it's it's a lot of preparation. You could you could get lucky. You could show up with your team and, man, you could kill it. I think it's gonna come down to those guys that know what they're gonna get into. Mhmm. You know, we got two teams last year that that came in, first timers. And they've they've got they've got a little bit of experience under their belt now. They they got it, you know. Toby Hanson, you know. He's coming, you know. And, Chris and and Tom and Mike, they're they're great guys. And and one of the cool things about this is we didn't know any of those guys until we all did this Skiff Challenge. And now we've got this little thing. I don't see him. We're not you know, I think we saw him at the, at IBEX or Yeah. Or something that we had a little get together for. Everyone showed up, for captains. But, you know, now we're we all follow each other on social media. The wives have met, you know, and follow each other. And we share this little common bond that, you know, hey. He he's competitive.

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Heath Daughtry: He's got the he's got the little fire in his eye, and it's nice to meet guys like that. You know? So I'll welcome them back and and, you know, it's gonna be fun.

Toby Hanson and Stories From the Fishing World

Tom Rowland: Toby, he's a he's a cool dude. I, I met Toby so long ago, so long ago, and he was working for this guy that just had the ultimate life. He had as much money as you could possibly make in a lifetime times about 50, and he would show up with a Sport Fisher, and I would meet them at the Sport Fisher. But the the gentleman that hired us wasn't there yet. And so I would eat breakfast with Toby. He was working there. And some days, they didn't come, and I would take Toby fishing. And some days, they did come, but we would be eating breakfast, anything you want. What would you like? You know? Can I make you an omelette? Can would you like pancakes? What what do you want? I'm like, wow. This is cool. And then you'd see a Gulfstream jet come in and another one because they never the the father and the son, they didn't travel together. And they would land, and he was like, yeah. They'll be here in a few minutes. And and they'd come out as long as the weather was good, you know, then they would just fly in from wherever they were. But they had the identical operation, on the Great Barrier Reef with another captain and another crew. And, man, like, if the weather was just bad, they just go there. Amazing. You know? The weather's good somewhere. Yeah. And and if you got boats all over the world, you can just do that. But, I mean, when I saw that, I was like, man, some people are living in a different world. Like, that is Different universe. Pretty awesome. This guy caught so many black marlin, and he just he he really was the real deal. Like, you think, like, you like fishing. Well, imagine if you had $20,000,000,000. How what would you do then? And and, basically, he did that. I mean, to the to the point that you're you're like and you have another boat where and another boat where? Those are all the best places in the world. Right? And and Toby was working for this guy, and and he was just the nicest person. He was so into fishing. He was amazing. I mean, that was that was really something to see that and experience that because I I didn't know that existed before that. I mean, you think about, like, people that have a lot of money and and and are really into whatever they're into.

Heath Daughtry: Mhmm.

Tom Rowland: But until you kinda see that firsthand, you're like, wow. Yeah. That's amazing. But he's he's a competitor. I mean, he's got cauliflower ear, which every time I see that, I'm like, okay. Watch out for that guy. Yeah. I know what that is. Yeah.

Heath Daughtry: I don't want him to get me on the ground.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. I mean but, I mean, Cauliflower Ear speaks speaks volumes about your your past. And, if you have some or you can see it on somebody, even if it's faded and kind of not as not as prevalent as it probably once was, kinda like, okay. I understand a guy's a wrestler or, jujitsu or rugby player or, you know, that's kinda where you get cauliflower ear. So I know all I need to know about all those people, and they're all competitors. Yep. And if you got cauliflower ear, watch out. Toby's got double cauliflower ear. So I know he's gonna be a competitor.

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. Jesse and Mike too. They're they were, you know And

Tom Rowland: what team were they? They

Heath Daughtry: were with Key West.

Tom Rowland: Okay.

Heath Daughtry: And they were, you know, just some of the nice guys we met, all of them were. We all got together after the event about a month after, I think, and went back up to Jacksonville and filmed some stuff for a little q and a with the Captains for Clean Water and just all of us just talking. And that was one of the cool thing that, you know, that that was just cool just to, kinda get there. And some of the guys brought their wives, and so the wives got to meet. And, that was just that was that was nice, you know, to to sit down and talk with, you know, six, eight guys that, hey. What do you what would you do different? You know? How can we improve this?

Tom Rowland: Really? Like, the guard comes down a month after the race?

