It seems to me that...Races Are Too Long

[Ron Hill]

The truth is, boat racing isn't growing. In fact the numbers are going down, down and down.

What are the reasons that YOU see? What do you think might help?

My wife and I have been remoldeling a 1927 house since September. The neighbors came in and on a vacant lot built a house in three months. The old house had everything wrong with it. What we should have done is "SCRAPED" the old house and built a new one, but we didn't.

I see a parallel to the OLD HOUSE/NEW HOUSE and BOAT RACING AND CHANGE.....

I went to a boat race and worked the flags for FLIGHT ONE...I worked from 10 to 1:30, that was 1/4 of the race...After a 7 and a half hour race day.....(My kids called me and told me to come home for Father's Day)....It wasn't hard to head for home, but not because my kids called me.


I think STEP ONE: If you have a two day race, each day only gets HALF POINTS.

We are going to Chowchilla.....we have a new boat, four new engines, several new props....we have had NO TEST TIME....As Chad has just finished school...and where do you test a CAPSULED BOAT??????? So, we'll go to Chowchilla and race ALL DAY with half#$sed set ups, we'll be luck if we don't wreck the boat......Only to come back on Sunday and do the same thing....

Seems to me, I'd rather go to Chowchilla and test all day, Saturday.....at a leisure pace and be ready to race Sunday.....If the CLUB NEEDS MONEY, and I know they do....Charge a FLAT FEE for the weekend.

Figure the cost of the race, divide by the numbers of drivers, add 20 percent for the clud and charge EVER DRIVER and EQUAL AMOUNT or EVERY FAMILY...

Step three: (Step two was FLAT FEES)....Combine classes to have 12 boats in every start.

Step Four: Throw the clock away! RUN MODIFIED lEmANS STARTS. SlOWER CLASSES RUN MORE LAPS ON SHORTER COURSE...

Step Five: Pass an APBA RULE, that any race that runs longer than 5 hours, NO POINTS WILL BE AWARDED.......