To all P-class racers in KW !!!!!!!

[MikeyFIN]

I think up to
32 feet - 80 mph only single engines
36 feet - 90 mph
40 feet -110 mph

ONLY FOR THE P CLASS

what would be wrong with that ?????

now u would have more boats in each class,,,bump up the price money and get the competition everybody was looking for !!!!!!

I see no problem with that.
But think about the occasional Apache 41 owner who want´s to race for FUN?....hmmm 110mph would be record breaking speeds for one.

Most boats up to 32 ft are single engine anyway unless really old and they could run a HORBA class or get an exemption ?

[Dude! Sweet!]

Out of curiousity, if you look through the OPA and other P5 and 6 fields, how many boats that have raced over the last two years won't fit in those classes? And whey I say, "won't fit" I mean either outlawed (the twin OB Superboat that runs P5 comes to mind) or clearly uncompetitive in this class structure (The 24 Sunsation that runs P6, the old Dukes Carrera, basically every pleasure layup 28 Pantera, etc.)

I don't have any experience boat racing, but I do have a fair amount of experience club racing cars and without being overly general, I would say the majority of people I know who could afford to race cars, and still quit racing over the decade quit because they got tired of constantly changing rules... New spec tire each year, new spect shock each year, new spec wheel width each year... Consistency seems to be the key to participation (as long as things aren't consistently screwed up).

[Dude! Sweet!]

I guess I should add that I'm re-rigging a boat to run P5 in POPRA next year, but frankly I don't care if you make the P5 breakout speed 900 mph, there's only maybe 3 other P5 boats out here. And if it really doesn't make sense to run the boat in POPRA, we can always go ski racing instead.

In my mind P class racing is club racing and the goal is to have a good time. Seems like in many cases, all this spectator nonsense and TV nonsense that gets bounced around discounts that fact that for most people interested in participating in this sort of thing, the participant is the target market. Club racing is about the racers.

[F1-00 Racing]

I think up to
32 feet - 80 mph only single engines
36 feet - 90 mph
40 feet -110 mph

OK I'll bite

30 feet max- 80 mph single engine
90 mph
105 mph

The current P5 class is 75 mph with max length of 30, now your asking those that have built a boat for the class, to bump up speed as well as compete with SVL's, etc With lack of participation unfortunately he is doing away with the SVL class again and where would they fit under your self serving rules, DD?

You claim that your boat ran 90 something when it was an "A' boat, so I guess its time to step up, I am sure your "technical consultant" could help you! If breaking down 96.5% of the time is fun for you, then could I advise some psychological treatment?

Don't worry DD, I dont have a dog in the fight anymore, YOU have successfully run me off !!! Congrats..... ok now go ahead and get your last word in, you always do!

[glassdave]

The 6 classes in OPA are plenty. I would argue for one less at the top, but that's just based on participation, not anything else.

So where exactly would we fit without a class 1? Our boat is boring under a hundred and this season we only had two light showings, Harrison and St Clair. The rest were better races with three to six boats. Lightning Jacks is re powering this winter to be more competitive, Extractor will be at all the east coast races and Wicked will most likely stay in class one (which is great) and you know we'll be there, cat lite has also been running with us . With no class two should we prop WAY down and run class three

I think the six classes are fine, the biggest hurdle i see is aligning the different orgs to have the same definitions. Bottom line is build a boat to fit the class not a class to fit your boat. If you are going to run in a spec class and cross over to a P class occasionally, choose appropriately. We ran a 30 DW in P2 at 105 because thats how fast that boat went and that was it. Granted we got smoked by the big HP guys much of the time but its a lot more fun chasing someone at your limit then sandbagging, and it really was some fun azz racing.

DD i doubt you will find a simplistic blanket solution like the ones you are proposing. Any problems we ever had in OPA were dealt with within the class by participating members of that class respectively and amicably(sp?). The worst thing you can do is start drastically mismatching boats into a smaller number of classes strictly for the sake of boat count.