Handing the Race to Captains for Clean Water

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. Like, you know, everything settles and and, and we talk and and, you know, do we wanna do this? Do we wanna do that? And the biggest challenge for me in starting this this Skiff Challenge and and watching it grow and come out of this organic form into, you know, kind of finding a home for it because, again, I didn't have time to run it. Mhmm. Giving it to basically giving it to Captains for Clean Water and saying, will you please do something with this? I really want to see this grow but I just want to compete in it. Mhmm. Is getting the manufacturers to realize what this is and getting the guards to come down. Because within any industry of what you are, I don't care if you're you know, whatever you do. If you do pools for a living, build homes for a living, and you're a competitive person, you're always going to look at that builder or this guy or that guy, what you do and how can you be better and how can you be better? Within the marine industry as far as boat builders, we're very, very, particular and and we're very cautious on who we let into our space. Mhmm. Right? Because we are all building different things even though we can go anywhere and look at any boat and figure things out. And 99.9% of us all use the same stuff or buy from the same person and have probably the same rep, you know, for for whatever that is. But getting the big manufacturers to understand, hey, This is this is for a great cause. This is something for you to showcase. And it's really yes. It's competitive. It's when they say go, we're gonna compete. But you're not gonna see me for two days. I'm not gonna see you unless we're unless we're side by side and we're and we're gonna compete. At the end of it though, being a part of it, having your product, what you're gonna showcase, finish it, Whatever tier boat builder you are, if you're a high volume production boat builder, if you're a, kind of a, specific, you know, I I build one boat at a time, white glove type builder, it it doesn't matter to to finish the finish the the competition and the challenge and for you and your team to turn around and say, Hey, we did that. You know, team, team Sea Pro, team Key West, team Hell's Bay, team Yellowfin, we did that. We completed it and good job to you. Yes, I got first, but good job for you competing it. Don't give up, you know? And to have that opportunity to showcase that and the amount of coverage that Captains is bringing as far as the production of it, you know, you'd have to talk to to to Chris and and Daniel and Alicia on on their vision and their long road, or long range plan. But they have they have done a a stellar job as far as coverage for all the teams.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Heath Daughtry: So when we pay our entry fee, you know, these guys most people are always, kind of questioning, you know, what does that bring? You know? You know, I don't wanna be a part of something that me as a manufacturer doesn't you know, I'm not gonna get a return. Believe me, it didn't matter if you were first or fourth last year. Everyone got great coverage. Everyone I mean, what what they're doing with this is is worth every penny of it. And the money's going towards, you know, an initiative to help all of us. You know? It's the fight's not gonna be over anytime soon.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Heath Daughtry: So we have to we have to keep going forward.

Florida's Water Issues and the Bigger Mission

Tom Rowland: I mean, that's the that's the big thing. I mean, it's it's cool that there's a a race around Florida in small boats, but, you know, the bigger picture is that Captains for Clean Water is interested in being a big part of this because this race stands for something. Mhmm. And when you're a part of that race, if that's what you choose to do, there's there's other people that, other boat manufacturers that are not part of the race, and they choose to help the water issue in a different way. And that's fine. Whatever. But this is a way that the boat manufacturers, if you build a boat that is of the right size, because there's probably plenty of manufacturers that would love to do something like this, but they don't have a boat that qualifies at this point. But it's a it's a way for for, you know, just to kinda rally around the the water issue. And that's the bigger thing. That's what I'm really excited about is is just being part of that because, I mean, that's the most important thing in the state of Florida right now. Yep. I mean, if it if and and, you know, just on a very simple level, if the water isn't clean and nice and people wanna go fishing and the fishing's not good, well, there's no reason to build any boats because nobody wants to be out there. But on a bigger level, if we all kind of come together and do something that gets a lot of coverage and tells this story in a way that, not just the hardcore skiff enthusiast can understand it, but somebody in Ohio, somebody in Missouri, somebody in Texas can look at what's going on and go, oh, that's a big deal. And that's something that affects all of us because of the I mean, the economy of the state of Florida is a big part of the economy of The United States. And a big part of that is fishing, tourism, you know, call it whatever you want. People going to the beach, people renting a house, people wanting to just get into warm weather. And, you know, if if the water is not clean and nice and there's not dead fish all over the beach or there are dead fish all over the beach, people just don't wanna do that. And the economy of this entire state of Florida, affects the entire country. And I think that's the big part of this about why captains wants to get so much coverage on this is to is to you know, if if we're crazy enough to go around the state of Florida in a 17 foot boat in lightning storms, why? Like, there must be a bigger mission here.

