TYPHOON

I have looked into small blimps that you would need to fill prior to the race with gas (aprox $100 each) and can fly at what ever hight you want. I cant believe a sponsor wouldn't want there name on a turn marker. The blimp is 21' by 7.5' at a cost of $2500. The visibility of a 21' blimp is 4 miles away. Less expensive would be a hot air balloon shape 10' by 8' for aprox $1800. You can also put lights in them for night time advertisement. The best value would be fill the blimps on the first day when the boats show up in the pits and fly them high in the air in the wet pits.It will help racers fans and sponsors find the wet pits. Leave them up at night lit for more exposure. Everyone knows there is something going on when they see a balloon flying and it will draw attention to the race. The sponsor should love it when they see there name for 4 days flying and see real value in it. Race day you take them to the race course and display them on the turns. Now the fans and racers know the course and the advertiser has everyone focused on the turn with there logo on it. What better value could you ask for? The only catch is if you are flying choppers you could only fly them about 30' off the water but you could still have great visability.
MD

TGOR

With blimps and balloons, you just created a hazard to aircraft (i.e the helos) flying the course. A parade lap and flashing strobes on the turn buoys makes more sense.

Sean

SHARKEY-IMAGES

What do you think of these Augie?

SHARKEY-IMAGES

...

Ted G

iTrader: (1)

Hell Shark, those are the same size that I use and the SOB ran in to it

You'd think he could see it, maybe not

Ted G

iTrader: (1)

PP last year was a real problem with the haze, I suppose anything that could be used to help deliniate the turn boats might have helped. I don't think Randy's balloons would need to be flown high enough to be a problem for the helos, but they do fly kinda low so they would need to be aware. Most of those guys are so damn good they would probably try and fly below them or slalom them just to make things interesting

Pete B

Great opportunity for sponsor advertising, pics from turns always look great.

TeamSaris

The only problem I really saw was AC a few years back when everyone got confused with the crab tank and the turn.

SHARKEY-IMAGES

I think the tide went slack, and he must have picked up the extra scope going into the turn...

You think your balls are that big?

VinMan

What about the pyramids that SBI always used? Its hard to miss those!
Being responsible for course setup for most of our Jersey races, I know that the flags we use are not the best turn markers. If the wind happens to be blowing in the direction the boats are going, the flags is almost impossible to see.
I think the biggest problem is the fact that you have too many other boats gathering around the turn boats and markers. I know last yr we spent about 20 mins on the radio trying to explain which boat was thre turn boat because there was about 7 boats sitting in the corner. Mabye we need to establish a "clear zone" near the turns? Keep all boats away from the turns, except for medic boats. I think that would solve a big part of the problem.