Gino or Smitty,

Do you know how many OPA Teams raced in KW? It would be an awfull shame for them not to get full use of their registration. Let's see if we can't do something about that....give me some numbers.

Hey Ken,

The number I got was 23 OPA teams....but that was teams that were registerd with OPA...THEY MAY HAVE ALSO BEEN REG. with other Orgs also....

I'm shooting a IM to ya....

Probably a stupid question, but is the equipment fee paid on my bat boat transferrable to my fountain?

i believe if it runs in the same class it may be transferrable due to "replacement boat" because boat is broken or so forth but if its a different class i dont believe it is transferrable because it is not a replacement.. i may be wrong so dont quote me on it but i believe thats the way it works...call sbi they are very helpful..www.superboat.com

If you could get past the security issues in NY and put choppers and divers in the air, it might be different. I am not alone when I say I will not run a canopy boat in the black Hudson river, without divers in the air. It is no cake walk running that coarse.

Smitty,

Do you have a date for the new Michigan race so I can update the schedule?

Hey Ken,

So whats you thinking.....what do you think we might be able to do....throw some ideas out there and lets see what we can do....

I'm thinking...and thinking.....and thinking.....I'll let you know....maybe I'm dreaming.


Wonder when the other schedules will be out...does everybody have a enough places to race? There is a whole lot of space on the left side of the sheet...and down the middle too.

Better get busy guys...before Smitty takes another trip and every weekend is booked.

Like a lot of people, at one time I thought that you needed a helicopter to get the Safety/Rescue Divers in the water as quickly as possible. That was before I was enlightened by someone on the Safety/Rescue team and told that deployment of the personnel from the helicopter should be the last thing to expect in the event of an incident. I’m sure my face had the same bewildered look that many who are reading this have. As my eyes lost their daze, my Safety Angel explained:

On-water Safety/Rescue would be the first in the water to assist in an extraction…if necessary…and helicopter personnel would only jump if additional assistance was not available from other on-water resources. The helicopter personnel would stay in the air in case they where needed at another incident later.

I had never really thought about it…but it does make sense….once the helicopter divers are in the water, they can’t just get back in the helicopter and be ready for the next incident. Once they jump from the helicopter, the resource is expended and they are no longer avalible for the rest of the race. However, on-water personnel can re-board their Safety/Rescue boat to continue their watch and be ready for the next incident.

The Safety Angle explained that the primary advantage of a helicopter is that it can get from one location on the racecourse to another very quickly. This quick response time reduces the number of Safety/Rescue teams needed to meet the anticipated response time to an incident. The larger and more turns in the racecourse, the more Safety/Rescue teams you need to cover it. That's one reason why SBI prefers the rectangular box racecourse...it's safer than the multi-turn courses. So…the bottom line is...if you have a helicopter, you don’t need as many Safety/Rescue teams on the water.

In order to adequately cover a racecourse, at least one Safety/Rescue team should be able to get to any part of the racecourse in less than…I think he said…three minutes. Safety/Rescue teams are normally stationed near the turns, because that is where most incidents occur.

At races like New York,(a rectangular box racecourse) where there aren’t any helicopters, the response time stays the same. The only difference is the number of Safety/Rescue teams assigned to boats stationed around the racecourse. In New York, there are enough Safety/Rescue boats that a minimum of two boats can respond to any location on the racecourse within the targeted time.

I was told that the main thing to rememberis…the primary objective is to get to an incident as quickly as possible…it’s all about response time…not how the Safety/Rescue team gets there.

I trust these guys…they are professionals…and if our Safety Team says the racecourse is safe…it’s safe….even if I wouldn’t drink the water.

Funny Guy, I am on my way to Ohio. Ya never know.