Heath Daughtry: I think the platform of of the challenge too for captains is it's it's bringing, you know, just like you're saying, it's bringing awareness. Last year, during the race, you know, we were we were fortunate to have a, governor saying it's, you know, come out and, you know, talk to us and and and do a little press conference for the event, which was spectacular. And we used the challenge last year to bring awareness to his Everglades restoration project. It was, I think it was $6,600, you know, 620 some odd million dollars that it was gonna be needed to push this budget to to to to do this. Right. And so that was cool last year how we wrapped the challenge into a strategy to bring awareness. And so all those people that were following us, you know, and as we were doing the event, we were, you know, captains had a a nice easy sheet, you know, via via, on, you know, social media, Instagram, wherever. And you basically click the button, and within thirty seconds, you know, you filled out the form to promote, you know, or or to bring awareness towards this, this initiative that Governor DeSantis was trying to push. And it ended up passing. Mhmm. So I think the first phase of it. And and that's something else that I really think captains has done well is that as a as a guy that sits in the office or build boats or I'm out here and I go to the beach I go to the beach and I go in the water and I go, oh, this is horrible. This is horrible. You know, when we have those water problems like we did a year or so ago, right now we've got, you know, red tide down south of us. You know, we're all watching that coming up, coming up from Venice, you know, up to our area. We've got fish kills and stuff down there right now. But the education to find out, Okay, we can't just blame politicians all the time. What's going on? Is it improper or overpopulated areas? You know, we we hear this this talk all the time in in my area here, Bradenton, Sarasota of, sewage spells sewage spells. And the media reports them as a spill. Well, the spill that runs off, it gets in the creeks, makes its way down Phillippi into the Sarasota Bay and then, you know, we've got this you know, you fly over Venice and it's just this sludge coming out of fresh water and it's contaminated. But where's the real issue there? The real issue is that, you know, twenty years ago, when they built the water treatment plants and the sewage plants for the city for that area, the growth just has boomed in the last ten years that it can't handle it. So it's not that there's a spill. It's the fact that, hey. We need to do something about this and build new facilities. So they're doing that. So the education that you get from captains of finding out why and peeling the, you know, the layers of the onion back to see, well, no. This this is why this is happening. And this is one little bite of the big fight. But if we fix this, then we can move to this. Right. You can't fix this without fixing this first.

Tom Rowland: That's what I've always liked about about them and one of the reasons why I wanted to get more involved with captains is because they always tended to keep things positive, educate people, and then show them a solution. Mhmm. Like, it's and and that is so different to me than just standing there screaming and pointing your finger

Heath Daughtry: Exactly.

Tom Rowland: Which I I I just never I just never thought that was effective. Right? Like, I mean, maybe it is, and maybe there's times where it has been incredibly effective to where you show your, that that you're very upset about a political decision or whatever, and then people are like, well, wow. If I wanna get elected again, I better not do that again. Yeah. Okay. So that could be possibly effective, but it just seems like captains has been able to rally. You know, there's some really intelligent people in the fishing and boating in the in in this industry. I mean, a lot of the people that are coming down here, even if it even if they don't fish, they have somehow made a lot of money, and they have a vacation house, and they they leave Ohio or or Michigan or wherever, and they come down here to enjoy the warm weather and the beautiful beaches.

Heath Daughtry: The restaurant.

Tom Rowland: Maybe they never fish. But those are intelligent people. Those are intelligent people that love this place, and they probably have tons of connections, and they probably have tons of money, and they can make a difference if they are guided to understand what the problem is. Mhmm. Maybe they understand that they're part of the problem, putting all this stuff on their lawns and and, maybe they can make a change. But I just think that captains has done just that's what I like so much is that they're they have always offered solutions. You know, like, here's the plan. It's already been out there for a long time. And now we just have to kinda guide everyone to kinda helping things pass or or or whatever so that they can actually get back to doing what was the the Everglades restoration plan.

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. So it's gonna be interesting to watch, and and I'm glad to have, you know, kinda created this crazy thing and and hand it to them, and they're doing a great job with it. And I think I think as years come by, even this year, you're going to see you're gonna be wowed by what they have to come. Yeah. And and it's it's it's gonna be fun.

Why Heath Started the Skiff Challenge

Tom Rowland: It's gonna be fun. Why did you start it anyway? I mean, in the very beginning, like, I remember you coming to me kind of at a a Miami boat show and kinda being like, what do you think about this? I'm thinking about doing this.

