n2boatn2

I feel it is a shame that the APBA can not be brought back to a form that would be the industry leader ,,can anyone give some advice on how it can be back in full swing ? Does it need new leadership,or just a whole new start? Please advise as I would like to try to help in any way .

TYPHOON

They should start by revising Factory racing. Now would be the time to launch the new rules for motor specs. The key is keep it simple with only one motor and one drive. This has been beaten to death and until APBA steps up and makes the call on which motor they will pick, the class will stay dead. It shouldnt be so hard to do,they just need to do it. Also F1 and F2 dont necessarily have to have the same motors. I would opt for the merc 525 package with the Sport master lower. Possibly lower the X dimension 1-2 inches and add 2-300 lbs to the weight of the older F1 boats. Limit propellers to 6 blades only. The goal would be to try to keep speed around 78-83 mph in F1. I dont see any other motor option other than the merc.525. Its the lowest race production hp motor they make now and will be making in the future. You can forget about the 500 EFI because it will be going away in the near future and then we would have to change again.
MD

Andrew Corn

I'll take a stab at this..........then you all can talk it out on Tuesday night on Talkoffshore.com.........

1) APBA Offshore goes back to Detroit.
2) A board is elected from the general membership with 50% of the Board up for reelection each year. Responsible for racing rules/safety rules/setting up oversite committees etc.
3) APBA Offshore accept all classes of offshore racing and any that racers want to create.
4) Racers will form individual approved entities for each class and mandate rules and that entity will become a member of APBA.
5) Promoters allowed to race the classes they want to race and not required to race all classes.
6) Class entities make their own deals/contracts with the promoters in regards to prize money, entry fees, pull money etc.
7) APBA board or committees test/set standards/approve a list of officials/promoters and vendors (ie safety) for the promoters to pick from and make their own arrangements.
8) Promoters can elect to participate in national series sponsorships if they want. Promoter's entities become a members of APBA.
9) APBA generates it's annual budget from equipment registrations and membership fees.
10) APBA get's out of the putting on the races and is solely responsible for sanctioning/marketing and is accountable to the racers.

There's 10 items to start the talk and we will see you on Tuesday night 9:00 on www.talkoffshore.com

AC

Andrew Corn

APBA Detroit has never really run offshore, the members run offshore just as they do in the other catagories, but at some time the lease thing will run it's course and and APBA Offshore will be faced with another fracture. The quickest way to bring APBA Offshore back is for it to go there to be reorganized.

While they race together, they are not unified and at some point there will be a split of the organizations and my guess is that the finger pointing will start again.

AC

Flashwave

Ask yourselves, why would we want to reinvent APBA again? Racers are eventually going to race were its fun and convenient. Thats the way it is in club racing and Offshore is club racing.

We tried professional racing and it didn't last. I enjoyed the big boat count and the big name sponsors as did many of the racers. The money wasn't there to keep it going. Why do you think another reorganization is going to be any better?

There is more racing now than there has been in a long time. For the most part the racers seem to be enjoying it. Clubs are racing together. The Worlds will be a united Worlds. All classes are alive, just in different clubs.

If consolidation is going to happen, it's going to be evolutionary and happen out of necessity. Forcing the issue will just create another round of ego slapping.

We're racing and having fun.

My $.02

Jim

Qball

I am with Randy on this one. Except....I disagree on the motor/drive selections. I think if you want to really want to see the factory classes blossom....make it affortable. There are dozens of old factory one race boats sitting and rotting. Make it affortable buy offering a package of 496ho and bravo 1 any style. You can buy 2-3 496's for the price of 1 525. Not to mention all the problems the 525 has. If I could buy a old F1 boat and spend 10-13K on a new or 12K on 2 used 496's it would interest me....but if I have to spend 25k on a 525 forget it. 525 package is too fast/ expensive....period. The 496 package is becomming a highly used package in the production world. I know that some will argue that the 496 is a "black" motor and not "blue" but I have personal knowledge of whooping on the 496's for over 100 hours without failure/problems. If this package was announced NOW by the race orginizations you would see F1 as a dominate showing next year.

Andrew Corn

I don't disagree with this statement, the question is when it's going to be necessary not if it will be necessary.

In answer to the F1 question, why wait for a sanctioning body to tell you what to do? The racers should mandate their own class rules and apply to the sanctioning body for membership. For that matter all classes should be able to do that and even new ones that are formed as long as the promoters can decide to race it or not by dealing directly with the class representatives.

Basically if it is an approved class then an approved promoter should be able to host who he wants as long as he uses approved safety entities and approved officials and conducts the races within the sanctioning body rules.

Let each class market themselves to the promoters and make their own deals. If a class is not marketable or the terms don't fit the promoters budget then the class will not race and the class members will have to make adjustments to make it marketable.

1HYPER1

We all know that for boat racing we should have only one sanctioning body not 4 or 5 with each having different rules and so on.
In reguards to all of the classes weather it is a factory class or a P class or Super Cat class the only way to give it parity and you will not be limited to one engine builder is to go with,for the engines is everyone runs an engine configuration made up of maximum cubic inch,maximum compression,and a spec carburator of some sort,also everyone runs the same exhaust,as for the boats all classes should have size and weight limitations not maximum speed or what ever else they are trying to do to try and level the playing field,I feel that if you did these simple things like they were done in the past and could keep it that way and not keep changing the rule book on all of these different things would help the sport in a big way and maybe reunite some of the different race organizations,who wants to race against themselfs or 1 or 2 other boats,I hope some how it all works out.

Andrew Corn

If the classes form their own separate entities and regulated their own class rules then apply for membership to the sanctioning body, then the changing of the rule book would only be up to the class members.

If the members make the class un-marketable then the promoters will not race it and the members will have to react or not race.

AC

1waterboy1

I dont see how racers making thier own class rules will ever really work; it has not worked in other forms of motorsports,why would it work in offshore?
The sanctioning body(there needs to be only one), should establish the class rules and enforce them through pre and post race technical inspections.The LLC made some mistakes, but thier hard stance on rules resulted in the most competitive racing in the history of the sport.I still dont think offshore powerboat racing should accept being a "club" sport; under the right format and promotion; it can be a viable semi-professional motorsport.It all starts with unification,APBA and SBI seem to be working well together, and hopefully OSS will come back in time too!There should be some meetings in Key West that hopefully will be the beginings of good things to come.