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The Great Unification

What about that torque slip attachment they are talking about for Class1 overseas and currently use to help get F1 to hook up during acceleration? Could you install something similar and program it for maximum allowable slip? I think they also do that with some drag cars.
 
Rik said:
Jim, product support is not hard to provide if demand warranted it. Please remember Craig Colabella used to go to the races with support, Throttle Up did the same and many others have over the years. Will someone follow the circuit for a single customer?

Mercury had a truck there (at the series they wanted to promote) and that truck made $$ for Merc. The power heads, lower units, propellers and such were not free nor were they understood to be so.

We all want to do our part and are willing to do so only if we are given the opportunity to.:bigear:
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Lets not overlook the 150k sponsoring the series and the contingency money accrued per race. Service was at no charge at the race sites.

Yes Craig was at Cumberland and Sarasota this season. He did jump right in to offer his assistance after Mercurys withdraw.

I do agree everyone should be welcome to contribute.
 
I have an idea. Not so much about unification, but more about getting more people interested. I think i've made it pretty clear that I am no fan of this roundy round racing on short courses. I have watched 2 of these races live and frankly I was bored to death. There must be something exciting about it because enough of you want to keep it going.

How about posting some quality video footage a day or two after the race. Not the whole race. Just a teaser. The pix that Sharkey, Pete, Jayboat and others take are great, but video would be better. With todays technology isn't it possible to get a minute or 2 of video highlights up the next day. If the product on the course is that great you will not only peak the interest of the casual fan, but the guys making the videos will sell a whole lot more of them. And don't fluff up the videos with all of the girls and music. I'm not opposed to that, trust me. But the clips should be about the racing. Maybe an old fart narrator can come out of retirement.

What this sport (show) needs is some viral video marketing. If someone named Lady GaGa can be a star, then some of the characters in offshore should be megastars.
 
sbracing said:
If I was starting a series from scratch, here is what I would do:

I would have 2 premier classes... Super Cat and Super Vee. Engine package to be reasonably affordable. (525's? 750's? 850's?). This would be the show. They would race together. The TV and the promotion would focus on them.

Everyone else would be the support series. For sure, a bracket based series,
such as OPA. In addition, if there was enough boats, SVL and OB Cat could have their own classes, but as support races, not the big show. They would race with the bracket classes.

The problem is how to get there. There has to be some transition period to allow the current teams to change their current equipment to the new regulations. We don't want to push anyone out, we just need to work together towards the solution, whether my suggestion, or someone else's.

From a competition and entertainment standpoint, the more boats in each class, the better. The current situation is ridiculous. ( No offense to any teams). Supercat extreme, supercat lite, supercat 850, supercat 750,
supercat turbine, supercat steam powered. Enough already. Everyone always
wants to be like Nascar. How many classes do they run on Sunday?
I'm pretty sure if Bill Gates showed up at Daytona in February with a rocket powered car, they wouldn't let him race it. Why should we do essentially the same thing?

A stable, reasonably affordable, National Series, would attract teams, put on a good show, look good on TV and offer some competitive (10 boats racing into turn 1) racing.

Just my opinion, mind you, as a fan and class 6 bracket racer (what do I know anyway?)
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I agree 100%

The extreme classes make little sense once you get past to WOW factor. They are incredibly expensive to build and operate, they go faster than you can actually race, the courses are getting shorter and the fans are getting closer.
 
smokeybandit said:
That's the one I saw this weekend. I do appreciate the effort they made, but I'm talking about the professional guys in the copters who are selling their videos. How long would it take them to do a trailer for the race video?
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mmmhhhh, ask Jeff..... he would know.

But u know he wants 4 for almost everything.LOL


I also understand your post in the apache thread ,,,do u think we would mind going in the rough ??????? But thats what the fans whant.
Racing infront of the shore ,,not to far out.
I would not mind aslong as its not longer then 80+ miles,,,because most of the newer boats don't have that big of a fuel cell.
The best is KW !!!!!
Hope to see u there.:USA:
 
Unfortunately this year, because of the CBS deal, no copters can record or release anything without the SBI and CBS approval. Protected for the fall show series....
 