Heath Daughtry: I think I've always you know, if especially in the fishing world, especially the guides, you know, you never meet a lazy guide. Right? I mean, you might you might okay. Well, you're never gonna meet a successful lazy guy. Yeah. I mean, you gotta get up early. You gotta take care of business. You gotta prep today for tomorrow. You're constantly catching bait. You're constantly watching equipment. You've gotta have a somewhat of a good personality because if you don't have consistent clients, you're basically picking up at the dock every day. You've you know, you gotta talk to you have this type of personality and this kind of stuff that you put out there and you're up early, late at night, whatever it calls for. I guided a little bit. I've always been an outdoors guy. My dad did a great job raising me. Just I mean, we were we were we were outside. We were either working outside or we were playing outside. And I can't stand being in inside. I I can't. I can't. You know, I have an office, but if you know me, I sit for about I I have a list of things I need to conquer. I conquer them, I get up, and I leave. You know, because if I have a phone and I'm mobile and I go to the shop and I walk the line, I'm talking to people and stuff, I just like to move. So I'm always kinda looking for something new. Had a little bit of a military background and challenged this, and then I did some pretty hairy things in my my younger days as far as, employment and, pushed the limit there for a little bit, got out of that.

Cell Towers, Totch, and Old Florida Inspiration

Tom Rowland: Wait. What do you mean?

Heath Daughtry: What are I was stacking cell phone towers.

Tom Rowland: Okay.

Heath Daughtry: And we used a gin pole. We didn't use a crane. So we would What's

Tom Rowland: a gin pole?

Heath Daughtry: Gin pole is, basically, if you're gonna build a three, four hundred, 500 foot tower, self supporting tower that, you know, like one we have right there outside our window there. Basically, I would put, 40 feet of tower up and then I take this little mini tower and put on the inside of it. And then I have a double drum winch. I have a drum of cable here and a drum of cable here, and you sit on the winch and it's kinda like this. And, basically, you're taking that that gin pole and you're booming it down and you're picking up pieces of the tower. Mhmm. You're picking up and you're setting it in place, and then you build 20 feet at a time and then you what they call jump jump the pole. You rig it, rerig it, and then you jump it up another 20 feet, rerig it, boom, down. So I did that for many years, and we've worked in all types of conditions. Sounds dangerous. It it is. Yeah. It was. Yep. I lost a couple friends, you know, through and I know some guys that aren't aren't with us anymore. They fell. I've got one very close friend, who fell, who lives here in Bradenton, who actually made it. He survived. But it was time to leave that. And I just think I always had that little bug in my head and was just dormant. I just needed something, and I love the old Florida history. I love reading and hearing the old stories of the old time. And I think I was reading Totch at the time. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: It's a great

Heath Daughtry: book. I was I was reading, at one point in his story about him rowing, like, actually rowing from Chokoloskee to, like, you know, The Cape, you know, to go alligator hunt, you know, to go hunt gators. And he rode there, and he rode back.

Tom Rowland: With a bunch of gators probably.

Tom Rowland: So there's several 100 pounds.

Heath Daughtry: And I'm going in in a flat bottom, you know, pitch pan style boat, you know, back then. And I'm going, that man broke the mold. Like, you know, you know, you go out we get out we're on rowing machines this morning. We did a couple 100 meters, you know, at a time. And you think about the you know, what it takes, you know, to Some of the

Tom Rowland: hard people back then, man.

Heath Daughtry: Very hard. But but just the adventure of it. I love being in a boat at night. I love, you know, navigating, going different places. I love when I, you know, take a couple boats over to The Bahamas, and I love going someplace I've never been because, you know, you kinda figure it out, you know. And you you can look at charts and talk to friends and, you know, get do all the stuff you're supposed to do for preplanning, but I love figuring it out. And, a little bit of MacGyver and everybody, you know. And, it just came I think I I read a I read a story about, Flip Flip Pallot about how he took his he was telling someone and I don't remember if I read it or heard it, but he was telling someone how he took his Whipray all the way to, Walker's, you know. And, you know, it was like a little 16 or whatever the Whipray is up to the That's

Tom Rowland: a tiny boat.

Heath Daughtry: Tiny, tiny boat. And he just had to get it over there, so he he just drove it over there. So I thought that was really cool.

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Heath Daughtry: You know? And, of course, you know, as you grow up and especially in Florida, you meet so many people that tell you, oh, well, ran a 16 foot John boat to Bimini and back and this and that, and that's a 70 mile run. We came up with the idea because in my industry, something that was just getting was getting absolutely boring to me was fishing tournaments. I couldn't stand to watch another fishing tournament or be a part of it. And I'm talking inshore. There's some great offshore events and there's some good inshore stuff. But to hear someone tell me that they won a tournament because they were in this boat or they did this, they did that, I just heard enough of it. And I figured that if you really wanna find out who's got the best boat and who's got the best gear and who's got the best electronics and the best motor, the best navigation whatsoever, then let's do something like this and find out who's got the best of everything and really test yourself. So that's where it came up. I got sick of, you know, had a little bit of that background and then I got sick of hearing about tournaments.

