2022 Stock Outboard Racing’s Future

[Ron Hill]

BRF Views:

26,787 Mini Boats
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18,410 "Miss BK" Mini Boat Pictures

Seems we've had Mini Boats, why they are gone is another story!

[LittleCharger]

It’s interesting that overseas Mercury is interested enough in gt15 to have a press release on their own website about their engine being approved for competition against the tohastu.

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en-gb/...-racing-class/

Tohatsu makes the Mercury so it didn't take any effort on Mercury's part to be an approved motor

[Albert]

Tohatsu makes the Mercury so it didn't take any effort on Mercury's part to be an approved motor

That makes total sense now that you have pointed it out.

[Mini Max]

The UIM GT15 class for 9 to 16 yr old racers and the GT30 are well established in Europe. I have spent a lot of time watching videos and I don't see why not build one. After all, the little ships store in our little boat yard in my little town has 10 in stock. That's "available engines" in my book.

[Mini Max]

Jan 26, 2023, the APBA approved any 20hp four stroke legal in the 15SSR & BSR class on a probationary status. No height, weight, or boat restrictions. Now that we got what we asked for, time to step up.

[Albert]

I’ve never driven a runabout but it looks like I need to find one and loose ten lbs.

[dandrews75]

Starting to see some BSR 4 stroke outfits come together. Jim Gardiner has his Tohat now. Went down to the local dealer and bought the motor, how about that?! Someone else Kerry, is buying a Merc, another considering a Suzuki. Has anyone seen a summary of the APBA convention? I’m hearing about things word of mouth. Jim posted a pick of the BSR rule changes out of the SO Tech manual. APBA rebranded just before the convention, what are they doing to promote the sport and get the house in order? The SORC may have inadvertently dictated the future moving forward by allowing the 4 stroke production engines into BSR. If I were the one making the decisions, if SW LLC doesn’t produce any engines or parts this year the 20 SW would be relegated to 20SSH. I would also remove the Y80 and 25XS from the class and relegate them to 20SSH also (maybe move the 25xs to C unrestricted), the Y80 already races there. Same for BSR, 4 strokes would be the class. This would give new people a clear and concise picture of what the classes are. No more chasing legacy engines and and parts! We might actually get to the 21st century yet!

[dandrews75]

When I saw this post, I thought maybe the world ha comes to its senses, then I saw this You Tube was 7 years old.

My brother, was often chastised by the APBA administration for being ten years a head of what was happening.

On Monday December 5, 2022 I agreed to buy a brand new 15 HP Tohatsu, short shaft, 4 stroke.

I was going o have Ernie Dawe build me a boat for this motor.

I digress, with the Sidewinder's one employee who also built the OMC gearcases, I have spent about thee months trying to figure out how to build OMC gearcases.
It come to this build 25 at $2000 each or build 100 at $700 each. ($50,00 for 25 or $70,000 for 100)....If APBA paid for them their return on their investment would be zero over the next 8 years. If I made them my return would be the same.

Bottom line making racing gearcases is a LOSER!

Ron maybe you should give the masses what they want! But instead of Ron Hill and/or investors taking the risk how about people put their money where their mouth is and pay for it up front? We would quickly see exactly just how much of a demand there is for the OMC gearfoot! This is the difference between small manufacturers and corporate manufacturers like Mercury. I remember how much grief Ron and Ed were taking in bringing the Sidewinder engine to reality. It was a big investment to the tune of 7 figures. You want to make a small fortune in racing? You start with a big fortune!

[Mini Max]

Starting to see some BSR 4 stroke outfits come together. Jim Gardiner has his Tohat now. Went down to the local dealer and bought the motor, how about that?! Someone else Kerry, is buying a Merc, another considering a Suzuki. Has anyone seen a summary of the APBA convention? I’m hearing about things word of mouth. Jim posted a pick of the BSR rule changes out of the SO Tech manual. APBA rebranded just before the convention, what are they doing to promote the sport and get the house in order? The SORC may have inadvertently dictated the future moving forward by allowing the 4 stroke production engines into BSR. If I were the one making the decisions, if SW LLC doesn’t produce any engines or parts this year the 20 SW would be relegated to 20SSH. I would also remove the Y80 and 25XS from the class and relegate them to 20SSH also (maybe move the 25xs to C unrestricted), the Y80 already races there. Same for BSR, 4 strokes would be the class. This would give new people a clear and concise picture of what the classes are. No more chasing legacy engines and and parts! We might actually get to the 21st century yet!

What you said. Our club, the Carolina Virginia Racing Association has purchased a new 20 hp Tohatsu and commissioned John Runne to build a boat for it. It will be displayed and available for a ride at the APBA National meeting in Orlando Jan 2024.

I would love to see each club purchase a 20 hp Four Stroke and fit them to transoms. A 20 hp four stroke will become one of our CVRA School boats.

[dandrews75]

Been wanting to get back to this for awhile now. Silly Season is upon us and it’s time to reflect on the Good, Bad and the Ugly. Pinnacle of the season had to be Valleyfield, perfect weather/weekend. It was great to see all the new Novice (Junior) drivers participate in such an iconic race. Outboard racing hadn’t happened at Valleyfield for quite awhile. There was a convergence between these driver’s and the J’s in Ontario at one race, something like 14 or 17 altogether, I forget, there was a lot of them. Started thinking as the season wore on what is the succession plan for these HRL Novice drivers when they age out? I had suggested HRL create an Outboard Series earlier in the year. CBF recently had their convention and HRL attempted to take over CBF but fell short of the votes needed. Would like to have known they were going to attempt this and make the argument for doing it. Can’t wait to hear what the plan is moving forward but I can imagine HRL must have bigger things in mind to increase their footprint on the boat racing landscape. Possibly a move to the Honda K engines in 2.5 and LS engines in 5L on the inboard side among other things. Now APBA, rebrand in the last offseason wasn’t exactly the breath of fresh air I was expecting as the year went on, down right disappointing that nothing really evolved into anything. In stock the 4 Stroke 20hp engines were approved for BSR. Disappointing they were not approved for hydro also and I’m not alone on that one. Everything is stale in respect to what APBA is bringing to the table. I heard SW LLC was reorganizing. Where does this stand? New Yamato engines are in short supply. Haven’t heard about a resolution to the gear foot supply issue with A engines. Everyone is chasing legacy equipment at this point. It’s funny, Unlimited racing rearranged the deck chairs on the titanic recently, still hitched to using 1950’s engines and we still race Mercury 20h’s (not disparaging those guys, one of my favorite classes to watch) in Ontario, I find it ironic.