{"id":367563,"date":"2026-07-09T23:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/367563\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T23:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:36:27","slug":"austin-man-attempts-to-break-great-american-loop-boating-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/367563\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin man attempts to break ‘Great American Loop’ boating record"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Austin \"Austin Austin man attempts to break boating record<\/a> <\/p>\n

An Austin man is trying to break the record for boating through the “Great American Loop” as fast as possible. This adventure will take him along the Gulf of America, the East Coast, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas – An Austin man is trying to break the record for boating through the “Great American Loop” as fast as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robert Youens is getting ready to embark on another adventure. He will depart sometime in mid-July, depending on the weather.<\/p>\n

He plans to launch out of Mobile, Alabama, cross Florida, head up along the East Coast, then up through the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“It’s not a highway with lines. It’s a choice of what you want to see, and we want to go see the ocean,” he said.<\/p>\n

He says being on the water is a release.<\/p>\n

“It releases you from the internet and the tribalism that we see. It gets you in front of nature, and there’s nothing like feeling the pulse of the world in the water, and I love that,” he said.<\/p>\n

He did the Great Loop last year and set solo and single engine records, doing 4,800 miles in 19 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He saw another man do it in 12 days and 18 hours with a four-man crew.<\/p>\n

“I’m sitting there looking at that record and I thought, ‘man with a two-man crew, I could beat that record, so it’s kind of fun,” he said. “The goal is to beat their 12-day, 18-hour, but our personal goal, and we think is attainable, is to go under 10 days.”<\/p>\n

This year, he wants to break the record for unlimited speed. He’ll sleep on the floor of the boat and anchor where he can. His boat even has a night vision camera.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

FOX 7 asked how he knows he’s beating a record. He told us he doesn’t do Guinness World Records.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s the beauty of the internet is and trackers and stuff. One of the images I sent you is an image of the 49 million people that followed my Facebook page during last year’s event. I got several people that can vouch for what we did, and it’s kind of an honor thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Youens says he’s loved boating since he was a child when he saw an outboard motor at a garage sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, his adventures take him to all sorts of landmarks.<\/p>\n

“When you’re out there in the ocean, you can fear those waves, or you can embrace them,” he said.<\/p>\n

If you want to follow Robert’s journey, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Angela Shen<\/p>\n

Austin<\/a>Lifestyle<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin man attempts to break boating record An Austin man is trying to break the record for boating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,242,223,394,216,393],"class_list":["post-367563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-travis-county","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}