The First Run and the Bar Napkin Rules

Heath Daughtry: And then we started I started talking to people about it. I think I talked to you. I talked to a couple of people about it because I was trying to plan it Mhmm. In my head, and I knew what it would take. And then, I think one day I was at work, and I looked at Chase, and I said, hey. You wanna do this next week? Next week. And, I borrowed a boat. I borrowed a boat, actually, from my cousin that you met this morning. It's his boat. And I said, hey. I'm gonna take your boat. And, we ripped everything he had on out, put all new electronics. You know, Simrad jumped on board with us, gave us everything we needed, and said, hey. If you're crazy enough to do it, here. You know? Go run it. And we went out that first year and, I mean, we basically started a Facebook page. The Facebook page that's there today, we started it that morning at the boat ramp.

Tom Rowland: I opened a Facebook page

Heath Daughtry: and no no one knew what we were doing. And just within, I think, a couple hours, we had a couple 100 followers. And people started sharing it and, you know, we're going and, you know, trying to do this and it just it just took off from there.

Tom Rowland: So just you too with no no other competitors?

Heath Daughtry: That was it. We were just doing it to see if we could make it. And the first year, we did not. We ended in Biscayne Bay. And, I mean, man, what a life lesson. We we got, I mean, we got we got tore up. We were we were pounded, had no no expectation of the amount of fatigue that was gonna come on, no knowledge of, you know when I say fatigue, not just mentally but physically. You know? I'm sitting in a boat and drive it. That's easy, man. I love driving boats. You know? Yeah. I'll sit there and just do this. Mhmm. And I mean, I think before we even made it out of Pensacola, it hit me like, holy cow. That's a big bay. And there's I'm looking at the chart. I'm like, we gotta go three more of those, you know. And we're not even we're not even at Apalachicola yet, you know. But then what started happening is you start looking around, you're like, man, this is cool. You know, you see the landscape start changing. And, now I have, like, little landmarks I can't wait to see. You know, I have little things. And this year, we totally got flipped around because we're usually starting at first light. Now they totally flipped it around, started us, you know, in the middle of the afternoon, you know. And so most of the race that we would normally have in daytime, last year we had, you know, it was, you know, the stars were out. So, but that's kinda how it got started and that was it. And from there, you know, went to boat shows, started talking to some other guys, you know, see who had an interest, you know. Again, not walking in, pounding my chest, you know, this and that, you know. Wanting I wanted competition. I wanted to compete against somebody.

Tom Rowland: Who was the first to to bite?

Heath Daughtry: Hell's Bay. Chris Peterson. And, Chris had some guys working for him. He had one one guy work for him at the time. He's not there any longer, but, Brian Hall. And, him and I made a connection. He's from my hometown, like the same music, play guitar, all that kind of stuff. So it was kinda that was easy. And then, you know, started talking to Chris, met him. We kinda knew each other a little bit, but we didn't have the relationship we have now.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Heath Daughtry: And which is a funny one, you know. Yeah. But, you know, walked to him and introduced myself, said, hey. This is, you know, this is how I see it. I wanna yes. I wanna compete, but it's a challenge for you and your company just like it's a challenge for me and my company. I got no idea what's gonna happen. We've got no idea what's gonna happen this year.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Heath Daughtry: We're gonna plan for everything. But at the end of the day, man, you're out there bobbing around. You know? You gotta figure out, hey. How am I gonna get get this boat somewhere to get it fixed? How am I gonna do it? You know, you know, maybe, you know, who knows what could happen? So you try to plan on it. You gotta keep the boat as light as possible. But after talking to Chris and explaining all this stuff and saying, hey. This is what we're trying to do, he jumped on. And I think it was that was in October when I I did the I did the very first one that year in March and then they did a, Sport Fish magazine did a big article on it and that got some notoriety. And people started calling and asking about it and then calling, you know, we're at Yellowfin and, you know, they're answering the phone and people wanna talk about the Skiff Challenge. We're like, well, we don't talk about it. We're we're building boats here. We're not doing the Skiff Challenge. So people started to call and started email and talk and then the article came out and, that got some great coverage and, you know, you start traveling, doing boat shows and, you know, events and people, you know, kinda talk to you about it. So by that October, I had approached Hell's Bay at Fort Lauderdale and said, hey. You know, let's think about this. By that next, by that next, West Palm Beach show, which was, early March. They had committed to do it, and they were doing it. And we were gonna get done with West Palm and we were gonna travel, immediately after the show. And, we sat down at Rocco's Tacos and wrote all the rules. Chase and I wrote pretty much the outline of the rules of what we had done and how we could do it. And we wrote them we I think we wrote them all on a bar napkin and sat there and said, alright. This is the Skiff Challenge. And that's it. That's it.

