On Saturday, Trump-lovers put their boats in the water and passed through Madeira Beach in an attempt to break a Guinness world record for largest boat parade.
On the Monday after the attempt, Cliff Gephart—owner of Conservative Grounds coffee shop and an organizer of the “MOAB… Mother of all Boat Parades”—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that well over 1,181 boats passed through the Welch Causeway, which would ensure a world record. However, Gephart would not share an official boat count.
The current world record for largest boat parade happened at the Port of Kemaman in 2014 when 1,180 boats celebrated Malaysia Day in Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia.
Gephart showed CL a still-pending application to the Guinness book, submitted on June 2; he told CL that his team still has to review video footage from the attempt before submitting it to Guinness officials. Gephart added that boats passed under the Welch Causeway bridge for more than three hours.
In a nod to Trump, who regularly makes unverified claims, a number of news reports and countless Twitter posts—including one from Florida’s former attorney general Pam Bondi—are laying claim to the record.
On lead MAGA boat with Carlos Gavidia setting Guinness Book of World Records for biggest boat parade! NO SILENT MAJORITY in Florida! @CarlosG18457871 @JHoganGidley @TeamTrump @WomenforTrump @DanScavino pic.twitter.com/fWZVLuuuTH
— Pam Bondi (@PamBondi) August 15, 2020
But Gephart—who charged registrants between $10-$125 to officially take part in the attempt—thinks people should hold their horses until he makes an announcement on Facebook. He couldn’t even share the official number of people who pre-registered online.
“People were even registering with me in person on the day of the event,” Gephart told CL. “We’re under a lot of scrutiny, so we want to get this right.”
On Monday, a Guinness rep told CL that the organization did receive an application for Gephart's attempt and that it is waiting to review evidence.
"Within our application process, we provide the applicant with guidelines that are specific to that record category and must be adhered to, to qualify. These guidelines also detail the evidence that must be submitted. Our standard application review process can take up to 12-15 weeks of submission," the official wrote. "Once received and reviewed, our Records Management Team will then confirm the success or failure of the record attempt."
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This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2020.