A Work of Art wins Blue Marlin Grand Championship, again

A Work of Art wins Blue Marlin Grand Championship, again
Wharf owner Art Farve & angler Kevin Courville become tourney’s first-ever two-time winners

By Jim Cox
The Blue Marlin Grand Championship debuted at The Wharf in Orange Beach in July of 2012. A Work of Art won the inaugural tournament that year as Kevin Courville was the angler on the winning fish, which weighed 665.4 pounds.
Fast forward eleven years to the exact day, and Courville found himself in the chair again on a potential historic fish at what is known as ‘The Greatest Show in Sportfishing.’ Fifty-Seven teams entered this year’s tournament, which featured nearly $1.6M in tournament prize money.
Boats departed Perdido Pass at noon on Thursday, July 13th, and fishing was on fire as soon as teams could put lines in the water. Three teams boated Blue Marlin above the tournament minimum of 110″ in the first half day of fishing, and all three headed back to The Wharf for a Friday morning weigh-in. Metal Masher, a 72′ Viking from Orange Beach, was the first to weigh their 114″ fish. Captain Destin’ Chili’ Williams and angler Teddy Tinney’s fish was 490.4 pounds and momentarily atop the leaderboard. The next fish was from Bird Dog, a 65′ Ritchie Howell from Destin, measuring 117”. Captain BJ Teems and crew became the new tournament leaders as angler Parker Cotton’s Blue Marlin was 582.6 pounds. A lead they would hold until the last Blue Marlin of the tournament was weighed the following evening. The last fish of the busy Friday morning was from Intense, a 44 Contender from Mobile. Captain and angler Neal Foster brought a 114.5-inch fish to scales that moved them into second place at 503.2 pounds.
Saturday night’s final weigh-ins saw Mae, a 65′ Blackwell from Panama City, Florida, captained by Jacob Reaves, move into second place as angler Drew Marshall’s 120″ Blue Marlin checked in at 512.6 pounds.
The last Blue Marlin to come to the scales would be the 120.5″ fish from A Work of Art, a 92′ Viking from Orange Beach. Owner Art Farve, along with Captain Jason Buck, celebrated
capturing the Gulf Coast Triple Crown the previous year at the Saturday night weigh-ins, and once again, there would be a cause for celebration. As the weight of 597.4 pounds was announced to the huge crowd, A Work of Art once again made history at the Blue Marlin Grand Championship, becoming the first-ever team to win the tournament for a second time.
“So much has changed here at The Wharf in the last eleven years since we first won this tournament,” said Farve. “But what hasn’t changed is the spirit of competition at this event.
There are so many great captains are crews that you have to compete against to win here, and we feel very fortunate to be back here at Marlin Circle celebrating tonight.”
Team Supreme, a 72′ Viking from Destin, was the top Catch and Release boat with six Blue Marlin releases, which also clinched for Captain Chase Lake and owner Allen Krake the 2023 Gulf Coast Triple Crown. Angler Alex Krake released five Blue Marlins and caught a 113″ boated Blue Marlin for a total of six Blue Marlin in nine hours of fishing on the Friday of the
tournament adding another release on Saturday.
Grocery Isle, an 80′ Weaver from Thibodeaux, Louisiana, finished second in Catch and Release with five Blue Marlin and one Sailfish release, while Quick Time, a 70′ Viking from Ono Island, finished third releasing four Blue Marlin and one White Marlin. Intense took home top Tuna honors with a 163.2-pound Yellowfin Tuna, followed by Jubilee, a 68′ Hatteras from Palm Beach, at 138.2 pounds, and Relentless, a 37′ Freeman from Daphne was third at 128.2 pounds. In the Dolphin category, Jubilee was first at 29.8 pounds. Raise ‘Em Up, a 56′ Sunny Briggs from Sandestin, finished in second place at 23.8 pounds, followed in third by Perseverance, a 54’ Hatteras from Biloxi, at 22 pounds. Raise ‘Em Up also claimed the top Wahoo spot at 42.4 pounds, followed by the 76’ Viking Reel
Fire from Biloxi, Mississippi, at 32.4 pounds, while Perseverance added another third-place finish at 24.4 pounds.
A total of forty-two caught Blue Marlin were reported by tournament teams, along with two White Marlin and one Sailfish.
The Blue Marlin Grand Championship, The Greatest Show in Sportfishing, returns to The Wharf in Orange Beach July 10-14, 2024.

Pictured: Owner Art Favre and the Work of Art crew once again made history at the Blue Marlin Grand Championship, becoming the first-ever team to win the tournament for a second time.

Orange Beach Water Authority Completes Major Upgrades
Orange Beach Water Tower at Cotton Bayou
Orange Beach, Ala. – (OBA) – The Orange Beach Water Authority recently wrapped up three big projects including upgrading the waterline through the Sportsplex that will increase service there as well as Orange Beach Middle/High School.

This month the Orange Beach City Council approved an easement for the authority to cross the park and Collegiate Lane to tap into a huge line that runs from Powerline Road to beach road. To start the project, crews tapped into a line on the east side of Lauder Lane.

“We’ve got two water mains that run on both sides of Lauder Lane,” Field Inspector Cody Pierce said. “On the east side we’ve got an eight-inch water main. We tapped into it, ran the trail back to the west and went through the ballpark. Then we went down Collegiate and tapped into our 30-inch main that runs down Powerline Road. Basically, we just looped that 30 into Lauder and then also that eight-inch that we tapped into at the end of Lauder runs to the east and ties into our 20-inch on 161.”

Looping and interconnecting the lines helps keep water flowing if a certain one goes down or needs repairs.

“Just some more redundancy in the system,” Pierce said. “The main that fed the ballpark was an eight-inch PVC water main that’s been in the ground a long time. We took the chance to upgrade that to a 12-inch duck wireline and we looped it, so we have multiple feeds for the school, the ballpark and everybody else in between.”

The part running through the Sportsplex was aging and needed to be replaced, Pierce said.

“We tapped that eight (on Lauder Lane) and came out and right after we made that tap, we upgraded to a 12-inch and went to the west. There are three bores along that trail because of the drainage. There were four bores in that project and the rest was open cut, dug a trench and laid it. Really bored down Collegiate for the most part because of the wetlands and stuff like that.”

Another big project finally in the books is upgrading the lines on the north and south side of Canal Road from The Wharf all the way to the Doc’s Seafood Shack intersection.

“We had an eight-inch main on the north side of Canal Road from that new gas station and upgraded it to a 12-inch main and ran from Cumberland all the way to Luna’s, Pierce said. “On the south side, we went all the way from Powerline Road to Cactus Cantina. There was a 12-inch main in the ground already, but we upgraded it to a 16-inch main.”

That was actually part of the project to widen Canal Road to five lanes and the Alabama Department of Transportation had asked the authority to wait until they were done before upgrading the lines there.

The third project was moving two lines carrying untreated water from wells to the treatment plant on the Intracoastal Waterway just west of where the state is hoping to put a new bridge. Pierce said they got them moved and then a court order halted work on the bridge.
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