There has been a remark in article #5 above that caught my attention, and it hasnīt been rebutted (yet):
In other words, it is much easier to get sponsoring for events than for races. Is this true? If yes, it would provide a partial explanation for why the turbine class is in such a bad shape.

After all, the Miss Geico is of course also participating in events....

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to put it simply teams race if they have the desire, resources and cash.

if, and when, those factors all align at the same time for the 4 turbine teams it would certainly be a cool event to witness, but it is unlikely to happen anytime soon...

Cat is there something Very Wrong with you?? Those are real nice people at Turbine Marine we need more like them.

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We can keep the psychological factors (desire) and the resources as distinct from cash (know how) for later on. For the moment, I am talking about cash and nothing but cash.

Ultimately I would of course like to understand why the offshore turbine class is in such a bad shape. "Too expensive" is too cheap an answer, because there exist at least one or two teams with sufficient resources. You do not seem to share this interest of mine, since you donīt give any answers, but simply list the three most fundamental aspects to be taken into account in this context. But nevertheless this is a good start, since where there are possible multiple causes it is good advice to differenciate right from the start and then go step by step. And cash is an obvious place to start with.

So perhaps I should restate my question of article #30 in a somewhat more precise manner:
Is it easier to get funding by participating in events than it is to get funding by participating in races? Or is there no significant difference? Best would be an answer from someone who shares my interest.


I do hope that your pessimism here is unjustified. This essentially says that it is unlikely that there will exist an offshore turbine class which deserves this designation anytime soon. Contrast this with what has happened to unlimited hydroplanes in the past 25 years...

Peter

As awesome as the turbines are. For me personally The sound of the turbines is a turnoff compared to a piston engine. Look what happened to the unlimited hydros. In the past when the big allisons fired up people would come running. Now not so much. There has been talk of trying to get piston powered boats back in the unlimiteds to attract more interest. Unfortunatly its tough to compete in all aspects with turbine power.

If it were not for unlimited hydroplanes and the jet class of the Reno Air Races, I would not be interested in motor sports. In fact, before the son of a friend confronted me with gas turbines, my interest in engineering was restricted to space technology. Today it has extended to all types of heat engines, even though gas turbines will probably always be my favourite ones.

All of this reminds me of a discussion I had years ago with aerobatic pilots: These dimwits want airplanes with a high power to weight ratio - but not too high. I can assure you that the reason why none of them has ever flown a torque roll at 10ft. above ground (the most exiting aerial maneuver I can imagine) is not because this is too dangerous, but because these guys are intelectually somewhat limited: They just donīt want turboprops.

As far as my motor sound preferences etc. go, I have posted an article under the title of "Farters and Singers" into "The Bilge" - where I believe all such statements should go.