The blood thins quick. ;)

This is a great idea, but may I propose a little twist on the concept?

With all of the chest thumping going on from all of the vee bottom manufacturers I suggest the following:

1. Each manufacturer (Fountain, Cigarette, Outer Limits, Velocity, Phantom, Skater, Apache etc) builds one (only one) complete hull for the purpose of entering this race. Length is optional but target hull weight is 9000 lbs fully rigged.

2.The builder must pre rig the boat for Mercruiser HP 525's and #6 drives only......... specifying x dimension and drive shaft length.

3. The blank hulls are to be delivered to X Site for rigging. New engines and drives will be installed by Mercury techs without involvement from the builders. Boats will then be prop tested at the site with a single builder's representative from each boat company. All props will be Mercury CNC units. The builder may try different number of blades, pitch, rake and diameter and may ask for changes in cup. Weight (if needed) will be added at the same time to bring all hulls up to minimum. Engines will also be tested by Mercury to assure full operating output

4. After boats are satisfactorily set up with props, all engines will be removed, and randomly re-installed in other hulls prior to race day. This will be supervised by an outside judge (George Linder or Steve David). The boats will also be fueled from the same truck and fill caps sealed at that time. The only people allowed in the engine bays will be techs from Mercury watched by a judge at all times. All boats will be stored in a single guarded location and no access will be allowed without an official judge present.

5. Each boat will have an impartial third crewmember on board during the race to act as a judge of the spirit and intent of these rules. These individuals will only arrive and be revealed to the crew within 5 minutes of departure from the wet pits.

The 200 mile annual event will become the chance for all of us to see which builder actually has the goods.

Any builder who sabotages his own boat while not leading in mid race will be permanently disqualified from future events.

We'll call this the race for the "T2x Manufacturer's Cup" .

I'll supply the trophy.

Whaddya think?

T2x

P.S. February is the same for everybody...as is June...or October. Pick your poison, but this is about rough water.

sounds perfect Rich. NOT likely to ever happen but it sounds perfect.

Love It!

One more rule......

Jerry Gilbreath cannot represent any builder during testing.

He's too much of an advantage................. so he can only be a judge....... :D:D:D

T2x

I also want to point out that the manufacturers race would be a "race within a race" as the other classes that Charlie mentioned have merit as well........ but this class would bring needed media attention...... If any builders had the cojones to enter.

Judges should all be selected from the following list:

Jerry G., Charlie Mc Carthy, Richie Powers, George Linder, Steve David, Billy Martin, Bob Idoni, Alan Brown, Gene Bianco, Bob Saccenti, and a few others.

Not sure about doing it during the winter months? You get the wind blowing the right direction and it would be Chaos.

Does sound like fun, though!!

Hi Charlie,

I proposed a few years back on this site putting togeter an offshore race during the week of the Miami Boat Show while I was involved with OPBRA.Everyone is in town for the show anyway. I am all for it !!

Count Pantera as 1 of those manufactures to participate in this Ocean race !!!

Regards,

Jo - Pantera Boats

I love the T2x idea! That'd be awesome! After watching some of those old-school races in the video section, I'm convinced those boys were freakin' crazy! I wanna try!

Yawn.......is it winter already?