Can America ever have a real open ocean offshore race series again?

[gearhead]

Its kind of hard to get money when no one knows what to do with it. Get some valid ideas then get the money. If you have no plan, you can't do anything even if you have all the money in the world.
If you think money is the only thing needed to make something work then it's not worth doing.
We need a real promoter to get things going.
Anybody have any ideas??????????????? So far no one has had any ideas or input on how to improve things.
If I didn't live in middle of nowhere I could have some fun with this.

 

[gearhead]

Just another thought, What if there was a class for electric boats? Then we would be starting out developing new technology and we might be able to find real backers.
They are doing that with airplanes now and there has been some real success. There are 200 mph 4 passenger planes capable of 100 miles plus. There are new batteries that are available to increase the range by 5 to 10 times. Electric motors have insane amount of torque and bateries have a recharge time in the minutes verses hours. There are solar panels that will recharge the batteries at the dock during the week and then play on the weekends for free.
There are some really fast cars and bikes already, we are "missing the boat"
There will be a real market for this in the near future, they might be slower than you want at first but they would develope in to faster and faster boats and like brownie says the "beat goes on!"
Maybe this is where we get some money ,sponsors and maybe development money from the government so we can go play!

 

[mdkeywest]

Just another thought, What if there was a class for electric boats? Then we would be starting out developing new technology and we might be able to find real backers.
They are doing that with airplanes now and there has been some real success. There are 200 mph 4 passenger planes capable of 100 miles plus. There are new batteries that are available to increase the range by 5 to 10 times. Electric motors have insane amount of torque and bateries have a recharge time in the minutes verses hours. There are solar panels that will recharge the batteries at the dock during the week and then play on the weekends for free.
There are some really fast cars and bikes already, we are "missing the boat"
There will be a real market for this in the near future, they might be slower than you want at first but they would develope in to faster and faster boats and like brownie says the "beat goes on!"
Maybe this is where we get some money ,sponsors and maybe development money from the government so we can go play!

,YES WE CAN !!!!! LOL

 

[Top Banana]

Entries are starting to come in now for the New York Speed Festival weekend. On Friday evening more members for the NPBA Hall of Fame are to be inducted. Saturday morning at 8 AM, both races start from the buoy off Port Washington, NY. One group will be competing in the 271 mile 3rd annual Don Aronow Memorial Around Long Island Marathon.

Starting at the same time with the Don Aronow group, the first annual Bill Wishnick Trophy Dash. This is a 100 mile race that starts at Port Washington and will go along the northern coast of Long Island and end at Orient Point. The entire course is on Long Island Sound.

We have a lot of interest and entries so far in this class, as it gives the "Gentlemen Sportsmen" an opportunity to try this type of racing without having to modify their boats for the longer distance race.

Entry fees were $600 for the Don Aronow Marathon and $300 for the Bill Wishnick Trophy Dash. That was until the end of March. For current entry fees, please check the section on the Don Aronow race on the NPBA website. The later you wait to enter, the higher the entry fee will be.

Sunday will be a high end auto concours with Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis and other exotic cars.

 

[Ratickle]

Maybe you should add a third course to challenge those who wanted to. Turn around at Orient Point and come back on the protected side of the island in the Sound.

 

[lohring]

Electric boats are already running. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yNu2_LlO9s&feature=g-user-u m The problem is you can't have performance and endurance at the same time. There's no way an electric boat could compete with internal combustion in a real offshore race.

Lohring Miller

 

[Ratickle]

He may be on to something though....



Just because it doesn't make sense, doesn't mean the US Government won't give you money to spend on it.......

 

[Ratickle]

Its kind of hard to get money when no one knows what to do with it. Get some valid ideas then get the money. If you have no plan, you can't do anything even if you have all the money in the world.
If you think money is the only thing needed to make something work then it's not worth doing.
We need a real promoter to get things going.
Anybody have any ideas??????????????? So far no one has had any ideas or input on how to improve things.
If I didn't live in middle of nowhere I could have some fun with this.

There are several issues that have not changed since JC split off the very first organization from APBA and started his celebrity racer group organization. Since that time, splinter orgs, not falling under the UIM and therefore APBA have come and gone. The biggest underlying factor, in my opinion, is the rules are different for every org so racers cannot go race what makes sense to them. A good example, this year in Michigan area, we may have Tawas, St Clair, Port Huron, and Michigan City. Because of the schedules in this area, the three OPA races make sense to anyone who has a race boat and lives in this area. But, the Michigan City race, SBI, would also make sense because of the proximity, and the esire to possibly run the Key West Worlds that so many racers like to participate in. However, if you have a competitive boat in 6, 5, 4, 3, or SVL in OPA, you do not have a class competitive boat in SBI.

I think this is truly the number one issue when it comes to attracting racers and boats. Until all of the current orgs get together on rules, and not having events on the same weekends, the sport will continue to decline or stay in its current minimized participation. It's tough to attract participation, and sponsors, when it seems as if the most important issue is trying to make the other orgs fail vs trying to promote the sport.

That's why I say money. Only the most money has the opportunity to solidify the rules, and therefore the racers.

 

[Ratickle]

What would your Number One issue be?

Or a Top 5 in order maybe?

And Lohring, you've done more with electric boats than anyone. The best car out there can only currently go about 40 miles before it switches to fuel supply. That would mean about 5 to 8 miles in a boat if what I've read about water drag vs the rolling drag on a car is correct. Did you guys study that when going after the record?

 

[lohring]

We started with a 1/4 scale model when we thought we had to run lead acid batteries. When the rules changed, we realized from model boat guys that we actually had more power available than small internal combustion outboards. That's when Mike decided to go to a proven Ron Jones outboard hydro design that had run in the 80 mph area.

We got one of Bob Wartinger's special props and pushed the boat from 80 to over 100 mph in testing. We carefully set two buoys 1 kilometer apart for testing and checked how much battery we had. It was enough for 3 to maybe 4 passes. Since we only ran two passes for the records, it looked like we had lots of battery. Unlike previous electric boats that got towed to the course, we drove from the dock to the course and back. The thing that freaked everyone out the most is Mike stopped the boat between passes to check everything. People thought something broke.

We had limited generator capacity so we could only charge 1/2 the batteries at a time. It took two hours of charging for a few minutes of run time. So much for green energy. With modern batteries, brushless motors and matching speed controls, all this could be improved on. Electrics still have a long way to go in performance boats. That doesn't even start to get into costs. Our batteries cost $14,000 though lithium polymer batteries are better and less expensive now.

Lohring Miller

 

[Ratickle]

I see where James started a thread on Electric Powered Offshore Race Boats

Based on what you found out, should really be an interesting discussion.


And when are you going back to break the 100mph mark????