I agree with Bruce.

P4 max80mph/32ft single i/o twin ob
P5 max70mph/28ft single i/o twin ob

Bruce, I'm not sure I understand your comment:

Are you suggesting P4 be limited to 32' max and singles? Kinda puts my 33' with twins out of the game. Please enlighten me on your thoughts.

I like the idea of two open cockpit classes; Open Vee (twin) and Open Vee Light (single). Sort of a throwback to Offshore-A and Offshore-B days. Parity can be accomplished, and many have already made good suggestions

Much of the P-Class boat fleet could fit into these classes, other than those running cats. P-2 and above has had very little representation over the past couple of years with Vee bottoms, so there's just the cats left to place in a class.

These classes would make great Saturday racing: OVL's and Cat Lites run together first, and OV's and Bigger cats (Super Stock?) run second. If Bacardi, Callan, and Pair-A-Dice need a place to run, they could fit in somewhere. They rarely run the same venues anyway, so there's typically only 1 or 2 PX boats at a given race site.

Then Sunday, SCL and SVL run first, SC and SV run the final show.

Sure would make it easier for the fans and sponsors to follow.

My $.02
Brian

At the Worlds this year, SBI placed 32' singles in P5, 69.9mph avg speed (75-76mph speeds in the straightaways).

Brian...

I would like to see P-4 as a single IO /Twin OB engine class 30- 32 ft max. And all the classes above that, would move up a notch. This would allow many of the faster single engine P-5s to move up and give the slower, smaller boats a chance in P-5.

Example:
P-3 80mph max Twins or (just have P-4 single and P-4 twin)
P-2 90mph max
P-1 100mph max

I dont think it would happen because it would mean adding an additional class. Somewhere

Just go back to A and B class with similar motor restrictions.......

How bout , if we call them A and B class but still use the max speed of 80 and 90 repectively. we dont have to go through building spec motors and teardowns on sunday afternoon? Something along those lines

Bruce,
I agree with you...and with the GLSCS offering PX in 2005, it can be done.


PX
P1 max 100mph
P2 max 90mph
P3 max 80mph twin i/o vees
P4 max 80mph/32ft single i/o twin o/b vees
P5 max 70mph/28ft single i/o twin o/b vees

I think this class format will help create more parity particularly in P3,P4 & P5...and that is where the majority of the current boats are; and the most potential for new boats as well.It has been proven that grouping single engine boats and twin engine boats in the same classes really does not work.

I agree with changing class desiginations back to the single letter format as well(A,B,C etc..) and renaming 'P' ....Sportsman to fall in line other motorsports.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

In your example, these classes are moving DOWN a notch. P3 is currently a 90mph max class, so is your suggestion to slow down the classes in general? I don't disagree with that, at least in open cockpit boats. I think a good target for singles is 80, 85 for twins.

Adding more classes is only going to divide the fleet further, and I think we need to go in the other direction - less classes, more boats per class. That's why I'm suggesting consolidating P-classes into OV and OVL, so all the singles (F1, A, smaller P4, P5) run together, and twins (F2, retired B's, and P4, P3) run together. We can make these two classes real competitive, with large boat counts, and have it easier to follow for those paying to watch us race (fans, sponsors).

These are big changes, and I don't expect anything to happen soon, certainly not for next season.

Cheers,
Brian

Brian,

I like what you are saying. However that that would leave many smaller, slower P-5s on the trailer.

What I was actually saying in my post, was to bump up the bigger faster P-5 Single Vs (and twins under 28 feet), to P-4 max 80 mph. And then move all your existing P-4s up to P-3 with a 80 mph max, P-3s up to P-2 with 90 mph max, P-2s up to P-1 with 100 mph max and P-X over 100mph.

Brian,
I also agree with you about Open Vee and Open Vee Light....it just does not seem like there is enough of a push to make it happen.As Bruce said, I dont think that the sanctioning
bodies have the desire to develop, implement and enforce a complex set of technical rules to address the multitude of hull and engine configurations that are currently racing in the P-Classes.I guess the bracket format is here to stay.