Competitors in offshore racing’s fastest and most exotic class proposed a power decrease for the 2019 season. Here’s why it makes sense, https://www.offshoreonly.com/article...imited-expense.

From the OSO home page.

For anyone to give a dam about offshore racing they obviously need to get the boat count up. Sure seems like lowering expenses should help with that.

What might make sense would be "unlimited" hull, drive line and set up combinations with equal spec power. I don't care how much money you have pissing away $100,000 bills for a couple of laps gets old real quick I would imagine. Heck I get upset when I have to refill my air tank LOL

Personally, I'd rather see a decent number of reasonably fast boats (in a class) going at it lap after lap rather than a couple of really fast boats going a lap or two before breaking down. But that's just silly me. Oh, and if one could do that for less money, that would be even better!

While I completely understand the change and agree it can make for good racing, It begs to ask what happened to "offshore' being an endurance sport? The first person that can beat you and your biggest opponent in endurance racing is yourself. It building a vehicle to go the distance and running it in such a way as to keep it together. Thats the mental part of endurance racing. His boat may be 10 mph faster for 100 miles, but is the race is 110 miles that extra speed does no good. All that horsepower and bling does no good when a smart man in a 30 foot Scarab with twin bone stock 454 mags stands a more than good chance of beating you by simply finishing. In old school style winning in open class endurance racing., be it boats motorcycles, planes, trains or automobiles, isn't accomplished by limiting the unlimited class, winning is accomplished by build something capable of finishing and then running it in such a way that you Finish and finish first.

But then again, that type of racing hasnt existed in years, if not decades.

Although you make a lot of great points in your typically intelligent fashion, I think there are multiple answers to the question you pose in your first sentence. Certainly, engine reliability is among the barriers to such racing—a pair of naturally aspirated 700-hp engines likely would give you a better chance of finishing an open ocean endurance race than pair of 1,750-hp turbocharged engines. That kind of power puts incredible stress on the entire drive train, not to mention the engine itself. There are limits to piston engine power reliability when you're pushing the edge of the envelope, so to speak. That's one of the reason I always chuckle when I read something about 2,000- to 2,500-hp engines running in high-performance powerboats. I'm like, "Really? Where? Show me the boat.. And tell me how long it ran." But I digress.

Don't get me wrong, I love endurance racing—my own pursuit was long-distance mountain biking of the 24-hour race kind. (In 2005, I even did the TransRockies, a seven day mountain bike stage race through the Canadian Rockies.) But if there was one thing I took away from all those races and miles in the saddle it was this: For the most part, it was only of interest to the participants, their families and friend and few diehard fans.

Matt I enjoy your articles and the level/ neutral grounds that you evolk in your writing....

Unlimited by definition is without restriction - everyone learns this by 3rd grade. If promoters announced an 1100hp spec class wherein Race One of the season, the teams chose to migrate to spec class - unlimited would eventually fizzle out like turbine class but unlimited would have always be remembered as the holly grail with greats like Alcone/Gilbreath, Scott and JT, Haggin/Scotty/Mark as well as Bob Bull and a list of others throughout the class history.

A few years ago Bob Bull outran the field on what was talked about being pre-released 1750 and he ran impressively in unlimited class......in 1996 Matt Alcone ran 950hp. In 1998 (I think???), he and Jerry crushed the field so bad with 1300 Sterling's that the field was basically racing for second place because they covered every base in preparation and controlled their attrition in race power of the day.

IMHO, I hope the change does bring more boats to the party and racing regularly.You have to afford the game to play, granted.....Calling the class Unlimited when 4 production Merc HP ranges exceed class max is on a par of high-fiving John Force for racing a 4cylinder KIA - Obviously you would do it b/c it's John Force.. but you WANT to see him run the T/F

What really got me into this whole cigar boat offshore thing and endurance racing to begin with was being a kid in the 70s, and seeing the old school offshore races, and the baja races on Wide World of Sports. It was you against the water or the dirt... First you did everything you could to beat mother nature, then if successfull, you saw how you did against everyone else. But like you said about those it interests... I raced for the challenge, the personal accomplishment , not the 10 dollar trophy or what little money I did win. While personally rewarding, that pretty much sucks as a business model.. lol (that and when your going really fast, the voices in your head become strangely quiet and the world becomes very peaceful).

Total derail but that is the perfect (sarcastic and probably riot inducing) reply for haters when they ask, "Why don't you have a quiet boat?"