[imco offshore]

scott let me tell you from experiance we ( svl) changed a lot of rules this year in an effort to get some other boats to come , ( the one,s that gave us an exceuse y they dont come) after we changed the rules for them ! #1 they didn,t show up anyway # 2 the guys that were already there had to change their boats , # 3 the class went from 8 to 10 boats down to three 3 , my point has always been,,,,, hand out the rules , period,,,, if someone wants to race READ the rules and build to fit in,,, we screwd our class up real bad this year for people who talk a lot then don,t do anything but bench race and complain,,, it,s got so bad if you try to build a new boat ,,, the rules will be different when your done . i suggest you leave well enough alone, don,t listen to someone that doesn,t have a dog in this fight, i know your trying to better your classes but ,,??????? good luck with what ever direction u choose

[skaterdave]

glassdave it would be nice to try to raise p1 to 120. my next thought would be get rid of any spec class that has less the 5-6 boats and have them move over to a p-class.

and once a certain amount of spec class guys get there own boat count up agian then they can figure out a set of rules.

till then there seems to be too many spec classes with out enough boats to warrrant the additional work to tech-ing them.

for instance, patchgue, if cat lite only has two boats they should have to move into a class to better the overall quality of racing.

if i recall, OSS, when they started that org had a rule or something that said that each spec class needed to have a certain amount of boats or they wouldn't be allowed to race?

[Ratickle]

All I'm saying is match up the rules for all the orgs. Nothing else. I mentioned 1 class possibly. I do not believe at all that three classes are enough. P6 and P5 have the greatest participation, and eliminating them seems foolish.

There are 7 classes in OPA. Keep them all and match them up. Then match up the rules for entry and breakout, and then go.

And Dave, I was only at four races this year. Harrison, ST Clair, Michigan City, and LOTO. The top 1, or PX, was not well represented at those. I cannot speak for all races, sorry. I think I made it confusing by saying 6 not 7. Oops.

You run Class 1 right? Not PX?

[Ratickle]

scott let me tell you from experiance we ( svl) changed a lot of rules this year in an effort to get some other boats to come , ( the one,s that gave us an exceuse y they dont come) after we changed the rules for them ! #1 they didn,t show up anyway # 2 the guys that were already there had to change their boats , # 3 the class went from 8 to 10 boats down to three 3 , my point has always been,,,,, hand out the rules , period,,,, if someone wants to race READ the rules and build to fit in,,, we screwd our class up real bad this year for people who talk a lot then don,t do anything but bench race and complain,,, it,s got so bad if you try to build a new boat ,,, the rules will be different when your done . i suggest you leave well enough alone, don,t listen to someone that doesn,t have a dog in this fight, i know your trying to better your classes but ,,??????? good luck with what ever direction u choose

We raced with you in St Clair as did Chris. Thanks for making that adjustment. If Dave would of had the bigger prop, and the belt wouldn't have gone bad so we had to slow every time it overheated, we'd have been in there closer. I'd love to take another stab at it someday.....

As far as rules, I would love to see a adaptation where they cannot be changed unless 3/4 of those who participated in at least 3/4 of the races the previous year voted to do so.

[Wahoo 214]

Way do you think there is a problem with P Class? It is the largest Org, group of racers and I really don't hear them ***** like all the spec guys. Why would you even think you can "fix" something that isn't broken.

[skaterdave]

You run Class 1 right? Not PX?

currently i run keyboard-class. it's quite in-expensive and and i can give myself my own checkered flags ???????

honestly i think PX has hurt the sport more than anything and that the current speed of close too 200 mph are going to bite offshore in the azz sooner or later. there was a reason that they had 150 mph rule.

no-offense to the spec guys but as we've seen theres no consistancy between the orgs which makes tech even more difficult.

someone need to build a mobile dyno that can hookup at the prop shaft, then run hp to weight class and use a handicap system for those with more technologicly advance boats. for instance we all know that the new 388 skaters are faster than its older cousins like whm's 40 (hull to hull comparison) so even with equal hp the 388's are faster and the 40 should get something to help make it more competive. agian like sweetdude stated, the reality of offshore is that its club racing and need to be fun and fair. or else no one new is going to come and play. this to me is the problem with spec class racing its really for fun and those with alot of money are going to be able to keep buying new boats and spend money to be #1. this takes the fun out of it and the others leave. kinda of like the current mess

[DAREDEVIL]

OK I'll bite

30 feet max- 80 mph single engine
90 mph
105 mph

The current P5 class is 75 mph with max length of 30, now your asking those that have built a boat for the class, to bump up speed as well as compete with SVL's, etc With lack of participation unfortunately he is doing away with the SVL class again and where would they fit under your self serving rules, DD?

