[QUOTE=Indy;1982254]Damn right, that's exactly why people like me don't give a crap about this sport.

Then why are you on this website and have over 2600 posts.
Just wondering

[QUOTE=Pat D;1983693]I think he was refering to racing, not performance boating in general.

Cuda........
I understand that.
I was just curious why he commented so negatively on the racing part of the "sport" that he also participates in as a boater..............and before I posted, I took the time to read 3 pages of his other comments.
Now I fully understand.
Whatever........Have a happy boating year however you do it.
pd

Cuda is right.

I do the same in my PowerPlay. I've been getting the same feeling you do for the 35 years I've been boating.

Boat racing is not a broad based and poplular sport for many reasons. In its pure form it's a wonderful sport but mix in all the classes, organizations, bickering, law suits, etc. and it is not easy to follow to say the least. T2x has it right. This is not a personal attack, just some feelings about the sport in general. Heck...look no further than this board in the racers section, there's OPA, GLOPRA, POPRA, BWORA, ORL, APBA, SBI and all the classes within each organization...confusing? It is to me.

I'm just frustrated that this sport can't get it's collective act together. I'm sure each organization and the racers who participate in them are great and those that attend usually have positive things to say about it, just think of the possibilities though.

And as far as thinking happy thoughts go, I can't...it's gonna be 65 degrees here this weekend and the boat's winterized

Pat...yeah my first post comes off a bit strong, no harm intended. This is a passionate subject among you racers, fans, and potential fans (me).

Have fun on the water and be safe.

I feel your pain, 65 here tomorrow too. Indy, were are all trying hard to make the best of things. I race with the OPA, its a perfect fit for our team and we are all friends to boot.
There has been a lot going on behind the scenes to get us all racing together, and the aproach thats being taken is a good one. If it works we will all race together at select races and the worlds, and no one looses there identity. Some sites can't support all the teams from all the organizations anyway, so it seems to be a good solution. Time will tell, in the mean time we're gonna give it all we got. If the weather stays like this any longer I'm goin swimming!!

Louie

Everyone says they want the same thing. Its not that difficult ... so then lets do it. How about regional race series with one worlds. We pretty much already have the different series being regional so if we could get the worlds thing together we'd be done How about a rep from each series gettin together to do this thing? Maybe the theme for the meeting could be "For the Good of the Sport"

Maybe someone older than me can comment but if I recall correctly, when everything was under APBA, it went like this.

There were four offshore divisions - NE, SE, Central, West. These divisions each ran a series of six or eight races in thier own geographic area.

Two of each of the divisional race sites would be deemed a "National" event and the boats that travelled on the "National" curcuit and chased National points would attend. In our area, Point Pleasant hosted the big National race while the APBA NE division would hold additional races in the bays and sound of NJ and Long Island.

Then everyone went to Key West in November.

I believe going back to that format is the best we can hope for. It's more comfortable for lower budget teams to stay close to home, allowing the big players to run the National events.

With OPA in the NE, OPA- Bluewater in the central region, POPRA out West and SBI in the South. It's just a matter of who wants to start driving.

No matter what, we all need to be in Key West each November, racing TOGETHER.

Ron how are we gonna find someone older then you? Unification is probably easier LOL. I also believe the regional system is the answer, it will surely build the amount of teams competing due to affordabilty and logistics, in the end it will make the worlds and other joint events humongous. Like RaceGirl say's lets do it! Uh that could be taken two ways, sorry about that.lol
Louie
PS Ron just kidding about the age thing, I still want our pics in Extreme, ok?

Ron,
I remember those days as well.It was a pretty simple format.One sanctioning body.A national circut, supported by regional circuts in the southeast,northeast,central and the west.There was a national high points champion and a regional high points champion in each class.There were only four classes:Open1&2,Sport,
Modified and Production........ one big boat class(Open)supported by three small boat classes(Sport,Modified and Production).I can remember close to 30 boats in Production Class at the Benihana Grand Prix!The national events drew a ton of boats and the regional events did real well too.One World Championship event was held each November with all the boats competing together.It would be great to get back to that,and as you said;the foundation is already in place.