this must include help from film crews, look at www.class-1.com. they have video of races next day on all web sites
mike

P class racing should have length,weight,twin and single engine classes as well as cat classes,no matter what the water conditions are, the boats running in each class should be competitive against one another not if it is rough you will win or if it is calm I will win,a guy with a 38ft twin in the rough has it all over a guy with a single 27 foot boat and the guy with the smaller craft has the speed when the larger boat needs a little chop to get air under the boat to get the speed.I also know that there are some boats on both ends of the spectrum that can do well against one another in these situations but they are few and hard to find,you really have to run over your head in rough water in a 27 foot boat to try and keep up with a 38 foot or a 35 footer in rough conditions and that is really not safe,I think if the classes are equal in length,weight,and number of engines you will see alot more people come out.Who wants to spend money on racing if they already know that they will be running against another boat that can beat them as long as they dont break.

Agreed, there are a large variety of boats in the P class. Or should we call it Monster Garage. True there could be a dozen classes to accommodate all the different boats. Personally I feel the large number of classes has always been the problem with Offshore. We Proved in Camden Money is a motivator. To add classes reduces the purse, Further confuses the spectators, and again adds never ending changes to an Offshore rule book. The fans are finally beginning to understand the P class numbering system. We have racers building boats for a particular class, because the rules have been the same for more than one week. Sorry guys but there has been too much spent on promoting the P class to change it now. We will have a rules meeting next month, to review last season, go over this coming season, and discuss, our schedule. To all the racers reading this, rest assured the classes will be the same, the rules will be the same, The racing will be improved, as will the payout. Consistency is what this sport needs more than anything else at this point. I am sure some of you will debate this, but sit back and look at the sport. Which class has the most growth in the past few years? Why mess with it now? The question should be, with the boat count on the rise, How do we increase the exposure of our sport. How do we make it more professional, to be able to market it on a larger scale? Smitty

Smitty,
That was the purpose of my first post, the internet, is the quickest, cost effective way to solicit this sport! People like yourself, John Haggin are introducing the sport at a whole new level with the way you guys are promoting OPA, and working with BWORA, and putting promotion of the sport ahead of personal gain!!!!! There are many people within the confines of this small sport, that are truly generous people, and then a few that just have their own agenda! Having X number of boats per class, being able for the average fan or first time spectator to understand who is racing who, depending on the number of boats how many starts per race.
I hope 2006 is a banner year, and wish all teams a safe New Year.

Guys Please keep in mind that P class was started and still is a spot for the average guy to race the boat he now owns without the major expense of changing motor or drives to spec requirements. There are already spec classes with similar hull and identical motors, if that is what a person chooses. I am afraid that if the requirements for P class become to restrictive we will loose boats.

mmwalters & others,

In my own opinion here after reading some of the posts that have been put on this thread it looks as if everyone likes the P- Classes(hate that name). I do believe far to many changes would be to much but a little tweaking here and there of some of the rules could make it far better then it already is. A few ideas that are very basic to me and do not take a whole lot to achieve other then implementing them are listed below. Remember I myself am keeping this as a positive info based thread to make it better for all involved.

1) Publish a rule book so that when a team makes an infraction they know it exists. Can be done with a computer at home or work. No publishing company needed.

2) Send out questioners about small changes to previous members for there input or post it here in the Milling area. That way the racers are given input whether it is used or not. OSO/Steve has given us a great place to do this and Ted will moderate it so it should not get out of hand.

3) Implement a 100% locked in rule that if a team makes an infraction(breakouts, course infractions, etc) the team is disqualified no questions asked. They did it in Performance classes a short time ago and it worked.

4) Simply take a look at the what people are saying(racers, fans, promoters and spectator) about the numbering system of the boats in each class. This meaning whether or not having P in front of every boat out there works. Maybe the thought suggest of going back to letters may work. Racing will only grow(sponsors and $$$$s) with Fan base.

As for the lettering if the classes were explained more "promoted pushed" what class P1,P2 all ment then the public would get ahold of it, changing to an alphabetical style you would have to do the same thing educate the general public. now for the P class we should have a the letter P and number followed by what boat number it is to help desypher which boat and class is runnig. The small boats running with the larger boats make it fun for the race can be anybodys, yea the twins that run in the heavy chop can do better but look at the 24' pantera that ScottB ran in P5 lots of wins smooth and rough so it becomes the crew of the boat at hand. If the class isnt broke dont go trying to fix it. In the OPA Camden race that was the most p5 boats that I have seen in one race along with the other classes filled up pretty well even though it poured buckets of rain down upon us.

Smitty and MMwalters hit it nail on the head keep it as a run what you brung.

P-Classes stands for Performance Class. It sounds a hole lot better.

To a response to the website and promoting sponsors...

It would be a lot of work for the Organization to keep updating teams info...

But if the teams would write a press release's about them for the Organizations it would be easy for them to post on SBI/APBA, OSS and OPA sites....if your going to go after sponsors you really need a website...and you will be writing press releases anyways....also lets not forget....you can have them posted on Talkoffshore.com and hear on OSO...

Gino,
you are correct in the above statement, and it really is very simple, so the real question is "why doesnt it happen" there seems to be many avenues to get the word out, when will teams take advantage of it??? Yes every team needs a website, as for organazations doing releases they obviously need input from the teams, but yes to make the organzation more appealing to sponsors updates need to be done regularly.