You claim that your boat ran 90 something when it was an "A' boat, so I guess its time to step up, I am sure your "technical consultant" could help you! If breaking down 96.5% of the time is fun for you, then could I advise some psychological treatment?

Don't worry DD, I dont have a dog in the fight anymore, YOU have successfully run me off !!! Congrats..... ok now go ahead and get your last word in, you always do!

Trent,,,,do u really think the P5 boats we have curently in SBI are NOT cabable of running 80 MPH ?????

Also what do u mean by I RAN U OFF ?????

3rd. do u whant to be my therapist ???LOL

[DAREDEVIL]

AGAIN PEOPLE ,,THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME,,,,i am posting this to give teams a heads up on the coming deal and would like to get a meeting in KW to talk about it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!


I DON'T CARE , even if i have to run p1 with my boat ,,,it will not make me feel bad.
I go and have fun .

[glassdave]

Good thoughts Dave, personally I'm fine at 115 and its really the sweet spot for this heavy 'ol boat although running 117 in sbi was fine to so at that point i guess I'm just splitting hairs. Even still I'm fine at 115, we blow up enough sh!t at that speed

In Patchogue they did run SCL with us which was great. Teague broke out but we did get around Motley. For the most part we've been working toward less classes and its only when a boat clearly does not fit in 6-1 that we run special classes or there enough boats to have their own class.

[Ratickle]

Way do you think there is a problem with P Class? It is the largest Org, group of racers and I really don't hear them ***** like all the spec guys. Why would you even think you can "fix" something that isn't broken.

I think OPA is the fastest growing, has the most paticipation, and Classes 5 and 6 have the greatest number of participants. If there is going to be a discussion of P classes in Key West, the OPA results cannot be ignored. But, it sure seems the different orgs, if things are to be discussed, should try to standardize, not tweak seperately.

[DAREDEVIL]

Way do you think there is a problem with P Class? It is the largest Org, group of racers and I really don't hear them ***** like all the spec guys. Why would you even think you can "fix" something that isn't broken.

Dean,,,your right in OPA,,but SBI does not have the amount of boats in Fl and down here,,,we have to do something to make it competitive for all.

When we had the race in MC ,,where where all the P boats from OPA ???

The rules where the same exsept NO p6 !!!!! mmmhhhh.

[DAREDEVIL]

I think OPA is the fastest growing, has the most paticipation, and Classes 5 and 6 have the greatest number of participants. If there is going to be a discussion of P classes in Key West, the OPA results cannot be ignored. But, it sure seems the different orgs, if things are to be discussed, should try to standardize, not tweak seperately.

Paul,,,we did for 2009 and NOBODY SHOWED UP !!!!!!!!!!!!!????????

Sorry, SIMMONS did !!!!!

We had 5 boats ,,dialed in to our old rules 82 and changed it to 85 ,,for 1 boat ??????

[skaterdave]

i'm with wahoo, all of opa's p classes are by far the best thing going in offshore so why would they want to change, unless a majority of those racers in that class had a specific need? one example would be the new sv/bravo class and that was a majority vote to better the competition with those guys that raced that year.

[Ratickle]

In Patchogue they did run SCL with us which was great. Teague broke out but we did get around Motley.

I did not know that. Cool.....

How many PX boats are there????? I did not recall any lately except Cat Can DO at St clair.

[DAREDEVIL]

[QUOTE=glassdave;343044]
For the most part we've been working toward less classes

THATS THE GOAL !!!!!!!!!