Aqua Banshee

Where did all the old boats and racers go? Why did they all quit racing?

Also why is there a boat, crew, and racer registration fee in most orgs. than on top of that an entry fee. Why not just an entry fee. Makes it very expensive for someone to just try racing the first time.

Wazzup Racing

Constant changing of rules and classes

MOBILEMERCMAN

Louietherigger and Smitty have the right idea. Keep up the good work. And focus on race sites. Try to keep offshore offshore. Point and OC MD are great sites.
Jim

THEJOKER

It's not as much as speed as cost involved too. I'm not trying to start trouble or make anybody mad here either. There has to be a better way. If you don't have the most expensive engine w/ the unbelieveable torque , you'll get left at the start and in the turns. One reason I'm bringing this up is I'm building a new boat to race next year and I'm not putting a dry sump , 700+ hp engine in it to run a GPS class that is goverened by speed.. I don't blame the racers today either , they're doing what they can to have a playing field and compete.

THEJOKER

I looked in many engine compartments this weekend. Holy cow. I could not believe the huge power! It's about torque in the system now. The racers that race know what I'm talking about(they were the ones telling me this too plus many more people) I'm honestly not trying to rain on anyone's parade here. I just can't get over the fact that we used to have over 20 boats in the class and anybody could win on a given day. Smitty you have done a great job and I'm sure you'll continue forward , I'm just voicing my opinion and hopefully one day I can be competitive in a class again w/ 500 hp and run 80 mph WOT!

THEJOKER

The boats left because mother Mercury rammed the 525 down the racers throats. If the 500 efi was still in production and we had the same management , we'd still have the big boat counts in F1 and F2!

Pete B

All those "A" boats didnt have Mercury power in them!

Everybody wants thier hand in the cookie jar, and of course what suits them best. Look at the Age of the average racers, there certainly isnt a big influx of younger racers coming in.

AS for spec racing the HONDA series appears to be one of the best, per price and affordablity. Not sure if this your type of venture, but who every brings that to the U.S., and has Honda backing will be successful.

TGOR

Okay...let me start by saying this is not a slam against OPA. However, my concern with running against the OPA boats is the huge power/torque in the boats. Only as an example, us SBI P5 guys were very competitive last year since we were all running similar horsepower/torque to weight ratios...not because of any rule, but it's just the way it worked out. It has become obvious in OPA if you want to win, you've got to have the torque and squeeze as much as you can into the boat. As Brian mentions, this gets expensive.

I've been keeping a closer eye on Powerboat P1 since I've been in Europe. They may have the right formula, but still not perfect in flat water. In short, P1 is somewhat of a combination of our "P-classes" and spec racing. They've got a top speed, average speed, horsepower to weight ratios, and length requirements. Although, the deck-to-deck racing still seems to occur with the smaller class boats.

We'd need to find a balance between additional costs associated with us having to dyno our engines versus the extra costs some folks spend to get the huge torque. However, we're talking about another change here, and as Smitty notes, causes folks to quit racing.

Nonetheless, let me throw this out there: who's interested in developing classes that mirror Powerboat P1? I don't necessarily agree we need more classes, but might we be able to combine classes under P1 rules or with slight modifications of P1 rules to accommodate more of our classes? For example, boats have to be a min of 33 feet in P1 Super Sport and that would exclude many of our P6, Class 5/6 boats. So we may want to modify the min/max length requirements.

Let's face it, unless everyone has the exact same boat, the rules have to be more extensive to equalize those boats, and then you need the ability to enforce the rules.

Sean

Team Gallagher Offshore Racing
SBI/APBA P5-99
www.tgor.net

Pete B

Sean,
Thanks for serving OUR country! The P1 seems to be a very popular source as to racing style. Keep in mind all the big U.S maufacturer's are getting boats into the mix, Why? Its not that they are cheap to build, its the expousure. Time will tell If the boats going there will force out the less competitive boats, and then have the same problem as here.

MANITIE

Not to shed glume on P1 in Europe...but OPA's Class 4, 5 and 6 have better boat counts then they do.....
Plus your starting to see if your not in a newer Fountain or Outerlimites, your old boat is going to be running in the back of the pack....

The biggest Classes this year in the World have been in OPA.
Some of the closes racing this year has been in OPA...

Even in spec racing....if you don't keep up with the latest and best equipment...you will be left behind....

What Org today has boats that are 1 to 2 years old competing against 10,15 or even 20 year old boats and still running deck to deck....

A good example of that is the Bounty Hunter boat.....if its flat you will see the longest faces on them guys.....if its rough...you swear them guys were 10 years old at X-mas time....

Leave it to the people running the Org. to keep racing fair....
We all have the opertunity to talk to Smitty on any issue along with J.C and Ron P.