And here we have that if OPA's rulebook is actually enforced to the letter of the tee as its written, 10-15 boats would be lost. Its a huge catch 22 and I sure would love the rules to be enforced, but maybe a re-write is in order to prevent that kind of loss. And I agree, "its all good" different year, same BS lolol

Don't take this the wrong way...

A race organization can't just make a class because someone has a boat that won't be competitive.

There are plenty of guys who would love to race, but can't afford to in all forms of motorsports. They fulfill their passion by crewing or becoming involved as an official or volunteer.

Back racing SOB in the late 80's in BDA.

17 foot Crestliner "Unexpected Company" I whooped the ass off a brand new Progression that showed up. Kevin was a little hurt to get a trashing from this.

20 Foot Sea Ray "Rage". Cut down freeboard and a home made deck. Boat was raced for years.

Lets review
#1 spec class racing in the opa is not going to happen in the near future.
#2 Races are not going to get longer because they are shorter for fans to see more and not get bored.
#3 After the cluster bang in port huron with class 1 and 6 on the course at the same time you wont see that again and by the way or gopro camera is somwhere between here and new york after it was blow off my boat reason (course to tight) as most are.Boys and Girls we are not ocean racing most of the time and when we are the courses are pulled in as close as they can and shorter so you can see the hole thing again for the fans and safety.
#4 As far as things go class 6 is and the play on words here is entry level and is probably the best class going because john doe can look at this class and say i can do that .
#5 I would love to have the days with A-B class F-1 and F-2 back but those days are gone and until somone can find our lost money tree we are going to have to deal with what we have and keep dreaming of better days.
And lastly Randy you start this off like the dog thats barking and gets all the dogs in the back yards going and then goes to sleep where are you at.LOL

These are my thoughts but they are the right ones as allways

If a SOB class was re-created and one of these showed up it would be curtains for the rest of the class. I mean CURTAINS! There is nothing with a single outboard that will be even on the same lap as this except one of them. It would be like the new tech that destroyed SVL.

Its cool and a spec class would be great but it still boils down to dead presidents and who can afford it and can you get enough to form a full class and the man power to enforce the class.

Again money tree will fix most of these problems

Why would you want to continue to water down the racing? The sites pay for the events and they want a turnout of spectators willing to spend the entire day there spending money. They really don't care about a turnout of $20,000 boats that go 60 mph and make no noise or throw a rooster tail. They really don't care if you have 4 25" boats in a corner, because at three miles down you can't even tell they are racing.

You need to fill the event with big boats with fancy paint jobs, big blower motors and semis. Equipment that 99.999% of the spectators will never be able to own. Every sport today from skiing to F1 is "Extreme" and 20 year old scarp yard retread boats aren't that. You need to consoldiate classes and get the factories back with new hardwear and big name sponsors on the sides.

Everything else is just another nail in the coffin.

I am offended my scrap yard retread is over 30 years oldLmfao

Dean thats one big PIPE DREAM are you smokin as of right now ill bet 75% of the opa boats are older than 15 yrs and some over 30yrs .
The OPA was formed on mostly grass roots racers meaning broke**** like me and my old 20,000 scrap yard retread boat .
If you ask people meaning fans what they like yes they like the loud flashy boats but they also love the close racing of boats like class 6 or svl.
I do agree at this time we dont need a slower spec class.
I will say this i get people that come up to me and say is this the boat that set the speed record at loto and i replie thats my junk so fans of boats and racing like old junk to.

Hell my boat is an 89, I mean I wouldn't classify it a complete POS it will get the job don't (insert a smartA$$ Saris comment).

Im a young kid breakin my balls just to put this season together...and I have tiny blower motors so im halfway there