How Our British Friends Viewed 2013's Key West World's

[Ratickle]

Only safety equipment and GPS if you're in a maximum speed class. When you never lose site of the shore, a chart is unneeded weight!

[Ratickle]

It has always been interesting to me to talk with the oldtimer racers. Heck, they would make sure they had liferafts, and sometimes those were needed and guys spent a day or two in them before being found. Who was it who got picked up by the Russian freighter or some such thing?

[Top Banana]

It has always been interesting to me to talk with the oldtimer racers. Heck, they would make sure they had liferafts, and sometimes those were needed and guys spent a day or two in them before being found. Who was it who got picked up by the Russian freighter or some such thing?

That was Elswick in Argentina in 1978.

Look my point of view is very narrow, I am an old school racer and cannot understand why the groups that put these races on don't include a long distance class.

Let's take a regular Key West week. Don't you think they could fit in a race out to Dry Tortugas and back like we did. That covers, reefs and sandbars and some deep water so you always get varied conditions.

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday ........the current style Key West races.
Thursday.....Long distance from Miami to Key West
Saturday.....Long distance from Key West to Dry Tortugas and back.

That would attract all kinds of racers and bring back some old style racing.

Dry Tortugas is where Fort Jefferson is located.

[Pete B]

TB,
I have to agree that race week should be just that, I was very disappointed with the short course on all 3 days, wednesday I was out in my 302 scarab and it wasnt that bad, for watching for shooting pics not so good.

[Ratickle]

It is really tough to make any kind of decision on what works and what doesn't. Do the long courses draw more fans? Probably not. Do the short courses draw more fans? Most likely. Why, because there is a change in society of short attention span and instant gratification.

It is certainly something we all should start paying attention to with offshore racing. It is a sport none of us want to see go by the wayside.