Lights Out Boston AC Competes with Grit and Determination in Zane Grey Championship Playoffs

The 2025 SFC Zane Grey Championship Playoff in Cabo San Lucas was a Battle Royale that could have sealed the victory for any one of the four teams, right up until the final bell. The bite was furious for two whole days, with the four boats ringing up 165 billfish releases among them, including 162 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin, and one sailfish. When the smoke cleared, the Texas Lone Stars from the Gulf Division triumphed, followed by the Third Coast Renegades in second place, the New Jersey Seabirds in third, and Lights Out Boston AC in fourth, with a range of just 725 points separating the four teams. This kind of competitive parity at such a high level is the kind of things other sports leagues can only dream about.

“The competition was awesome,” said Capt. Rob Carmichael, co-owner of the Viking 62 Lights Out. “Obviously, our goal was to place higher than we did, but I am super proud that we were able to represent the Northeast, and compete against some of the best boats and crews in Cabo.”

As always, this competition was a team effort, and the Lights Out crew brought their special mix of fishing prowess, camaraderie, grit, and sportsmanship to the event. The team began hatching the strategy for the tournament several weeks prior to the October 19 start date, when they decided their approach to the tournament, and chose to ship their Viking 62 Lights Out to Cabo San Lucas rather than charter a local boat there.

Lights Out Boston celebrates a great season at the Zane Grey Championships in Cabo San Lucas.

“This team finished the regular season with three straight tournament wins to take the Atlantic Division” said Drew Dolben, the Lights Out Boston AC team owner. “Then we shipped out to Cabo and brought the whole team and program there. I would expect nothing less of our team, with the determination to win it all on our boat, and to do it together.”

Lights Out Boston got off to a hot start on the morning of day one with Jackie Hayes releasing a blue marlin—worth 450 points! Throughout the two days the team kept up a hectic pace with anglers Ross Nasin, Casey Carmichael, Ray Rosher, Matteo Scena, Rob West, and Rob Carmichael all notching releases of striped marlin, with a sailfish added to the mix for good measure.

“It's a long way from home, but bringing our own boat and fishing with the same team that fished from Walkers Cay to Cape Cod just felt like the right thing to do,” said Carmichael.

As the second day began to draw to a close, all four teams were bunched up in the scoring with just 300 points separating the first- and last-place teams with less than three hours of fishing remaining before the 5:30 pm end time. The Texas Lone Stars released a blue marlin to retake the lead one final time with less than an hour and a half to go, then managed to stretch their lead with a double on striped marlin and an additional catch with just seven minutes, left holding off the competition as time expired.

“We are super thankful that we had this incredible opportunity,” said Carmichael. “We want to extend a huge congratulations to some badass teams: the Texas Lone Stars, the Third Coast Renegades, and the New Jersey Seabirds.”

Perhaps as a fitting end to a terrific season, the Lights Out team will be keeping the boat in Cabo for the duration, fishing up and down Baja, Mexico, and also venturing down the Pacific Coast of Latin America to fish additional world-class fishing grounds. That’s a winning season in anyone’s book.