Again I don't see boat racing ever really drawing in crazy crowds. Hell I bet over half the spectators don't even know what the hell is going on on the water! who's in what class, what place they're in, etc. They're just out for a day in the sun by the water. No one's gonna shell out much $ for that. We draw good crowds cause its free. Start charging and I see a major drop in attendance.

If you go back to the basics I would like to see some sorta large display like at the horsetrack showing boat number and their place, lap number too. Have it split up by class. This would help keep the crowd up to speed on what's going on.

Hell, "THE WATER CHANNEL" isn't even re-running the 1-2 dozen episodes of American powerboat TV anymore. Now it's the knife show all the time:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Even though many here groaned a bit that the shows were usually 50% Fountain and Livorsi Commercials (me included) it was still better than nothing.

Hey Louie..wheres my shirt?? huh??
large crowds are a marketing audience..sponsors dont sponsor races..they buy advertising..that large crowd on the beach, on the balcony of the hotel, wandering thru the pits, each spectator has a dollar value.every set of eyes that see a budwiser banner is worth money, every thirsty tongue that buys a drink is worth money. every head the looks to the sky to see the dodge dealership banner being towed behinde the plane is worth money.every person that drives his car to a race has to park it somewhere..thats worth money, the patrons hand that holds the parking stub with the eat at joes ad is worth money. the empty stomach of the hungry guy who buys two hotdogs for himsel, one for his wife and ice cream for his kid is worth money, they guy trying to be cool bying 27 strands of beads is worth money..every drooling guy that shows up to see RG3 in a bikini is worth money, every person who gets a free pit pass from being the 15th caller at the local rock station is worth money. every person that buys a hat or t shirt is worth money, every person who forgot there sunscreen and has to buy a new bottle is worth money. All we need to do is to provide a large enough captive audience to demand our fair share..afterall the wouldnt be here if it wasnt for us.. thats what sponsorship is... budwieser, redbull, coppertone etc..they all could care less about our silly little boat race..what they care about is the dollar value of every spectator, be it in person or on tv. If the company thinks there is sufficient money to be made off our captive auadience..they will gladly pay us (sponsor) for the ability to solicit that audience.

and for mentioning all those spectaotrs that dont know whats going on or whos winning..90% of them dont care.. they just want the yellow boat with the red stripes to win because he gave them stickers or a can coozy and posed for a pik with there kid. they simply cheer when one boat passes another and roosts them down good and they gasp when a boat hits a big wave, points the bow at the moon, trips and almost stuffs, they hold there breath when the cat barrel rolls on the turn, then cheer when the crew limbs out thru the bottom.

then a few of those people are gonna go home and throw go fast boats into google and are going to end up here// they are gonna ask a bunch of questions we have seen 2000 times before, they are going to make comment that will have some of us shaking our heads thinking " that was the stupidest thing I have ever heard". if we answer his questions, explain things to him...the next race he is going to bring 6 of his buddies, there wives and kids out of his 6 buddies one is going to show up here..laugh at the beak vs outerlimits war, take a second on the house and buy a cig. next thing you know you pop a drive hooked up to that monster blower motor of yours during a poker run, and its gonna be him that tows your butt back in. Then in 3 years, this guy buys a race boat and all his friends, half his co workers, his uncle jim and aunt erma, there nephewand the kid next door to his nephew show up to watch him race, as the crowd stands on there feets cheering his orange boat with blue stripes, becuse he gave out beads AND can coozes AND took piks with the kids plus autographed there t-shirts.

I think that a lot of it has to do with how easy it is to respond on a message board brashly.

I was at the Cambridge OPA race this past year with my uncle who is a former OPA racer and the people in the dry pits couldn't have been nicer. Everywhere we walked, guys offered us beer and food and were more than happy to answer any questions i asked. I think most of the guys racing are real good people and real social people and things on the internet often get taken in the worst possible way. People like to talk to other people who are straight shooters and don't beat around the bush, but on message boards those same people often times come off as harsh when they are just saying it like it is. I always take everything I read on here with a grain of salt.

I also have to agree, every time I've been in the dry pit's, all the teams have been extremely cordial.
I met Stan Ware (Popeye's) and the Roman brothers (Motley Crew) in 2005 in St. Pete, and Stan introduced me and my wife to his family, and we ate chicken for breakfast with them. All this while Stan was nervously waiting on an overnight shipment of new drives to replace what got destroyed on Thursday, and be able to go back and race.

2004 in Key West was also a blast. Everyone was very open to talk, and there was a great OSO party - even met RG3 and Allan4, and Thrillseeker there, as well as many others.

In 2002, I remember being at the Cleveland APBA races, wandered into the wet pits, and wound up giving a hand helping tie up boats that had come back in from prop testing before the race - I didn't know any of the racers, just giving a hand.

I've been to a few of Chris Reindl's (Batboats) races, and he has always recognized me and given me and my guests VIP bracelets for the race. Wasn't uncommon at those events to wind up "giving a hand" to help. Chris is a great guy, and always puts on a good event.

GlassDave is another good example of a straight forward guy, genuine guy, he just doesn't own a clock or a watch.:D

I've only met a few that are azzhole's - but there's one or two in every crowd.

paying the $10 bucks to get in the pits, consider it a cover charge to get into the cool club that everyone hangs out at. And, everyone is welcome.

Your shirt is being prepped for delivery, I IM'ed you for an address. Key is who benefits when we come to town? The local businesses do, the race I'm working on is going to be sponsored by them along with a few entusiasts. Logistically it is almost impossible to collect a gate at a race site except for Key West and I think it would adversely affect attendence at most races. Our courses are sublect to change, do to a variety of of reasons, the vendors at a car race are permanent ours set up tents. we are a traveling show subject to bad weather and a host of other snags. But we are all here talking about this, we are putting our boats back together, getting our equipment in order and getting ready to race! this is going to be a great year and I think the start of good things to come. Well I gotta get back to work. Keep the faith! Louie

It started out with free hotel rooms in the Bahamas....that was it. You paid your own expenses, fuel, bar bill etc.

It grew from that, to real legit sponsors who paid real money alongside the business owners who put their own business name on the boats to pretend they were beng sponsored.

The Benihana race in the late 70's was held on a Wednesday because the Coast Guard said they couldn't control the weekend crowds. On a Wednesday, we had more than 400,000 people, on the shore, in boats, in hotels etc.

Make the decision....do you want a business like NASCAR or do you want a "gentlemens sport" where the money guys show up and play at racing, for a few weekends a year. You can't have it both ways.

The real racer of today is no different than the 50's....he will race anywhere. Get it off the beach and back to the real open ocean offshore...... and maybe that will get the attention of the media and the real advertisers again.

www.historicraceboats.com

Well put Charlie! We need to listen to guys like Charlie who were involved when racing was in it's glory and take there advice on how to return the sport to those days.

Hey I hear that the 35 is here in mass I talked to Mike Perette

Cat ,
Get me your address and I'll send you one, do you want the regular style or do you want the one that has the nipple openings lol:eek:

BINGO!!!!!!