DaveP

Thanks for the kudos!

And to just set the record straight - Smitty joined us at our Winter Dinner and that is when he discovered that the dates overlapped. He immediately said he had no idea and he would do his best to move the dates.

As promised he moved the dates but when Haggin came up with the $25k, Haggin wanted the date not to change.

Having been involved in the racing scene before for a long time I totally understand how tough it is to raise money for races and totally understand why the decision was made.

There are NO hard feelings with Smitty or the OPA crew whatsoever. I wish they had they opportunity to race but as many of people from our crew have already said - the ocean was not a fun place to be with the pea soup fog.

SHARKEY-IMAGES

Just to add to Dave's comments.

Haggin of AMF had already had previous commitments with another event out west for the August 26th date.

Without AMF, it just wouldn't be the same. They sponsor something like 9 teams I think...

OPA needed to give a huge impression on the race this year! Mission accomplished! Even though they didn't race, just the sight of the turn out and a few larger boats made a big difference. So much so that Jenks wants the race in August anyway. So I suggested to Smitty to try for August 12th. That would give AMF 2 weeks before they had to go out to the west coast and it wouldn't conflict with our Poker Run on August 5th.
I only hope Jenks will agree to that. Otherwise he may be dissappointed with not having the Platinum Princess and the other BIG boats there for the event....