The Mayor’s Cup Stays in Miami!
(complete standings PDF)

January 29, 2006 Miami, Florida - The tension was thick during the 2006 installment of the Sea Vee / Mercury Mayor’s Cup. With nearly $200,000.00 on the line plus the prestigious Mayor’s Cup Trophy on the line, teams were formulating game plans and backup strategies for one of the most prestigious fishing tournaments in the U.S. Eighty-seven teams and over 400 anglers from across the country including Chicago, New York, Cincinnati, San Antonio, Virginia Beach, and all over Florida competed in the contest.

The tournament also saw the implementation of new technology that has never exited anywhere else in the world. For the first time ever, anyone from any location could log on to the Mayor’s Cup website and listen live to the tournament radio (VHF82). They heard teams calling in their releases, the assignment of confirmation numbers, all the updates and radio chatter between teams. The leaderboard was also updated minute-by-minute. Art Diaz technical director for the tournament explains, “The tournament is dedicated to being on the cutting edge of technology. This is a way for anyone to keep tabs on their favorite teams.” People logged on from all over the country. Jim Toomey of Bradenton, Florida wrote, “It sounded great…I look forward to future webcasts of this type.” Jorge Fernandez wrote, “I’m here in Rochester, NY. This is awesome. I am freezing my butt off, but I feel like I’m on one of the boats. Just wish I could have some food and booze to make the experience more realistic.” It was a complete success.

The teams awoke on Saturday morning to stiff 20-25 know winds, but they were not deterred. They headed out and braved he elements. Fishing was brisk with a total of 226 releases on the first day of competition. By line-out time, “Chips Ahoy” skippered by Chip Sheehan was atop the leaderboard with 1400 points. The second day of fishing saw some of the tightest competition in years. At one point of the day, there were 9 team tied for second and 19 teams within 3 releases of 1st place. IN the end, it was the crew on “Miss Britt” captained by Alex Castellanos who took first place and $62,500.00! His team was representing the City of Miami which means that the Sea Vee Mercury Mayor’s Cup stays in Miami for one more year.

The Top Amateur team was “Redemption” captained by Bruce Marx who also captained the top Amateur Angler Bob Chang. The Top Junior Angler was Jeffery Fiorentino on the “Uptight” and the Top Female Angler was Janine Clause on “Qualifier.”

The Mayor’s Cup is the second and final leg of the Dewar’s 12 Billfish Championship Series. “Chips Ahoy” took the coveted title with 6400 points between the Sailfish Kickoff and the Mayor’s Cup. In addition to $10,000.00 the team walked away with 4 gold and diamond Championship Rings.