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Longest
distance traveled on a personal watercraft in a 24-hour period-world
record set by Mike Pagliccia
NAPLES, FL, USA -- Mike Pagliccia, 44, traveled
624 miles aboard his Sea-Doo GTI 130 between 7 a.m. Friday
and 7 a.m. Saturday, ending in Naples and settign the new
world record for the Longest
distance traveled on a personal watercraft in a 24-hour period.
Photo: Mike Pagliccia of Naples broke
the World Record for longest
distance traveled on a jet ski in a 24-hour period at
624 miles and raised an estimated $5000 for the YMCA of Naples.
Pagliccia rode a Seadoo GTI 130 provided by Florida Motor
Sports. Jennifer Whitney/ Naples News (enlarge
photo)
“It was rough,” Pagliccia said as he struggled
to pull off his black wet suit at Naples Pier on Saturday
morning. “We had a little snafu near Tarpon Springs when a
plastic water bottle got sucked into the intake, but luckily
I met a nice Canadian man on the beach who helped us tilt
the jet ski over, take it apart and get the water bottle out.”
Pagliccia said the ‘snafu’ cost him nearly
two hours – a veritable lifetime when you’re attempting to
break a record with a 24-hour time limit. To make up for lost
time, Pagliccia and his team devised a plan to take advantage
of calmer waters near Knapp’s Point, a bend on Sanibel Island.
Mike Pagliccia's new record break
Croatian Davor Hundic’s previous record of 604.6 miles,
but it wasn’t easy.
Pagliccia said there were times along his journey
that his mind began playing tricks on him. “It was totally
dark at night, and I couldn’t see a thing,” he said.
“At one point, I thought I saw a body listing
in the waves, but it turned out to be a buoy. I started seeing
things, especially when the moonlight reflected off the waves.
I couldn’t see the waves until I was already on them, and
there were a few times that I almost lost it and wiped out.”
Pagliccia said he did a lot of core training
in preparation for his world-record attempt – most of it at
the Naples YMCA, which will be the beneficiary of the $5,000
he raised.
Pagliccia’s mother was on hand to welcome her
son home Saturday morning.
“Am I proud of him?” Carol Pagliccia asked. “Yes. Do
I like this stuff? No. Was I up all night? Yes.” Her advice
to mothers of up-and-coming daredevils? “You’ve just got to
let them go,” she said.
Report by John Osborne / Courtesy Naples
News
Related world records:
Most
miles paddled in 24 hours on Stand Up Paddle Board -world
record set by Justin DeBree
Youngest
pilot completes round-the-world flight
Longest
Stand Up Paddle board journey-world
record set by Justin DeBree
Monday, November 10, 2008
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