As far as courses go, where possible you need to run more triangles with a leg out, and one back in. But not so far you can't see and hear what's going on.

One leg of every lap of at least 6 very close to shore makes a good show. The Key West course is a good example where the racers go out and back and along shore, but they don't disappear for a period so long where interest is lost.

Think of it like watching a football game without the big screens they have in the stadiums now. After every close play, every person looks to the screen.

If there is no screen, fans lose interest. Therefore, Offshore loses fans.

And believe me, I understand the Old Days and the long offshore races. They were awesome, but there was not much other serious competition at that time like now. No video games, cell phones, texting, twittering, satellite TV, DVD players, etc. etc.

It needs to get the fans involved up close and personal, it needs to have COMPETITION , and it needs to have promotion. Watching that video shows one of the main issues. 3 1/2 minutes, one corner of excitement.

Crazy Chicken and Simmons is always a good show it seems.....
 
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OK, so whoever is handling the CBS deal should be getting them to post teasers on here and the other boating websites. By the time they actually air, all interest will be lost unless there is some promotion done here and on TV.

I'm still not buying into the fan thing about the short courses. I have taken many non-racer friends to races and the only thing they cared about was seeing boats go by. They could care less which boat it was. If you stagger the starts well enough, you will always have boats going past.

Simple solution to the fuel tank problem. Build bigger tanks.
 
smokeybandit said:
OK, so whoever is handling the CBS deal should be getting them to post teasers on here and the other boating websites. By the time they actually air, all interest will be lost unless there is some promotion done here and on TV.

I'm still not buying into the fan thing about the short courses. I have taken many non-racer friends to races and the only thing they cared about was seeing boats go by. They could care less which boat it was. If you stagger the starts well enough, you will always have boats going past.

Simple solution to the fuel tank problem. Build bigger tanks.
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Right, kind of. You still can't run a 50 to 80 mile course like the old days. To the oldtimers, a 10 mile course is too short.
 
you cant pay for an event running out into open water 50 miles using todays funding model. We pay for our events within 10 miles of the host marina. If you are not in front of that marina and bars they dont sell beer and wont help fund it.

Also letting in vendors for free cant happen. Promoters have all the risk and need to be able guarantee some of the funding. Charging entrance doesn't work. Honestly, if we figured out a better method of funding our races unification would happen because the best sites would draw the racers, just like St Clair. St Clair is already unified.
 
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smokeybandit said:
I'm still not buying into the fan thing about the short courses. I have taken many non-racer friends to races and the only thing they cared about was seeing boats go by. They could care less which boat it was. If you stagger the starts well enough, you will always have boats going past.

Simple solution to the fuel tank problem. Build bigger tanks.
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I don't buy it either. I noticed in this pic few are actually watching and they are dangerously close.

3092ca11.jpg

Great action pic but it shows many in the background with their backs to the action.
 
Wahoo 214 said:
you cant pay for an event running out into open water 50 miles using todays funding model. We pay for our events within 10 miles of the host marina. If you are not in front of that marina and bars they dont sell beer and wont help fund it.
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Speaking of which, the Harrison course is another course similar to Key West in design where the boats can easily be watched from shore, but it is not an oval up and down the shoreline.

Never thought about the "Host Group" funding.
 
Ratickle said:
Speaking of which, the Harrison course is another course similar to Key West in design where the boats can easily be watched from shore, but it is not an oval up and down the shoreline.

Never thought about the "Host Group" funding.
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I also think the course is a key to success. I believe we should include more turns, both right and left, to keep the racing tight and slow some of the classes down. Make it a drivers race instead of who has that 1/10 mph in the prop. Fans and TV like big waves and tight racing in corners.
 
Wahoo 214 said:
I also think the course is a key to success. I believe we should include more turns, both right and left, to keep the racing tight and slow some of the classes down. Make it a drivers race instead of who has that 1/10 mph in the prop. Fans and TV like big waves and tight racing in corners.
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Fans like boats flying out of the water. Especially if they are side by side. Watch this clip and tell me that it isn't better than the short courses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGj5FgfBhK4
 
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