Jerry Dauer from Dunlap was on the river today and snapped this picture of Paul Nichols as he screamed by on his record-breaking run. Dauer writes, "He was really flying but took a moment to wave. Of course we were making monkeys of ourselves cheering and waving hats as he went by." Click photo to enlarge.
photo by Jerry Dauer
Do you hear the drums beating? Word via the Internet grapevine tonight is that Paul Nichols has broken a new speed record for running the entire length of the Tennessee River.
Boaters and anglers from across the state have been monitoring, and reporting on, Nichols' effort on the Chattanooga Fishing Forum and on TNDeer.com.
Unofficially Nichols ran a brand new 2010 Bullet bass boat outfitted with a Mercury 300XS outboard, the entire length of the Tennessee in 11 hours and 14 minutes. That includes locking through nine TVA dams.
Nichols comes from a ''boating background.'' His father, John Nichols, is the namesake of Nichols Marine in Red Bank. Now Paul owns a machine shop in Soddy Daisy where he rebuilds outboard motors and he builds outboard race motors.
Nichols says there have been several people over the years run the entire Tennessee River, striving for the fastest time. Earlier this month he said the previous record time was 12 hours and 45 minutes… set in the late 1980's and sanctioned by the National Outboard Association (NOA). He says however the NOA is now dissolved and the only remaining sanctioning body for boat speed records is the American Power Boat Association (APBA).
“I will be setting the bar for everyone else with whatever time I complete the run,” said Nichols. “Anyone who wants to officially break my record will have to do it through the APBA and will have to run a faster time than me over the 652 mile run. This is something I've wanted to do for many years now.”
His onboard navigator for the run was Cooper Jones.
“Cooper and I have been friends for years and have talked about trying to break the current record a good bit over the last few years,” said Nichols. “We decided one day to stop talking about it and just do it! I have a little experience running long distances in boats. I used to work for Yamaha Outboards at their test facility running boats five days a week. I ran 2300 miles in five days a few years ago while working for Yamaha. At that time I thought about running the Tennessee River to try to break the record, but getting married and having two kids put that on hold.”
Nichols says he chose a Bullet boat “because it's a fast, strong and a well-built boat. I've been running Bullet boats for many years.”
Nichols already holds two other APBA world speed records and says that both records were well over 100 mph in a Bullet boat.
He says it is a stock boat with only one modification.
“The only thing that has been modified in the boat I'm running is the live well has been left out of the boat and in its place sits the second 36 gallon fuel tank,” he said.
He was running a stock Mercury Racing 300XS Optimax outboard motor.
“The Optimax motors are known for great fuel economy, reliability and serious speed," said Nichols. "The Mercury 300XS has a incredible amount of torque and with the optional 1.62 gear ratio you can run a big pitch prop at low rpm’s and get great speed and unbelievable fuel economy.”
“Bullet boats has provided me with the boat/motor combo so they are my major sponsor,” said Nichols. “Lowrance is a major sponsor as well. They sent me the ‘latest greatest’ GPS navigational units to use on the river run. Hydromotive Engineering sent me two very fast strong props which will be needed on the long grueling run.”
It seems that it paid off, although it is too early to know when, or if, APBA will official certify Nichols' record.
At last report, Nichols was headed for a Knoxville hotel to "crash" after his record-breaking run.