Man trying to break watercraft record again

His work uniform is a life jacket and Nike swim trunks. His desk is a Sea Doo GTX, and his paycheck comes in the form of gasoline. John Moffatt's job: to break the Guinness world record for most miles traveled on a personal watercraft.

The 43-year-old held the title briefly in 2000, but soon after a group of Australian men beat his record by 4,896 miles by riding around Australia.

"I never got my certificate because my record was beaten so quickly," he said Wednesday morning after tying off his Sea Doo in front of the floodwall. "It's been eating away at me ever since."

Moffatt decided seven years of regret was too much. He wanted to try again, and with funding from Torco Race Fuels, he boarded the Sea Doo and set out for New York, Canada and the Midwest river systems. He is less than halfway through his planned 11,500-mile trip, a thousand miles more than the Australians traveled.

Prior to water travel, Moffatt lived life at the top of the Hollywood film crowd, producing such hit sitcoms as "Full House" and "Perfect Strangers."

"But it was a little unsatisfying after a while," he said. Breaking a world record was his "venue to be the best again."

His watercraft has touched land only for maintenance. The entire trip has been through waterways. Though he has no time limit, Moffatt hopes to be back in Miami in October.

He rides eight to 10 hours a day but tries to stop before dark. Finding a hotel, eating dinner and getting gas can be difficult at nightfall in an unfamiliar city.

He said he rides through rain but will stop for thunder or lightning.

"I could never take a nice day off," Moffatt said as he sat at the riverfront and looked at the Mississippi River.

"There's a lot of tree stumps out there."

Moffatt has skimmed around logs, through waves and waited in locks in the north. He saw sharks around sandbars and the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

The most interesting things have happened on land when he meets people, he said. On the water, he's concentrating on the record. No headphones, no conversation, just the record.

"Yes, it's boring," he said. "It's tough, but don't forget the goal. The goal is to win."

He eats a breakfast bar and drinks juice in the morning; eats another power bar and juice for lunch; and finds dinner when he docks. Moffatt said he can usually make it to a town with a hotel, but has been stranded with no river town in sight.

"That one night, you just tie up to a tree and you have a seat," he said. He spent Tuesday night in Cape Girardeau.

Moffatt travels between 100 and 200 miles a day. He will ride the Ohio River up to Pittsburg, Pa., then back down to the Tennessee River all the way to Mobile, Ala., and into the Gulf of Mexico. To finish the trip and break the record, he will ride the 500 miles to Myrtle Beach and back to Miami.

"Up to Myrtle Beach is a cinch," he said. "Five hundred up and 500 back will put me at 11.5."

He's lost small things like sunglasses and hats but nothing big so far, he said. The only injuries have been sprained fingers from the Sea Doo bouncing through choppy water.

"At the beginning it was painful," he said. "Everything was sore from being pushed to the limit. But by New York, I got used to it. You just have to get over that hump."

Moffatt's hump was the Atlantic Ocean.

charris@semissouiran.com

335-6611, extension 246