Thanks for the Clarification, understood

GPS racing may not be as rugged as the old school racing is (Just ask My father ) but its also not as expensive. Its the only way people like my father and I can go racing. It works for us.

Yes One might consider me one, one a sidenote I don't care much of spectator popularity either It's nice to have and fun to talk to people and tell about "this thing of ours".
I just like others who think likewise to show up-- well that's popularity too.
Adressing the problem.
Well offshore is a form of motorsport which never has attracted the big crowd ...maybe all racers combined in the world would be 200-300. Then again that's just as much as some olympic sports...
It will be always be a close knitted group but Open to the fans considering other forms of motorsport.

This is Exactly why there is limited interest in racing today......not the frequency of events, but the policy of catering to weekend warriors who "need" a boatload of rules, classes, course limits, comfort, convenience and a slew of other things that run contrary to the very core of long haul, no holds barred, endurance/marathon racing. A marathon is just that... a marathon...not a mini marathon...not a segmented marathon.. and certainly not 8 or 9 (GPS or non GPS) controlled laps on a 5 mile course in a bay or lake.....nor a "speed run" at some bar.

Your needs are precisely what begat Poker Runs and Shootouts, which are not events that real racers or real racing fans get excited about....yet I respect the need for such venues. Pretty girls in bikinis, oysters and drinks, showing off your big shiny motors, pulling up in your Lambo....I get it! On the other hand real racers are competitive in a more primal way and want very few "accomodations" beyond the opportunity to compete, especially when pitting themselves against other opponents and mother nature simultaneously. We built 30 foot cats that outran vee bottoms 6 to 10 feet longer in very rough seas over hundreds of miles and never worried about what was "fair" (of course the vee bottom builders used that word a lot..but that's another story )...and..... we could party with the best of them....AFTER the race (and sometimes after we had the sutures put in).

As to the earlier comments from another poster about older racers not being able to handle the "tight cornering" in today's races..... I submit that many of us "geezers" ran multiple closed course boat races in boats ranging from outboard hydros to twin engine vees, to tunnel boats, to inboard flat bottoms and hydros at speeds and in close quarters that would crimp your sphincter...as well as Offshore events. (I raced most of those...some, like Billy Sirois and Odell Lewis, did it all). Get back to me after you've run 9 hours on a 4 mile course in and out of Miami Marine stadium against 150+ boats, or 8 hours at Havasu or the Parker 9 hour...etc, etc. Further, your comment about "turning at 150 mph" is nonsense....Today's cats may peak out at 200 (occasionally...rarely in a race) but they turn at the same limits as anything else..... well south of your estimate. As far as a 70 MPH turn in a big vee bottom... that really "ain't no thang" other than to put a hull designed for rough water straightaways in the wrong environment, while encouraging a large group of clueless wannabes to emulate you and decorate the waterways with their hapless passengers as they spin out in their stepped bottom glamour boats.

At the core of this debate is the significant difference between today's racing and racers and the older, rougher, nastier version(s) that formed the foundation of the sport. Those who lived and raced in the days of big fleets and 150+ mile courses in big seas have a lot to contribute and might know more than you give us credit for. You see, at the end of the day, we have the benefit of seeing and experiencing the current model against the background of the original version, but folks who can't listen and learn from the past very rarely have much of value to say. Of course that doen't mean they don't talk alot.

T2x

P.S...... I'm Back!

You and your dad were born for this race...... and you know you can afford to enter this event, Miami-Bimini, and one other...... if and when it occurs. Heck..... the King Sting team will probably want in as well......

We missed you this year........ but at least you went precisely 74.8 mph for a while...

T2x

It's about time!

Keep it coming.

Who said dinosaurs and cavemen were extinct??? Welcome back Rich...

BTW, they need to get your azz out there announcing the live coverage next year.

What live coverage? I want to announce from the cockpit of one of the boats.... I'm sure I can narrate and throttle at the same time.....

"The current is strong here in the lower East River....I think we just sheered a "floater" in half...... Watch out for the plywood scoffoldings behind the next wave...... Did someone jump off the 59th Street Bridge?.....Look at all the condoms in our roostertail!....Are those Crips on the Brooklyn shoreline shooting at us?...... and now back to Dick Crippen at race headquarters!"

You know we'll try for next year

Well we have races like that.. and still there's no poker runners showing up despite they having their own class for it. I have once managed to overspeak a guy with a week old 35 Fountain to participate..and he has had several powerboats before that, and we won overall easily, still he told he'd never driven that long at 10/10ths before.. all in all 56 mins.

In an endurance race anything can happen so I'd never be worried about someone's other stuff.

I encourage you to try real racing, after the race you can always relax the way you choose
, just like in a poker run. Even Formula1 drivers party after the races-----Hard.