APBA's Vintage & Historic Chairman steps down

[AZOutlaw]

Vintage & Historic Chairman steps down
Monday, March 8, 2010

Tom Bertolini announced his resignation as APBA Vintage & Historic Division Chairman March 8, 2010. Bertolini took over leadership of the Division in 2004. Both Tom and his wife Jacqueline have been active in all aspects of Vintage. They regularly display and drive their 1971 Country Boy N-8 and GP-247 Deepwater Special at Vintage regattas. Their annual Winter Gathering was a favorite social event for members. Under Tom's leadership, Vintage and Historic has enjoyed tremendous growth. Safety rules have been refined and updated; regional representatives have been appointed; and Vintage racecraft have added excitement to other categories' regattas as well as stand-alone Vintage events. By encouraging storyboards and logbooks, the Division made each Vintage event an opportunity to educate the public about beautiful raceboats of the past. While working a full-time job and serving as Race Director of the APBA Gold Cup race, Tom always gave 100% to the chairmanship. He will be difficult to replace.

Nonetheless, the search is on for a new Vintage & Historic chairman. APBA members are encouraged to submit nominations to APBA President Mark Weber at 586-206-8894 or mweber55@sbcglobal.net

[Tomtall]

Thanks Tom for all you have done since your becoming chairman of the Vintage & Historic catigory. You will be missed as it's leader.

[RogerH]

I also want to thank Tom and his wife Jacqueline for there fantastic leadership in the V&H venue. Please don't be starangers at our events as I sure hope to see you guys soon. Sure hope all is well and that we see you soon. Thanks for all you have done to further the V&H efforts. Great Job!!!
Roger & Margo

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Vintage & Historic Chairman steps down
Monday, March 8, 2010

Tom Bertolini announced his resignation as APBA Vintage & Historic Division Chairman March 8, 2010. Bertolini took over leadership of the Division in 2004. Both Tom and his wife Jacqueline have been active in all aspects of Vintage. They regularly display and drive their 1971 Country Boy N-8 and GP-247 Deepwater Special at Vintage regattas. Their annual Winter Gathering was a favorite social event for members. Under Tom's leadership, Vintage and Historic has enjoyed tremendous growth. Safety rules have been refined and updated; regional representatives have been appointed; and Vintage racecraft have added excitement to other categories' regattas as well as stand-alone Vintage events. By encouraging storyboards and logbooks, the Division made each Vintage event an opportunity to educate the public about beautiful raceboats of the past. While working a full-time job and serving as Race Director of the APBA Gold Cup race, Tom always gave 100% to the chairmanship. He will be difficult to replace.

Nonetheless, the search is on for a new Vintage & Historic chairman. APBA members are encouraged to submit nominations to APBA President Mark Weber at 586-206-8894 or mweber55@sbcglobal.net

Not to sound like sour grapes, but as good as Tom & his group have been to their category, they never acknowleged the outboard group or asked for our participation.

[T2x]

Not to sound like sour grapes, but as good as Tom & his group have been to their category, they never acknowleged the outboard group or asked for our participation.

Amen...... The old inboard prejudice against outboarders is alive and well in Vintage. Sadly, it should probably be split into two divisions:

1. "Good Ol' Boy Inboarders"
2. "Other annoying junk to fill the hotels...or to buy props from"

Truth be told we haven't helped ourselves..... The scarcity of outboards at these events especially from OPC means that the numbers are greatly tilted and that simply adds to the "clique mentality". On the other hand the typical Inboard hydro lasts for 20+ years in competition, while we were going through 2 or 3 hulls per year at the height of the tunnel boat wars. If only we had kept half of those boats from the trash heap back in the day.

T2x

[Mark75H]

Well said on all points

[racnbns]

I have been a Vintage member for 5 or 6 years now but have only attended a handful of events. I have attended the Vintage meeting at the annual meetings and the leadership seems to welcome the outboarders but we don't attend.

It's pretty hard when your still racing, attending AOMCI meets to squeeze in any more. I am taking this season off[not racing] and plan on attending some Vintage meets. It's really up to us to break the ice and show our stuff.

