A Marine Corps veteran going after the solo Great Loop record with a 17-day target — and dedicating each day of the run to a fallen service member. Jason Decker first got underway Aug 4 and restarted his clock Aug 11. On Aug 12, 2026, the run ended — Decker was struck by a jumping fish and taken to urgent care, and called the attempt there. A gutsy try; the solo record of 19d 13h 1m stands another year. His track stays on the map.
Not a jon boat — a War Eagle 2170 Blackhawk, built in Monticello, Arkansas.
| Length / beam | 21 ft · 92″ beam · 70″ wide bottom |
| Hull | 23° deadrise, 26″ side depth, .125 gauge aluminum |
| Power | 150 hp Mercury ProXS |
| Propeller | Sharrow Marine loop-blade prop — the same design Red Flowers credited with an 18–20% fuel-efficiency gain on his 2024 record run |
| Night running | BoatEye360 C-1080 night-vision camera |
| Purchased through | Barling Boat Sales, Arkansas |
| Tracking | Samsara Track & Trace, live from departure day |
The boat was ordered April 24, 2026, went into production May 7, and was delivered painted, wired and tested.
Jason's own tour of the Liberty Looper and its features, including the BoatEye360 night-vision camera system:
Decker graduated high school in 2004, lasted about three weeks at college in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and enlisted in the Marine Corps that year. He married Maria in 2010; they have two sons, Tony and Kaleb. He grew up on Sebastian Lake and got his first boat — a $100 pawn-shop jon boat — at eight years old.
"I'll never forget one day when he was about 10 years old. He was going across Sebastian Lake on a jet ski, full throttle, and I waved him over and asked what in the world he was doing. He said he was trying to get it to 70 miles an hour — the fastest he could get it to was 67! He never had a fear of the water, only love and passion for it. Thirty years later, he's still trying to set speed records."— Roger Decker, his father
By his own account it was Robert Youens' record that turned a lifelong dream into a plan: "Running the Great Loop was always his dream, but when Robert Youens set the record, it inspired him to get up and going."
The part of this attempt that stands apart: every day of the Loop is dedicated to a fallen service member, published with rank, branch, age, date of death, hometown, unit and a short biography. The roster runs 20 days, beginning on departure day.
Day 1 honors Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Jaggers, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer awarded a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross. The list continues through Navy SEAL Marc A. Lee — the first SEAL killed in Iraq — SEAL Team 6 Chief Adam Brown, and Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, killed at Abbey Gate in 2021. Most of the twenty are Arkansans.
He's riding for the Wounded Warrior Project and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Both foundations process donations directly — Liberty Looper never touches the money and receives none of it.
"The risk is worth the reward. If I can help bring awareness to these programs, then it's worth it. They signed up to serve, they did their part — now it's our turn to do ours."— Jason Decker
Partners include War Eagle Boats, Sharrow Marine, BoatEye360, Coastal Culture Marine and Samsara. Tucker Ward of War Eagle on the build: "Building a good boat is not good enough if it can be better." Decker on approaching them: "When I brought the idea to them, they asked, 'What do you need from us and how can we help?'"
His own public build tracker lists eleven pre-run test items — daytime and nighttime trial runs, rough weather, rough water, sleeping aboard at night, night vision, fuel burn empty and loaded, top speed empty and loaded, and an ocean run-out — and as of late July all eleven were still marked "not started." That's a lot of unknowns for a 5,000-mile record run. After weather pushed the original August 1 start, the run got underway on Tuesday, August 4.