Offshore history
02-08-2005, 02:00 PM
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Offshore history
Some interesting parallels in the article from a 1966 Yachting magazine and what we are going through today
Offshore racing, in common with most powerboat competition, has had its share of organizational problems and a touch of strife. Each of the early races—Miami to Nassau, Around Long Island and the English Channel dash— started out with its own set of rules and a single organization acting as both sponsor and sanctioning body. In short, there was no uniformity among races and none had an overseeing group to handle the inevitable protests. Following the 1963 Miami-Nassau event, a group of participants made known their desire to set up their own body and run some races in the Miami area according to their ideas. This stirred up short-lived acrimony be*tween the splinter group and “Red” Crise who handles the Nassau event almost as a one-man show. Meanwhile the dissidents incorporated the Off*shore Power Boat Racing Assn., set up their own rules and became the spon*sors (and sanctioners) of the first Miami to Key West and Miami-Lau*derdale-Bimini-Gun Cay-Miami races.
Shortly thereafter the American Power Boat Assn. made overtures to both Crise and the OPBRA, seeking to provide them with a rules-making and appeals body. Initial meetings pro*duced more heat than light, but the idea of having uniform rules through*out the U.S. with all the other advan*tages of a sanctioning group, continued to attract the OPBRA. Thus, late in 1964, the APBA organized an Off*shore Racing Commission and adopted a set of rules for this sort of competi*tion, OPBRA president Jack Manson became the first chairman of the new APBA body.
The promoters of the Around Long Island race had switched to APBA sanction even prior to this. The Lake Michigan and Long Beach events ran APBA from their beginnings. Thus, today, every U.S. offshore race runs under uniform rules.
Miami-Nassau and the Cowes*Torquay races continue to be quite in*dependent but their sponsors are un*derstood to be willing to follow rules of the Union of International Motor-boating when, and if, that world rules body adopts a suitable code for off*shore competition. Since APBA is the U.S. representative of UIM, all the major offshore races may soon be op*erated out of the same rule book.
Offshore racing, in common with most powerboat competition, has had its share of organizational problems and a touch of strife. Each of the early races—Miami to Nassau, Around Long Island and the English Channel dash— started out with its own set of rules and a single organization acting as both sponsor and sanctioning body. In short, there was no uniformity among races and none had an overseeing group to handle the inevitable protests. Following the 1963 Miami-Nassau event, a group of participants made known their desire to set up their own body and run some races in the Miami area according to their ideas. This stirred up short-lived acrimony be*tween the splinter group and “Red” Crise who handles the Nassau event almost as a one-man show. Meanwhile the dissidents incorporated the Off*shore Power Boat Racing Assn., set up their own rules and became the spon*sors (and sanctioners) of the first Miami to Key West and Miami-Lau*derdale-Bimini-Gun Cay-Miami races.
Shortly thereafter the American Power Boat Assn. made overtures to both Crise and the OPBRA, seeking to provide them with a rules-making and appeals body. Initial meetings pro*duced more heat than light, but the idea of having uniform rules through*out the U.S. with all the other advan*tages of a sanctioning group, continued to attract the OPBRA. Thus, late in 1964, the APBA organized an Off*shore Racing Commission and adopted a set of rules for this sort of competi*tion, OPBRA president Jack Manson became the first chairman of the new APBA body.
The promoters of the Around Long Island race had switched to APBA sanction even prior to this. The Lake Michigan and Long Beach events ran APBA from their beginnings. Thus, today, every U.S. offshore race runs under uniform rules.
Miami-Nassau and the Cowes*Torquay races continue to be quite in*dependent but their sponsors are un*derstood to be willing to follow rules of the Union of International Motor-boating when, and if, that world rules body adopts a suitable code for off*shore competition. Since APBA is the U.S. representative of UIM, all the major offshore races may soon be op*erated out of the same rule book.
Last edited by ScottB; 02-08-2005 at 02:21 PM.
