Offshore Racing’s Elephant In The Room
03-06-2018 | 11:54 AM
#1
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Offshore Racing’s Elephant In The Room
Between major changes at one organization and a new outfit launching, offshore racing heads into its 2018 season with more questions than answers., https://www.offshoreonly.com/article...nt-in-the-room.
From the OSO home page.
From the OSO home page.
03-06-2018 | 04:32 PM
#2
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From: Murrayville Georgia
I have said before and been blasted for it but here goes again. John is a big part of the problem as his ego and chasing of the dollar for everything even at the expense of the rules resulted in fractured classes, unhappy venues and even unhappier racers. I spent a lot of years around and directly involved in offshore and watch it rise and fall. I watched John change rules on a whim to allow a boat in a class just for the entry fee. I watched rules pushed to the side to change race outcomes and on and on. for those who want to dispute this, I was there in person and watched or had it happen to a team I was with so take off your rose colored glasses. I years past we had divisions and national classes. that allowed smaller teams a nearby race to participate in with out having to travel all over the states. if you did well you got invited to the world championships. as all the fighting began all that went away along with actual offshore racing. the only way to save offshore, IMO, is to go back to that system. one group needs to run a national circuit with groups like OPA, who have done a great job of smaller local races, need to run divisions with a few of the division races also hosting national boats. at that point the top 2 or 3 in there division get to go to the worlds to race against the other divisions for the national title. unfortunately, the only way I see something like this working is with a national APBA sanctioned group made up of all new people and leadership to get rid of the old guard that is stuck in the "this is how we have always done it" mentality.
03-06-2018 | 05:11 PM
#3
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From: Dallas, TX
There are still plenty of high performance boats that run fast / “race”. They run in packs, don’t tow to Key West, have a lot more fun and no one keeps score.
Ben
Ben
Last edited by BenPerfected; 03-06-2018 at 06:00 PM.
03-06-2018 | 05:42 PM
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years past we had divisions and national classes. that allowed smaller teams a nearby race to participate in with out having to travel all over the states. if you did well you got invited to the world championships. as all the fighting began all that went away along with actual offshore racing. the only way to save offshore, IMO, is to go back to that system. one group needs to run a national circuit with groups like OPA, who have done a great job of smaller local races, need to run divisions with a few of the division races also hosting national boats. at that point the top 2 or 3 in there division get to go to the worlds to race against the other divisions for the national title. unfortunately, the only way I see something like this working is with a national APBA sanctioned group made up of all new people and leadership to get rid of the old guard that is stuck in the "this is how we have always done it" mentality.
03-07-2018 | 07:01 AM
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From: Minneapolis
As far as the US is concerned, the elephant is the lack of offshore in the racing. One of the groups has even suckered the APBA into thinking that it's offshore.
the APBA should know better.
Jeff
the APBA should know better.
Jeff
Last edited by hallj; 03-07-2018 at 07:52 AM.
03-07-2018 | 07:48 AM
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From: Franconia, PA
Well, it may not be offshore in your opinion, but it is what offshore is in today's world.
