Battle on the Bay Race
 

What a Clusterf#ck !! Too many Cheifs, and not enough indians. Patrol boats telling you your not allowed inside tthe race course, that you had to anchor up outside the turns. Outside the turns ??? Insane !! Suffolk Police telling you to get inside the race course. Coast guard telling you to move to the otherside of the race course. Another patrol boat telling us to move back 100 yards. Police telling us to move back another 100 yards. Coast Guard Auxillary telling us to move from inside the race course.
Different instructions from everybody. No wonder why there were boats all over the course. After over 2 hours of sending the boaters to every concievable place. They scraped the race course, pulled up the pins and moved them and made 2 straite runs along the beach. Which was cool.
I had Shaun K from Scream and Fly on the bow of my boat taking pictures. We couldn't get any closer. Miss Geico was 30' off my bow. Got some great shots of the Superboats too. As soon as Shaun gets the pictures up, I'll post them.
All in all. It turned out to be a great day for racing.

Yup well said Rick !! That about sums it up. I had to move 5 times. My next superboat will have the automatic anchor on the front !! My boat is some mess from all the mud . It took 2 hours to get it clean last night !! I did finally get a good spot rite at the mid track marker#3 . Scary close. The Geico cat cut the turn close I thought it was goint to take my anchor with it !! The day was great for racing overcast but no rain. Not hot no sun glair.
I never did get to hook up with Fast Eddie. Friday night in the village, saturday afternoon in the fog or sunday. His boat looked great ! They did take the time to wave to the Superboat fans while racing and it was noticed .

Cluster in deed. Thanks Rick for the best seats in the house.

Tim & Deb

Sounds like quite the day. My experiences with patrol boating have been well organized. I find it strange the mention of anchoring - we always been told to keep on the ready and preferably to idle, but then we've always had medics or divers on board too. There's no doubt you have the best seat in the house - I can't wait to see some of the photos!

Glad to hear that !!!!!:D :D :D Photos of Superboats Please !!!!

Heres the link to Scream and Fly with Shauns pictures. He has over a thousand to post on his website. I'll give you the link to that also. Maureen ffrom S and f has a few really sweet shots of fast eddy. I'll post that link too.
First Shauns pics
http://forums.screamandfly.com/forum...d.php?t=139573
Here is shauns personal website. Scrool down to Battle on the bay.
http://shaun.zenfolio.com/
Here are some from Maureen These links will be updated with alot more photos.
http://forums.screamandfly.com/forum...d.php?t=139589
Enjoy !!

"www.onshoreonly.com"
 

Besides the 2 hour race start delay it was what it was. Offshore boats running roundy round in bay wakes as expected. Anyway it was pretty cool & good job to all that made it happen !!!

Best part. Three of us ran the 20+ miles out there side by side by side in our (MERC OB powered) 24' SUPERBOATS. We were launching it & had a blast. The 24's are a BIG CHOP KILLER !
We entered the cluster **** greeted by the (Z)UPERBOAT & Uncle FX10 Rick ! Then we hooked up with three other 24's & a few 21's. I talked with the old OhZone's new owner with new power (300XS). A 24CC was in the crowd too.
I wanna do an all 21'-24'-30' all SUPERBOAT run one morning if anyone is into it. I had a brand new TrophyPlus on & "the fastest 24 single OB" is running consistently & very sweeet !
Later. http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/3734/bashya0.gif

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7505/002smallmd3.jpg
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7...bed5d1a8c3.jpg

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8...0race20bo1.jpg

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8...0race20fg9.jpg

"Whats this crap, Wheres my RUM?"

Hey Bash,
It's good to see you stopped by to say hi on OSO.
Those 24s look great! No I/Os in the mix?
Lets work on Rick to venture north to the CT River Run.
See you October 20th.

Glad to see everyone out, even if it was at 75mph during the race, I tried to wave at all The Superboats, there wer alot, I wish we could have had a count. Next year we really should have some kind of organized get together, maybe a party Fridaynight.

Eddie

Ahhhhhh, I see some things never change !!!!:D :party-smiley-020:

FX10:

Just curious; How are the spectator boats usually positioned to watch these kind of races? The Scream & Fly pictures are awesome but it looks like whoever was taking them was insanely close to the action!

As a member of one of the FD's that supplied Medical/Safety/Rescue boats for the race I can tell you pretty much the only thing that didn't change from the planning stages was we were always told there would be no spectator boats inside the course. I watched the race from my own boat at the east end of the course and it was hard to tell in the haze but there must have been a lot more boats on the west side of the course. As for being organized, things changed several times from Friday night to Saturday to Sunday. So I am not surprised to hear there was some confusion among the sweep boats. I spoke with Bruce Johnson, one of OPA's Medical and Safety guys, (he was overhead in Angel 1 during the race) after the race. He told me (1) the #2 turn marker was misplaced initially and (2) they had serious concerns over spectators being too close to the course. The plan next year is to get the permits needed to drop the course markers earlier in the day and organize the sweep boats a little better.

I am amazed these guys were able to pull off such a great thing considering the DEC, the local authorities, some people's general fear of the new or the unknown, blah, blah, blah but I hope they can do it again next year. Chalk up this year's hiccups to the learning curve and perhaps next year will be even better!

It was a great day and for their first race in the bay considering no trial run on saturday because of the freak fog that never went away! They really did a great job. My hats off to those guys who im sure do it because they love the sport !! It was a bit of a cluster but its their first !! Next year can only be better !! I also thought we where a to close for safety. Next year second row is close enough for me. I was suprised to hear about all the spectators that ended up in the ER for stupid thing that happened while wondering around the field !!

I watched the race from shorefront park, and I feel that they shouldn't allow spectator boats between the bulkhead and the race course. I know that it's tight every where, but don't block the land lover spectators

OPA & LOU did a great job on event next year will be even better:cool-smiley-027: