put back sealed GPS to check top speed in every boat ,problem solved before this gets to crazy.

I still agree with that suggestion.

When P class was first introduced, top speed was to be based on absolute best conditions. ie flat water, cool temps, light on fuel, 10-12 slip% etc etc......and, in APBA P-5 boats should not be able to run more than 70 on GPS. SBI was max avg speed of 70, which meant your boat needed to do 75 - 80. Thats what many of us set up to. Now SBI reduced their max avg lap speed to 65 and many have set up to that and OPA followed suit. And our boats will run 70 to 75.

I think we should consider going back to GPS. Its not costing us anything to race this year, so I think OPA should find a good GPS, test it, and have every team buy one. $ 200 - 250 aint gonna kill ya.

It would save a whole lot of time and BS. It worked with APBA and it can work now. I know we tried it with OPA, but we didnt use good GPS units and there were problems. But if we get decent units, mount them properly in a foam case, it should work fine.

I think its going to be tough to keep tabs on 20 to 25 boats on the course at one time. There is too much room for error.

All valid points. The Gps even with the best of units are not fool proof. There will be spikes. No matter what you buy, how do we address that? The Prop calc if properly enforced, is very acurate. Can be backed up with a test run with Tech before the race. Or Speed runs, difficult to do, in some locations. One thing we could do is schedule a day and a common place for all. Test run the boats. Find a prop and PRM that gives you your fastest speed. That will then be the largest prop you will be allowed to run. Obviously you would want to be allowed to prop down for rough situations. Once your speed is determined. We will seal your Msd rev box, Your Motor, and drive. If the seals have to be removed for repairs, you will have to come back and re test the boat. Or If the racers are really interested in fair play, This will be a banner year for us. We have put forth a hugh effort to change the sport. Set your boat up Legal for your class and lets see how good you are.

I like this idea.....still run what ya brung but sealing the motor and drives ensures no changes have been made after the tech.

Then it's agreed seals are a good idea

I would only feel slightly more comfortable with the GPS solution if there were 2 sealed units onboard. I know I would hate beating my boat up and racing my heart out, just to be DQ'd by some electronic glitch. Its not even a glitch, GPS's triangulate from space, not from sea level. Some good air and long hang time translates into a lot of distance covered on a flat surface.

I like the prop calc method. The only variation is the slip calc, this is unfortunately a huge range. A heavy old deep 24 deg bottom boat will make the prop slip 20% or more, compared to a new lighter 22 deg bottom boat, which may only slip 5-10%. Thats a 14 MPH difference for the same prop spinning the same RPM on two vastly different hull designs.
Why don't we assign slip percentages to hull type? Like newer lighter stepped hull boats, say 8-12%, twins, a little less. The older heavier tanks, 12-18% slip allowance. Slip% can be determined as a group. Just an idea to tighten up the competition a bit.

Your still talking about alot of time and effort .GPS is still easiest simplest, most accurate, and thats coming from someone that lost the National championship in St.Pete. by a GPS of 90.4 in P-3,a short spike coming into the finish, that had no effect on the outcome of the race.I still believe that GPS is the way to go. Bottom line, I think you can assign a boat to the proper P class with a prop calc. but you need the GPS to control it , and insure good competitive racing.

Walt

Prop & RPM Calc, with the sealing of the MSD box and prop checking sounds like the best and easy way to me.

I don't know if you are only looking for input from just the racers that will be racing, but I will throw my idea out here anyway and if it works great! If not? At least I know I tried to give some input.

Here is the idea.

I did something in Camden that no one really knows about. Maybe one other person but that's about it.

I stood on the Battleship and snapped off photos of every boat as they went by on each lap.

Later that night I came home and popped the photos into the computer. With each photo taken, a time stamp, down to the second is built into the properties of the photos with the exact time it was taken.
From there, knowing the distance of the course, and knowing how long it took to do each lap or the entire race for that matter, I came up with the average lap speeds and total time it took to complete the race for each boat.

So here is my suggestion for you guys.

Have a video camera or two on tripods looking out to the start buoy with a timer on the video.

When the race is over, review the tape or DVD and record the times of each boat whether you want average lap speed or just base it on the total time it takes to complete the course for each boat.
This illiminates the scorers on the turn boats and any chance of human errors from a score boat.

This way, you know exactly who has broken out and who did not..

You have a total distance to cover with keeping under a certain mile per hour. Know what your distance is and do the math. Obviously if you come in under the least amount of time it should take, then you were running faster than you should have.


I don't think reviewing the tape would take as long as it would to tech inspect all the boats.
I hope this may help, and possibly just keep the rules as simple as possible.

Whatever you choose, be safe and have a great season!

Shark,

Your idea has much credibility. It is also extremely close to the way lap times are figured at SPB/APBA races. It's simple, straight forward, and anyone positioned relatively close to the Finish Line can do it.

This also brings to mind the importance of big, clear numbers on your boat. If your numbers are not readable, how do you expect to be scored accurately? The SBI/APBA rulebook has very clear guidelines on size, background, and placement of numbers.

When boats are running deck to deck, the scorers have to read the numbers at an angle before they reach the Finish Line. Otherwise, they can't see the numbers on the boat behind the boat in their line of vision. Big, clear, numbers will help to make sure you get scored properly.

Good to see you back.