Rules That Have Never Changed

Tom Rowland: I'm surprised that maybe because I've eaten at Rocco's Tacos quite a few times. It's so loud in that place. There was probably some some miscommunication about what they thought what you thought the rules might should should have been and what was actually written down because that place is so loud. I we've decided no more meetings there because nobody can hear anything.

Heath Daughtry: It is.

Tom Rowland: But good tacos. Yeah. So a bar napkin is the beginning. And how have the rules changed or stayed the same since then?

Heath Daughtry: They have not wavered one bit. Yeah. And we even got approached to, up the horsepower rating by, you know, probably something that would help the challenge out a lot. You know, we had a we had a motor manufacturer coming in that did not make a 70 but did make a 75. So, you know, the, the board, as you could say, got together and asked opinions. And my opinion was absolutely not, you know, because you start opening the door. Most of the outboard blocks at 75 horsepower are nothing more than a 90, and the 90 is nothing more than one fifteen. So you start opening little windows of opportunity to to to allow guys or teams as this grows, to, you know I'm not saying anyone would cheat, but I'm just saying it just you you know, why even go down that road? You know, why even there's nothing wrong with what we've been doing. It's competitive. It's hard to run a 70, you know. And if you're you know, Mercury doesn't make a 70, they make a 60, you know. Suzuki makes a 70. Honda makes a 70. Yamaha makes a 70, and you've got the Mercury 60 if you wanna run it. And so, you know, even you could be you could have everyone running the same motor manufacturer. You know? Number one, that's that's not interesting. Number two, you're still gonna have separation Mhmm. You know, with teams, you know, because something's gonna happen to one team and, you know, like Hell's Bay last year, their jack plate split. They didn't know that was gonna happen when they started the race. You know, we didn't know things were gonna happen to us years past when we started the race. It it that's why they happen. It's how you adapt and overcome. But, you know, we've kept the rules. They're they're as simple as they can be. We name the date prior prior to the next year. So when we get done with this year, before we leave, someone will throw out the date. And it's usually it's the last week in March or the first week in April, which is I mean, go to your Farmer's Almanac. It's the worst time in the world.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. It is.

Heath Daughtry: Always. And, 70 horsepower motor, you cannot be over an 18 foot boat. You can run a 16 foot boat. You can run a seventeen eight, but you cannot run an eighteen two. Cannot run an eighteen one. 22 gallons of fuel, use any navigational source you find necessary. Two guys that get in the boat, they stay in the boat. Two guys in the truck, no more. Can't have four guys in the truck. Two guys in the truck. That's it. Because that's a challenge, you know, in itself. We those guys don't get, you know, get the credit they need. That's a whole other side of drama. I mean, these guys these guys are just

Tom Rowland: checking from driving around the state of Florida.

Heath Daughtry: Well, just, I mean, 02:00 in the morning in, you know, Two Egg Florida and, hey, I need a battery now. You know? Well, you know, I mean, they're Google searching and Google Earth and how are you going to get to me and where are we going to stop for fuel? I'm not getting because the swells are so big. My wave restriction, my range is down. So we can't make it to that stop. We gotta find a new stop all while you're driving this skiff as fast as it'll go. And you and your copilot are sitting there, you know, trying to text, write, call, VHF radio, and figure out, okay, there's a pasture located to a curb store that I can get to you know? So these are these are the things you have to you have to come up with, you know, and you gotta have a good crew to do that. But none of the rules have changed. That's it. So and it will What if

Tom Rowland: a what if a manufacturer had an 18 foot two boat? Could they customize it for the Skiff Challenge and make it 18 feet? Or it's, like, straight off the line? Whatever's

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. Straight off the line. We're not allowed to bring anything into the event that we don't produce. Mhmm. So if you're going to make a design change to benefit you in the Skiff Challenge, well, that whatever you do cannot be a one off. It has to be a production type model. So, you know, if you're gonna build an, you know, an all carbon, you know, epoxy, you know, this one off boat. No. You know? And, most of the skiff manufacturers and most of the major skiff manufacturers have something, you know, in the sixteen, seventeen, 18 foot range. You know? That a lot of the rules came because, you know, you know, I started it. Chase and I started it. And at at Yellowfin, we we build one skiff. So I don't have, you know, I don't have six skiffs, you know, to to choose from or, you know, this model or this model. We have one. So it's a, you know, it's a '17 Ford and that's it. We don't build we don't we don't allow anything over 18 feet. So and, you know, again, like we said earlier, the boat has to stay in the water. Any repairs you do to it, anything like that, you can tie it to a dock and work on it but the boat has to stay in the water. You know, sandbar, beach, whatever, but he cannot put it on the trailer. Put it on the trailer, you're disqualified. You know, if you or I get out of the boat and someone else gets in the boat, you know, we're disqualified. You know? So we have to we have to be So

Tom Rowland: you can't get out of the boat at all?

