The APBA Offshore Championships Series reached its midpoint with yesterday's spectacular Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix, https://speedonthewater.com/in-the-n...arasota-action.

"The sport is alive..." Yes it is due to the efforts of OPA, P1, the race promoters, officials and teams who are all working together to move the sport forward. 68 boats entered. When is the last time a regular season race pulled that much muscle? You guys sitting on the sidelines, with race boats sitting idle, whining about the state of the sport, it's time to put your money where your mouth is.

The boat count and racing seemed to be great, but you sure couldn't see it from the water. We were anchored on the south side of the course as close as we could and were a good 1/2 mile from the boats as they went by. We couldn't even read the names or numbers on the boats! Absolutely ridiculous buffer between the spectator fleet and the race course. All the boats around us saying the same thing. We drove the boat up from Naples just to watch and the distance absolutely ruined the experience. Hopefully they can fix that next year.

We were on the south side as well by the turn bouy closest to the beach and even with binoculars had a hard time. Thought to myself the beach would bet better.

We were on the north end, of the west side straight, about a quarter mile before the turn where the crash occurred. I thought the spectator buoy line was typical to previous races I have been to.

I would suggest volunteering to be a sweep boat if you want to be in the action. Not to mention its a good way to get involved if you like race boats.

I volunteered on the med boats and helping with safety inspections for years...gave me some really good seats !!

I've been to this race over 20 times, watched from the beach, hotels, boats, etc and never had as bad of a view as this year. Volunteering as a sweep boat or med boat isn't really feasible with a 20 month old, 3 year old, 6 year old and 9 year old and dog on board is it!

​​The comment ​​is about the race putting on a good show for the fans, which is why it is put on in the first place. If it wasn't, they would still run a 200 mile course out to some random place in the ocean like they used to where nobody could see.

boat racing is very much not alive .

nothing close to what spectaters want .

listen to their voice .

not everyone can be a support boat .really think about it.

sbi is almost gone , oss IS gone (thank you ).a little longer and we can start over .

I was not trying to be offensive. It was a suggestion to anyone wanting to get closer. Most people don't even know that most races are always in need of volunteer boats.