PWC Class

A personal watercraft from New York Harbor to Government Cut, Miami. ~1,100 nautical miles of open Atlantic. Standing, kneeling, or sitting on a machine that weighs less than 1,000 pounds and carries 20 gallons of fuel.

This isn't a first. In 1982, Roger Danner left Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn on a Kawasaki JS550 — a stand-up, 550cc, 45 horsepower ski — and arrived at Bahia Del Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale seven and a half days later. Kawasaki-sponsored, IJSBA-sanctioned, 12-person support crew. For his efforts he got inducted into the IJSBA Hall of Fame and someone wrote him a country song called "Roger Danner, The Kawasaki Cowboy."

That was 1982. A modern supercharged PWC makes 325 hp. The question isn't if someone can finish the route anymore — the question is how fast.

One from each of the big three. Each brand has a machine that could do this — each with a different philosophy on how.

Whoever will sponsor us. That's the real answer. Each platform has genuine advantages — Sea-Doo's expedition DNA, Yamaha's range efficiency, Kawasaki's brute stability. The machine that shows up with factory support, spare parts on the chase boat, and an engineer who answers the phone at 2 AM off Cape Hatteras — that's the one that sets the record.

The inaugural record doesn't need to be fast. It needs to be finished. And it needs to be documented — GPS-verified, chase-boat filmed, and ratified by CG as the first official NYC–Miami PWC time.

The route has been ridden. In July 1982, Roger Danner left Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn on a Kawasaki JS550 and arrived in Fort Lauderdale seven and a half days later. IJSBA Hall of Fame. Country song written about him. Absolute legend.

But that was a stand-up ski with 45 horsepower and no GPS. No formal timing. No standardized start/finish. The CG-ratified record — New York Harbor to Government Cut, Miami, GPS-verified, timed to the second — is open.