Heath Daughtry: Oh, no. No. We can get out of the boat. We can you know, when we hit a stop, we can change clothes and do this and that. But you and I have to navigate the boat. No one else can get in. I can't I can't take a break, and I'll see I'll see you at the next stop, Tom. I'm gonna put, you know, g in here with you, and I'll see you at the next stop. I'm gonna go lay in the truck and take some sleep. No. We can't do that.

Tom Rowland: So we

Heath Daughtry: once we start it, we stay in the boat.

Tom Rowland: Man, what an event. Yeah. I mean, such a it it's it's exciting because there's so many things that to be excited about, like the the the actual race, the adventure, the adrenaline that's gonna come from from all of that, but then the bigger picture of of, of the message of Captains for Clean Water in the state of Florida. It's it's all the man.

Heath Daughtry: I guarantee you every team that was in it last year and especially the the two newer teams, I guarantee you they're already looking at their calendar and they will prepare. You know, whether it be what I do, as far as working out, I guarantee you they will start to prepare for it because it it it hit them. They they know about it now. They they know that they can't plan anything. It's not gonna be, you know it would be, you know, a miracle if we showed up and it was just glass out the whole way. It's just not gonna happen.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. No. It's not gonna happen. Not that time of the year.

Heath Daughtry: But these guys, I guarantee you, they've got it marked on their calendar in their planning. You know, I mean, you start, you know, you start knowing what you're gonna go through. And they might not have known last year, but they do now. And so the competition is coming.

How Teams Qualify

Tom Rowland: So are there any brand new teams this year?

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. Well, I mean, of course, we have we have the Cayo guys coming on. Okay. That's brand new team. So that Kind of. Kind of. Yeah. So there's there's five. I heard that there was another brand new team. I'm I'm not sure of the manufacturer. That's six and there was two open spots. So and plenty of applications. Now mind you, last year and this year, you know, we opened the doors this year. I mean, everyone knew. If if you were a manufacturer in Texas, come on. You know, bring it. Here's the application. Here's the, you know, entry fee. You know, this is what we gotta do. That's what all teams do. Bring it. You know? And so I'm sure that they got quite quite an overloaded applications. I would hope they did because, again, on social media, you hear a lot of people wanting to be a part of it, you know. You know, as they say, everyone wants

Tom Rowland: So you think they got applications and then what they select those applications?

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. So one of the one of the qualifying things is you you can't be, you know, you can't be a a hobby builder. You have to actually be a manufacturer. You have to have a coast guard, HIN, basically. You know,

Tom Rowland: you have to

Heath Daughtry: have identifying that you produce. You're in business of producing boats. You know, we can't have hobby builders. Because of the liability and things like that, as a manufacturer, you select your team. Alright? So we we kept it for many years. Chris and I kinda had this this idea as you build it, you put your butt in the seat, you represent it. We had to kinda move away from that because not every manufacturer is gonna wanna, you know, build something and, you know, they they have pro staff, they have guys, you know, that that come along and think of this they do because we met some of those guys last year. But, the now what we allow is you have to be a a a a manufacturer that produces boats for, you know, for the industry. You can select your team to go in your boat. So if you have, you know, pro staff guys or, you know, guides that, you know, run your boats for you or stuff like that, you know, you can you can submit them. But I think what they'll do is they'll go through and they'll find, you know, two open spots and and find the best candidates. You know? Maybe maybe they're looking for someone in Texas. I don't know.

Tom Rowland: That's, you

Heath Daughtry: know, that's why I handed it to them. You can

Tom Rowland: do one of those what do they call those boats? The scooters Oh, yeah. That are like a surfboard with a motor on it. Like, they're so low. I know. They're they're incredible. I guess, because they do so much waiting. They don't wanna step over the the gunnel. Yeah. Those are crazy boats. So Yeah. When I went there for the first time, I'd I'd never seen I'd seen pictures of them before, but, man, those things go shallow. Like, unbelievably shallow.

