1954 APBA vs NOA

**seacow** · 09-12-2009

"...With competition for new designs and new records providing a healthy stimulus for international and Gold Cup racing, rivalry of another kind kept a thin veil of confusion around the many races which preoccupied the 2,000 stock outboarders among the APBA's 3,682 racing members.

The APBA's amateur stock outboarders went through a season of regional and divisional races, pointing toward the national championships at De Pere, Wis. (See box for winners.) The professional outboarders in the APBA held a championship at Pasco, Wash.

INSURGENTS AT KNOXVILLE

Meanwhile, a rival organization called the National Outboard Association, set up in 1951 when outboarders decided their voice in the APBA's affairs was not proportionate to their representation, went one better and ran off a "world" championship in Knoxville, Tenn. The NOA feels that its winners are as legitimate as the APBA's, since there were more entries in two of the classes at Knoxville than there were in the entire APBA meet in Pasco.

There are some other factors to be weighed. The NOA has no regattas on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, and thus cannot be described as a truly national body. One step toward unification was taken by an outside authority last May when the Union of International Motorboating recognized the APBA as the official U.S. representative for all international racing matters. Far more was achieved during the year by the racers themselves.

For example, Bill Tenney of Dayton, Ohio, opened the year by setting a new world record for class B hydroplanes in the APBA-sanctioned regatta at Lakeland, Fla. On Aug. 9 he set class B and C outboard hydro records under the APBA at Seattle, then followed by winning the nationals in the same classes at Pasco, and topped it all off by setting still another class C record in the NOA's speed trials at Knoxville. Tenney is not the only racer to compete under both associations. But NOA and APBA have carried on a three-year tug of war for boats and drivers, climaxed this September by an APBA black-list issued against 19 men who drove at Knoxville.

At the APBA meeting in New Orleans, a motion to rescind the black-list was brought up, but no action taken. During the further course of the meeting, some progress was made through peace feelers sent out by both organizations. To date, no concrete move toward cooperation or affiliation has been made by either party. But boat-racers and enthusiasts all over the U.S. are hopeful that the next few years will bring a union of the major groups in the country. Then at year's end there will be one set of champions whose supremacy will be unquestioned, and who can be singled out as the true representatives of their classes for any international challenges that may be made in the upcoming seasons."
-Sports Illustrated (In those days, boat racing was reported in Sports Illustrated!)

**Skoontz** · 09-12-2009

I wonder if the same arguements many use about engines and so forth were used then as they are today....If so, that helps explain why the decilne of racing poluation.

**Mark75H** · 09-12-2009

Originally Posted by Skoontz

I wonder if the same arguements many use about engines and so forth were used then as they are today....If so, that helps explain why the decilne of racing poluation.

Yes and no, for the next 5 years both APBA and NOA continued to grow until they both peaked in 1959 when a recession peaked thru the economy. Simple economics and not internal politics seems to have been the cause of both the boom and decline.

Look closely at this part of the quote:

National Outboard Association, set up in 1951 when outboarders decided their voice in the APBA's affairs was not proportionate to their representation,

Now another quote from Hank Bowman under the "Mac Lambert, Jr" pen name in the same month:

Their beef, and there were many who were concerned, was that APBA wasn't really interested in outboarders and wasn't doing enough for this growing group.

I interviewed Claude Fox about this several times and there were some feelings about Carl Kiekhaefer throwing his weight around too. Claude said he was originally a fence sitter on whether to split or work inside APBA to improve things. Apparently Kiekhaefer was against the split and was working to keep things together. This makes sense since his motors were winning in the new STOCK category ... where most of the discontent was from the alky side who felt that between inboards and and the new Stock category, they were getting squeezed out. Claude was the first APBA Outboard Vice President when the position was created and carried a lot of influence, esp on the outboard side. Claude told me several times that what pushed him over was an offer from one of Kiekhaefer's lieutenants to make sure Fox was elected APBA President at the next election if he would help squash the NOA before it started. This offer served as an example of behind the scenes power that Mr. Fox did not like and sent him over to the other side.

It appears highly likely that Kiekhaefer was the major behind the scenes actor in getting APBA to be the US affiliate of the UIM, too. Kiekhaefer and Strang were both interested in world speed records as certified by UIM. Strang proposed that they put a 4-60 on a D Quicksilver lower unit and set a record, but Kiekhaefer thought that gave too much credit to OMC and nixed the idea. Soon after development of the 6 cylinder Merc began and they built up its special racing lower unit and began testing for world record speed in 1956, but didn't achieve the goal until recruiting Entrop and Jones and smashing thru in 1958.

NOA wrote rules for alky, Stock racing, modified and pleasure motors, but alky and mod became their mainstays, with pleasure motors & Stock racing secondary. The NOA pleasure class rules are the first place in boat racing literature the term "tunnel type bottom" is used. They originally meant twin hull catamaran type boats, but the term was later applied to full sponson OPC boats. APBA had a modified category in the late 1950's but it never really caught on and was gone by 1960, where NOA's mod category flourished. In APBA pleasure boats ran as "Special Event" races until after 1960 when rules were written to form the Outboard Pleasure Craft category. Since this kind of racing was increasing, it was a good idea to follow NOA with official rules and an actual category for them, instead of risking loosing all of that type racing to NOA.

The NOA-APBA split was also geographic ... NOA was strongest in the greater Mississippi Valley and south and hardly existed on the coasts. This meant the Kiekhaefer name was not getting the same race win publicity in the south that OMC was ... Kiekhaefer invaded their home territory with his NASCAR team and everyone knew the Kiekhaefer Mercury Outboard name. (NASCAR was pretty much unknown outside the south back then)

**seacow** · 09-12-2009

Another NOA/APBA difference in those days had to do with minimum dimensions and specs for runabouts- stock. mod and alky. NOA preceded APBA by years in eliminating the front cockpit requirement on mod and then stock runabouts. Back then, APBA runabouts of all categories looked more like family craft of that time, with rounded bows and high sides, while NOA runabouts had needle noses, very low sides and looked not too dissimilar to modern Z-Craft (Zorkin) runabouts. APBA spec runabouts were NOA legal, whereas runabouts built to NOA minimums were not legal in APBA races. Finally, I believe that in 1954, NOA had mod classes whereas APBA did not. That said, of course, APBA alky records began to be broken and races won by alky burning Mercs.

**Danny Pigott** · 09-12-2009

The MOD classes of today were called AM PRO in NOA. American Pro. that ment no Konig's or other motors make out side of the USA. I don't know when this name was applied or if they were called MOD classes back in the 50's but as far as I know from in the 60's this was the name of the div.