At the annual meeting in Seattle Pat Yarno invited Shirley and I to go to a Vintage gathering. It was at Kelsons[boat builder] shop and they had about 15 restored inboards. I reall;y enjoyed it and hope to see some people I met and show them my "STUFF".

Bruce

[MN1]

Amen...... The old inboard prejudice against outboarders is alive and well in Vintage. Sadly, it should probably be split into two divisions:

1. "Good Ol' Boy Inboarders"
2. "Other annoying junk to fill the hotels...or to buy props from"

Truth be told we haven't helped ourselves..... The scarcity of outboards at these events especially from OPC means that the numbers are greatly tilted and that simply adds to the "clique mentality". On the other hand the typical Inboard hydro lasts for 20+ years in competition, while we were going through 2 or 3 hulls per year at the height of the tunnel boat wars. If only we had kept half of those boats from the trash heap back in the day.

T2x

I wouldn't call them "Good Ol' Boy Inboarders" either!



Yep, the early to mid 70's tunnel boats are hard to find in good shape. They were built to be light and last a couple of seasons. The woods used in our boats are some of the worst for rotting too. But they can be brought back with a lot of work. It's just finding a surviver that's the tough part.



APBA might be surprised at how many Vintage Racing Outboarders could be had if they really wanted to advance the Vintage division. Not just OPC but all Vintage Racing Outboards.
Mark N

[J. Sherlock]

Still at it restoring a few boats, sorry I could not have done more......

John Sherlock

[RogerH]

I've been participating in the CRA and APBA VIntage events for the past three years, as I knew I wanted to get back into boat "racing" as a retirement activity. I initially ran a F-runabout with a Merc 1000 stacker / Terril Craft (DeSilva copy). The net result of that was two events with bloody knees/shins after beating myself to death (Chautauqua and Clayton). Knew I needed a bigger boat than this to run at most APBA Vintage events. I later ran my Stevens SK / Merc 1500 at the CRA event in Tavares (2009). That weekend also happened to be very rough and Sunday was cancelled. Having attended several other Vintage events at Buffalo, Clayton, Wheeling, Dayton, Tavares, Lakeland I'd have to say that most of the APBA Vintage sites generally have "large boat" water a majority of the time. I realize this is subject to Mother Nature's rath, but that's my observation over the last three years. I feel that for outboard vintage to succeed there needs to be more consideration about the sites. Any body of water can be nasty at times, but places like Clayton, Buffalo, Detroit generally aren't suitable for smaller outboards (or event the biggest outboards). Outboard events are almost always on calmer, more protected bodies of water.

Inboard / Outboard Mix: There are several things where they differ in the requirements. Most inboards launch via crane. Almost none of the outboards are equipped to do this. The outboards like to beach launch from carts and will return to this area for storage on shore. The pit area is somewhat different with the outboards staging from trailer rigs and carts. The inboards typically gather at a dock after crane launching and await the green flag. The outboards would like to mill awaiting the greenflag. Subtle, but significantly different. Starting an outboard is not nice from a dock, especially if a crew is required to rope the motor. Retrieving the boat after a false start would be problematic from a dock / deep water.
The pit area will be different as the outboards will likely operate from their trailers / launch area. This unfortunately created a segregation of inboard and outboards. I feel this is unavoidable, but pitting in the same general area ought to "combine" the participants.

All that said, I really hope we can manage to get the inboards and outboards combined at Vintage Events. There are a ton of very sucessful boats and drivers out there that have some fantastic vintage equipment gathering dust. I will have the O'Berry Molinari/Johnson RS at Dayton and several other events this year. (It can crane launch also.) I want to state that my wife and I were VERY welcome at ALL the events we've gone to. I feel that the different requirements need to be recognized and accounted for in a combined inboard/outboard event. Even Clayton is quite segregated - might as well be two different events.

I feel that the Vintage group needs to address the need for testing at their events (mostly for inboards because of crane launch and safety). Dayton Test and Tune is an example, but I know of no others (in the East). I have two new boats this year, and I feel like I'm going to be "in the way" at an event while we works the bugs out. Seems like the event schedule could accommodate testing requests for a limited period.
I certainly don't want to sound upset in any way (because I'm not), but will continue to bring both my outboards and inboard to these events. I'd also be glad to work with anyone interested in furthering this marriage.