everyone please take a min out of your day...

[Tom A.]

Runnin,
I agree with you on the safety and bad press part of this. Safety is by far my number one concern and all of the events I participate in. I was also at the 2008 1000 Islands drivers meeting and heard the same thing. I retracted my previous post enlight of looking at everything. I still maintain that we need to fight against unjust rules and regulations that are squeezing our sport. If we are self regulating (which we are), focusing on safety first, and working in co-operation with the local authorities, there is no reason we should be banned from doing events like this.
The more the anti-powerboat groups squeeze, the less areas we will have to play. If they are using dirty tactics to do it, then we have to go out of our way to show the good we are doing.
Imagine putting a 30 mph limit through the whole 1000 Islands and along the St. Lawrence Shipping Channel? If we don't stand up for our rights, we will loose them.

 

[Gladhe8er]

My letter to the morons in Lake George:

Bruce E. Young
Chairman
Lake George Park Commission
75 Fort George Road, PO Box 749
Lake George, New York 12845

Dear Mr. Young,

I know I am not the first and am confident that I will not be the last to write to you expressing the disappointment over the cancellation of this event. My brother already wrote to you about how my family had 3 boats and 12 people lined up to attend this event including my sister’s fiancé who is flying in from Jackson, MS for what was supposed to be his first ride on a high performance powerboat. I guess he will have to wait until next year.

My issue is not so much that you are not allowing this event to happen; it is that you sought to revoke the approved permit 2 weeks before the event was scheduled to occur. If you had shot down the poker run organizers back in June, I’m sure there would have been some minor flack and some “that sucks” comments, but at least people would not have booked their schedules and planned a long weekend on beautiful Lake George. Also, as of today I hear that some people are having a hard time getting their deposits back from some of the hotels up there. That is the last thing anyone wants to deal with at this point.

I am no stranger to Lake George. My family has had a house 5 miles outside of town since the 1970’s and I spend 40-50 nights a year up there mostly in the winter because my boat is not welcome on Lake George, which is fine with me…I boat in Long Island Sound and do not have to worry about noise limits, speed limits, trailering time/expenses, launch passes, season permits, etc. My point is I have seen what is happening up there over the last 10 years as far as the economy goes. I went to a college in Albany which is less than an hour away and my friends and I would head up there from time to time to check out the scene in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Hotels were sold out and there were $20 covers at some bars with lines around the corner. If a bar in Lake George tried to charge that today, forget it…they would be closed in a month and I do not see many “No Vacancy” signs up either. I do not think that the economy is doing so well that you can turn away the amount of money that this poker run would have brought into the local economy in the form of hotel rooms, fuel, meals, nightlife, souvenirs and apparel.

I know that safety was one of the main reasons for the cancellation. First of all, the speed limit was never raised from 45 MPH, so we were going to abide by that. Secondly, we all know what we are doing behind the wheel of a performance boat. I have no doubt in my mind that we would have been safer as a group than the people who go to Lake George and rent boat. I still can not believe that NYS does not make people get a boating license like they do here in Connecticut. The things I have seen rental boats do in that lake over the years boggles my mind. The LGPC should be more concerned with those people.

Again, this is very disappointing. It is just another incident that is going to push people away from Lake George and leave a bad taste in their mouth.

Submitted respectfully,

Peter Aitkin Jr.

Pete Aitkin
Director, Client Development

21 River Road Suite 2000
Wilton, CT 06897

 

[Gladhe8er]

So the lake is mostly just reserved for drowning elderly tourists in clapped out tour boats these days?

Can you imagine if that happenned during a poker run on Lake George? I believe that accident was in October of 05. I started going to these runs in October of 06. That boat was overloaded with not enough staff on board.

 

[catastrophe]

I must admit I am considering River's point very closely. For instance, up here. Grand HAven is making it difficult on performance boaters. Some of the guys have moved their boats to other places such as here in Holland, even though they are based out of Grand Haven.

If we were to push for another run or race, would a place like Michigan City where the SBI race was well received by the city and its mangement be the place to go instead of battling the current regime in Grand Haven?????? You'd be welcomed, appreciated, raise more money for charity, get better participation, attract better publicity, etc., etc.

Does that possibly serve our interests better for the long run??????

Or, do we push back, fight for our rights, and attract possible bad publicity to be used against us elsewhere. It is a very legit discussion .....

You go where you are welcome.
The crowd that wants you become your cheerleaders.

They gladly help you raise money, they gladly help us fight the good fight against authorities.

Out of laziness and good business its the thing to do.

These are our happy times and they should stay that way. Who wants to be somewhere where they arent wanted?Fighting those people is grief and time wasted. There are lots of proper venues to enjoy our sport in and pushing to be elsewhere is very bad business for the boaters, their sponsors, their repair shops , their manufacturers and most importantly the charities that rely on their success and overall sustainability.

 

[Chris]

It was an independant study done for the city. Cooked, maybe - don't know why they would though. My guess was 30,000 people at the event watching the actual race though....

Chris, supposedly the new casino tower was sold out????

We had no problems walking into anything at the casino and getting seated. The casino itself was very light on people. Don't know if they sold the rooms out but most of the people there on Saturday didn't look like your typical boating crowd. Alot of people very dressed up- like wedding dressed up. You ever bring a suit to a race?

I was back and forth throughout the weekend- never took more than 5 minutes to get into the pits area- and there's just the one access road.

 

[catastrophe]

Nick is using the right math.