What the Race Teaches a Boat Builder

Heath Daughtry: Yeah. And, you know, there's all types of you know, you you look at the skiff world, the inshore world, bay boats too. You know, you go out to Texas and you got this miles and miles and miles of the shallow flat these guys run-in. And so, you know, you look at those guys, they wanna you know, if they've got 12 inches, that's a hole. Mhmm. They wanna get up and and on plane because they're gonna run, and then they get out and wade and do a lot of things. Then you go to The Carolinas. You know, a skiff or a bay boat in The Carolina is totally different. You know, the skiff's a little bit more technical. South Carolina, more marsh, you know, area, very quiet, you know, drafts and spit, you know. And then their bay boats, you know, crossing big bays like we do down here in the Keys, Florida Bay. And it's it's it's cool to see, you know, all the different things. And and as as a manufacturer ourselves, you know, we look. We look and see, oh, that's a cool idea. That's a cool idea. Mhmm. You know, put these two together.

Tom Rowland: You know?

Heath Daughtry: So I enjoy that. I enjoy boat shows. I enjoy talking about it. I enjoy talking about fishing and skiffs and the skiff world. And I know a lot of guys in the you know? I've never been the guy that will walk into your office and pound my chest. I can if you if I need to be, But I'm not that guy by nature. By nature, it's you know, we're we're gonna build boats. We're all gonna build boats, you know. And and thank goodness for this economy, and and I hope people keep building boats and, sell and tackle and restaurants, real estate, and everything else. But at the end of the day, I hope you have someone at your establishment that works just as hard as I do because you deserve it. You know? Everyone deserves it. That's why there's chocolate and vanilla. You know? But I go to a lot of manufacturers and and look at their product, and I see some cool stuff. I see a lot of stuff we do all the same. You know, I I see where I can make improvements. And that's what the Skiff Challenge is. Skiff Challenge, if I can take that 17 foot boat and I can kill it, I mean, try to actually murder it, you know, for forty one, forty five, fifty hours, no matter and try to kill myself at at the same time physically. And then I can come back and I can make a better bay boat. I can make a better maybe, you know, you know, 26 hybrid. You know, I can look at wiring. I can look at this. You know, hey, let's do this. You know, support this better. You know? And one of the best things I do at my shop every now and then is just throw a guy in the truck at me and go do a sea trial. You know, a guy that does a bilge. You know, take him out there and run a minute. You know, let him see it. Let him feel it, the power that we got in these boats and how fast they can go. And not just that, but at 50 miles an hour on the water, you know, just pounding like that, you know, makes them realize, hey. You know, make sure that's tight. Make sure we've got some silicone behind that, you know, for some stuff. So this Skiff Challenge brings a lot of that. It's brought a lot of new technology for us as far as laminates and things we've tried. We've had a lot of development from it. So I hope other manufacturers jump in. I'm eager to see what what Alicia and and and, the guys over at, captains have selected for for new teams. We're getting close, man. I can feel it. It's it's November's here, and I think you and I talked about it last year in February. In February, Miami's gonna be here before we know it, and then you're thirty days away. Yeah. You know? You're thirty days away. And I think around January is where I start getting, like, really, really intense with the workouts. Just, you know and then I start staying up. It's just I'm usually in bed real early Mhmm. Because I get up early.

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Heath Daughtry: But I'll start making myself kinda, you know, I'll push it to nine, I'll push it to ten. I'll push it to eleven. I get that routine to where you you kinda build that, you know, up into you. So

Wrapping Up

Tom Rowland: Well, I'm excited to be a part of it. I'm I'm honored that you would ask me, to do it. Also kinda scared, but that's cool. I mean, if, you know, if you don't have something out there in front of you that kinda scares you a little bit, then you're probably living way too comfortable.

Heath Daughtry: Exactly.

Tom Rowland: You know? But, it's gonna be fun, man. We're gonna we're gonna have some fun. We're gonna definitely get prepared, and, it's always good to have a reason to ramp up the workouts as well. But, man, proud of you with your, with your workout, the way you've changed your your whole physical life. It's awesome, man. And you got

Heath Daughtry: I was a little intimidated by you coming down. I was yeah. I made a call to to Ray. I said, man, we need to kill it. Yeah. So I hope you enjoyed it.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. No. It was great. I loved Ray too. He was he was super cool. But that place that you have is that's a treasure, man. I mean, those those people in there, they obviously care about every everybody that's there. You've got all kinds of other things going on, like you were telling me about with with the doctor and the the diet and all of the the, things that I saw going on there, people measuring their body fat, and then, you know, tracking your progress on the whole thing. I mean, when you find something like that, that's that's a good place. That's a that's a really good place. So you're you're, I I liked it. I'm gonna come back.

Heath Daughtry: Cool. Always welcome. Alright.

Tom Rowland: Alright, Heath. We'll see you. See you. Bye.