Lack Of Boaters In The Nw....?
 

Seriously though..... I know of a Poker Run in Portland and 2 1/2 weeks.... One in Seattle in another month or so. The one in Chelan next week.... Boat races in Tri-Cities the end of July and Seattle the week following....... Regatta in Coeur D'Alene... and yet not one person makes mention of any of this. The NW should be able to show better than this....

maybe post on the local Grand Banks forum, sure to have more activity there :evilb: :drink:

Maybe the NW Boaters spend more time boating than typing?

Or maybe they don't know how to type.....!
My point is.... without the information, nobody knows when and where to show up. That's why our events only produce a few boats in the scheme of things. If we posted the information, perhaps, maybe, could be a chance that there would be more than 15 boats, 25 boats at a poker run or regatta.

i know, its kinda hit and miss; there's another thing i've noticed - as a whole, we're fairly laid back compared to our new jersey or florida bretheren. i've got customers all over the nation and for instance folks are pretty "intense" on long island and pretty mellow here in portland or seattle. - jeff

What I’ve started to understand in the last few years is Florida, the Northeast (RI, CT, NY, NJ MD) and the Great Lakes (WI, IL, MI & OH) have had performance boat racing (Offshore) & sport enthusiasts from the late 60’s and that has built a somewhat large group that still today has ties, followings and newbie’s in there local areas that support the events and outings.

If you look at the sign-on locations you’ll see 95 % of all the OSO members and from these areas I’ve listed.

Here the in N.W. we grew up on hydroplanes racing so that made it more of just a spectator sport that has two venues a year to view and attend, both being in WA.

I agree with your point about people in the area being less committed to the growth of the performance boat scene, unless they have vested monetary reasons. Any thoughts on how to develop a stronger interest, I’m all ears…

hi vintage,
you gonna be at seafair next month?

jeff

Hey Jeff I sure hope so, if mine not up and running I'll be pirating a 31 AO Cat.

I think Motorsports in general is not as strong up here. The culture here is almost anti- motorsport. When discussing whether or not we should build a NASCAR track here, locals were against it because, among other things, "it glorifies global warming" sheesh!

Vintage, I was at Coulon park about 12 years ago and saw a few guys dipping a 27 Magnum after a restoration. I talked to the guys briefly, they planned to race. Was that you?

Those freaking guys from the city (Seattle) control the state...Its sad..The majority rules, unfortunatly what Seattle wants to do, the rest of the state has to follow. The state doesnt really have a following with boating other then hydro races on the river.

If I remember right ...the culter outside of Seattle is pro motorsports.. With the local drags on a Friday/Saturday to the river racing at Horn Rapids. I remember racing the Matawa 100 on a bike and loving every minute of it! Ofcourse I havent lived there in some time...

tree-huggers

This is the last year for Sprint boats at Horn Rapids. My dad and another guy were in charge of putting them on and dealing with the course. This year, they put the races on at night underneath the lights and it was a hit. But the city of Richland just won't help out and it was just too much for my dad and his pal to keep up, especially at my dad's age.

When I grew up there, there just weren't any performance boaters. Our Checkmate was the fastest thing in the Tri-Cities at that time. The PacNW is full of more of your "hippie" types. People that would tend to lean towards sailboats along with cruisers and such around the islands. I remember just after I got out of the Army (the first time) Reggie Fountain brought his boats to the Hydro race as a marketing thing, and those of us who had family members involved with the races (my dad set the course) got rides in those boats. The looks on peoples' faces when they saw those things was priceless!!! :eek: Would have been less surprised if ET showed up.

I also think a 3 month boating season has something to do with it as well. Why is someone going to spend all of that money for 3 months, when they can ski or snomobile from T-day to Mem day if it's s good year for snowfall.

Powerboating has grown a lot here in the last 3 years. There are more poker runs and events now and performance boaters are excited to attend. NWOffshore.com is the main website that we communicate on and all the north west events are posted. I am heading to Lake Chelan today for the saturday poker run, then to Portland next weekend for that run.

Lance

No not I 12 years ago I had a 22 Donzi classic :chimp:

vintage,
look for me; its the 377 named big dog- have a great one - jeff

:drink:

Jeff give me a ring and I'll jump on board and bore you with some old school offshore history talk...

Hugh
425-278-0330

:evilb:

Got a picture of your boat? I am on the NE end of Fox Island. I will keep an eye out for ya.

Think it still might of been your boat? If I remember correctly, it was mostly white with red trim and a red three pack bolster and two small blocks with TRS drives