Offshoreonly.com - OSS Owners To Vote On Future Of Parity

With the growing of the OSS membership and with advancements of technology, parity has become a topic of debate. The original idea behind parity was to create a more competitive balance within the classes, and to keep racing interesting to fans and racers alike. There are many sides to the story, many ways to do it right, or wrong. As an Owners Organization, OSS feels that this is a matter to be determined by all Owner/Members. Therefore, the OSS Board of Directors decided that a ballot will be sent out to the OSS owners, who will vote on the future of parity in a democratic fashion.

Paul Whittier, Chairman of the OSS Board of Directors said: "OSS always has been and will be a members-owned organization. It will be our members who decide on parity and its future place in OSS."

The current parity rule is listed as Rule # 4 “Competitive Balance/Parity” in the OSS Tech Rules. The rules are available at http://www.offshoresuperseries.com/d...ES_V072506.pdf

The wording of Rule #4 has been attached.

In a few days, a ballot will be sent out to all OSS Owners in good standing. That ballot will give several options, including to keep, modify, or rescind the parity rule.

All OSS Owner/Members are asked to be a part of this democratic process.

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Current OSSA Parity Rule:

4. Competitive Balance (Parity) - OSS reserves the right to make adjustments at any time to these rules, or require changes to individual boats, if necessary to maintain competitive balance.

a. Parity adjustments (awards) shall be made by a Parity Committee.

b. The Parity Committee shall consist of a minimum of 5 members, each appointed by the Technical Chairman.

c. The Technical Chairman shall serve as head of that committee.

d. Parity Committee members shall be appointed for one year and serve at the pleasure of the Technical Chairman.

e. The Board of Directors shall approve all appointments to the Parity Committee.

f. No parity adjustments may be awarded unless a boat has won three (3) consecutive races or, in the opinion of the Parity Committee, has a clear advantage over the rest of the boats in its class.

g. Parity adjustments may be one or more of the following: (but not limited to) added weight, lowering drive height, rpm limitation, carburetor cfm restriction or propeller pitch/diameter or brand limitation.

h. Weight added for parity purposes will be in addition to the averag outbound of the boat for the previous three (3) races unless the parity committee decides that there are mitigating circumstances. Added weight prescribed by the parity committee may be added anywhere in the boat as long as it is secured safely and approved by the safety inspectors.

i. Boat owners within a class may not vote to assess parity adjustments under any circumstance.

j. The Parity Committee reserves the right to remove parity awards at any time if , in its judgment, the parity award has exceeded the expected result.

k. The Parity Committee shall also be authorized to award positive adjustments to non-competitive boats in an effort to make them more competitive.

l. All parity adjustments (awards) levied by the Parity Committee must be approved by the Board of Directors.