Surprisingly, 15 boats all did a Parade lap and not one picked up the radio to race control as they milled prior to the start of the race to voice their concern of the course being too long...

Not to mention the entire 1st race went without any issues to my knowledge. Long or not.

With all of the latest equipment and GPS instrumentation in most of these boats, does not any of them tell the distance traveled ?

This had to be one of the toughest decisions for OPA to make with so much on the line...

only problem with that is. most teams usually do not reset their gps once they get out on the course and still have the distance from the cranes and parade lap in there. we usually only have the speed and plotter displayed. So I guess it depends on what screen they are in at the time. I'll bet they will all reset them from now on.

yes, and some of us also run on the heavy side in bigger water. I know we carried a bit more fuel to balance the boat, glad we did.

The one time in ten years I dont set the course and look what happens!!


Seriously though, I thought that the southern leg seemed awful long after the first lap. Didnt really notice on the parade lap (was to busy concentrating on driving.) There are two houses on the beach down in Bayhead that ive always used as my landmarks to set turn one. Didnt realize until we where idling in the middle of the course after we had problems after a few laps that something wasnt right.

Mistakes were made, the winner got penalized { no fault of his own} and the Golden rule prevailed. Anything else is just an excuse.

I have learned over the years in racing to always factor in the "just in case" extra fuel ! It was rough the extra fuel will not hurt you if your boat is set up right, fuel tanks on the cg, etc!
Danny C, Bandit racing

I don't think anyone could have known for race one. there appeared to be some confusion with the pace boats for where the coarse was. when we came up the back leg the spectator boats were on our left.

I will give you that !

They must have for some reason thought it was the triangle course.

This was one of the few times I did not pay attention at the drivers meeting. I had too many other things going on.

I sure miss the days where no one left the dock unless they had course headings... So many people ignore that now because it is only suppose to be a run up the beach and back.

Regardless, when I navigated, I always used the landmarks for assistance. Bay Head's Water tower would have been the first sign that turn one would be coming up in about another 1/2 mile. Unfortunately is was much further south.

Yea it's all good fellas no need for anymore banter on this one it's in the books.

NOW on another note I still think Tom should split the $$$ with me !

I still think Tom should split the $$$ with me