Let's talk SVL's!!! 2010 is coming fast!

[saratoga stampede]

Not for sure how a boat can be determined a "Favorite". when it has only participated once, and still being developed?
Polls with a small "n" have little value,,, but look what happened at the last US presidential election, despite the biased polls!

I did not originally have Sunny Isles on my schedule , I was scheduled for call coverage that weekend, still trying to sort out alternatives.

We are planning on supporting the race event this weekend in Cumberland.with a pair of boats.

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

http://www.seriousoffshore.com/forum...ad.php?t=17384 is the poll I mentioned.

You were fast out of the box. I expect to see you with a flag soon..

Best of luck this weekend. My personal favorites to win in Sunny Isle are Progressive and Sun Print.. . I hope to see your boat there.

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

with a pair of boats.

So there is some truth in the rumor mill? Or do you mean the two you brought to Biloxi?

[Dunbar 104]

In 2-3ft water, I think every current boat is capable of winning.

Don't count us out yet.

[Dunbar 104]

Playing secret, secret to much sometimes turns racers into spectators on race day.

[Steve Miklos]

Wow jimmy, played like the Fountain guy you are.
Stever

[Mike A.]

Wow jimmy, played like the Fountain guy you are.
Stever

Hey George, you need a new driver.

Hey Jimmy, have you heard that the new Fountain is coming out of the 35' mold too?

[Mike A.]

What happened to my earlier post?

[DAREDEVIL]

Hey George, you need a new driver.

Hey Jimmy, have you heard that the new Fountain is coming out of the 35' mold too?

Mike , 33 mold !!!!!!

[Mike A.]

Mike , 33 mold !!!!!!

I am betting the next Fountain SVL comes from the 35' mold because of the current rule that permits 32' boats. This is what happens when rules are written in a crayon held by Mike Tomlinson. It went on for years before I took over APBA and removed him from that process, but those old days are back. Where did all the homologation rules, which were put in the book years ago, disappear to anyway, and when did they disappear?

As I said, if the current SVL fleet does not put its collective foot down now, their boats will be obsolete and worthless by the end of this year and there will be 3-4 boats next year.

This P1 thing is laughable and will be the death knell for what should have been a fun class for the next few years. Think about it. P1 started out as a great class because it was based originally on the old Factory 2 premise which allowed old boats to come back and race. Within 2 years they allowed high tech canopy boats in and now P1 overseas is all but gone. The same thing is going to happen here with the SVL class. I guarantee it.

A suggestion: Form a club among the current "old boat" teams, create a set of rules that require homologation of new boats, and then ask Smitty to recognize your club as the official SVL organization, then race OPA events.

[RumRunner]

History repeats itself:

Does anyone remember when this happened to A-Class? You had tons of boats running A, then the canopy boats came in because it was “Safer”… Yes it was, but it relegated the entire fleet to pleasure boats or to be sitting in someone’s yard for decades. A-Class was then growing strong again with new breed of Phantoms, Extremes, and it seemed every builder was trying something. Remember Rick’s boat with the #5 with tilt, and trim? Remember Nemshoff’s Buzzi (One of my favorite boats of all time)??? Then the class had a chance to come back again as SVL with some interesting rules that would have allowed smaller teams to buy older engines from SV & SC teams or put together their own program with a local engine builder. Unfortunately (again IMO) the decision was made to go to a spec engine in this class. I believe the spec style engines limit as many people to entering a class as it helps as I’ve seen in many other forms of motorsports. That aside, SVL has since grown into one of the more popular classes under today’s racing, and economic environment so why would you want to ruin that? Opening up the class to new hull designs that would relegate the entire fleet into pleasure boats makes absolutely no sense to me or anyone else. Just as bad is having an individual, or manufacture devote time and money into design of a boat that will then be worthless if you rule them out of the class. As in other forms of motorsports course conditions, setup, and driver/throttle man skill will play a major role in the outcome there should hopefully be enough races with varying conditions, and hopefully varying conditions throughout the race weekend and even the race to allow each style to have a competitive shot at winning throughout the year. No better way to lose people than to have them spend lots of money and not have a chance to run competitively.

[Mike A.]

History repeats itself:

Does anyone remember when this happened to A-Class? You had tons of boats running A, then the canopy boats came in because it was “Safer”… Yes it was, but it relegated the entire fleet to pleasure boats or to be sitting in someone’s yard for decades. A-Class was then growing strong again with new breed of Phantoms, Extremes, and it seemed every builder was trying something. Remember Rick’s boat with the #5 with tilt, and trim? Remember Nemshoff’s Buzzi (One of my favorite boats of all time)??? Then the class had a chance to come back again as SVL with some interesting rules that would have allowed smaller teams to buy older engines from SV & SC teams or put together their own program with a local engine builder. Unfortunately (again IMO) the decision was made to go to a spec engine in this class. I believe the spec style engines limit as many people to entering a class as it helps as I’ve seen in many other forms of motorsports. That aside, SVL has since grown into one of the more popular classes under today’s racing, and economic environment so why would you want to ruin that? Opening up the class to new hull designs that would relegate the entire fleet into pleasure boats makes absolutely no sense to me or anyone else. Just as bad is having an individual, or manufacture devote time and money into design of a boat that will then be worthless if you rule them out of the class. As in other forms of motorsports course conditions, setup, and driver/throttle man skill will play a major role in the outcome there should hopefully be enough races with varying conditions, and hopefully varying conditions throughout the race weekend and even the race to allow each style to have a competitive shot at winning throughout the year. No better way to lose people than to have them spend lots of money and not have a chance to run competitively.

[imco offshore]

I,M NOT GOING TO LOOSE THIS CLASS , I WON,T LET IT GET BEAT DOWN , OR HAVE A TEAM WANT TO LEAVE BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT HAVING FUN ANY MORE !


Super Vee Lite Class
Mission Statement

The Super Vee Lite class is designed as an owners’ organization whereby we form our own rules that the Sanctioning bodies that we race with are asked to enforce. Our class is designed to be the least expensive way to get into Offshore Powerboat Racing within the confines of a fully canopied vee hulled boat. The object of this class is to provide new and old hull designs the ability to run at very similar speeds where the Driver and Throttleman’s ability is more responsible for boat position than the hull design.
While we understand that newer and potentially faster equipment will continually enter our class, we can’t allow older boats in the class to become obsolete, or lose them to Performance Class Racing. It is our goal to always allow new technology in hull and propeller design while finding a way to keep all of the teams on a level playing field so that no one can outspend someone else in order to win.
In our class, the best prepared team with the greatest driving skills will be the ultimate winner at each race, not the equipment. THANKS GEORGE JR

[Mike A.]

I,M NOT GOING TO LOOSE THIS CLASS , I WON,T LET IT GET BEAT DOWN , OR HAVE A TEAM WANT TO LEAVE BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT HAVING FUN ANY MORE !


Super Vee Lite Class
Mission Statement

The Super Vee Lite class is designed as an owners’ organization whereby we form our own rules that the Sanctioning bodies that we race with are asked to enforce. Our class is designed to be the least expensive way to get into Offshore Powerboat Racing within the confines of a fully canopied vee hulled boat. The object of this class is to provide new and old hull designs the ability to run at very similar speeds where the Driver and Throttleman’s ability is more responsible for boat position than the hull design.
While we understand that newer and potentially faster equipment will continually enter our class, we can’t allow older boats in the class to become obsolete, or lose them to Performance Class Racing. It is our goal to always allow new technology in hull and propeller design while finding a way to keep all of the teams on a level playing field so that no one can outspend someone else in order to win.
In our class, the best prepared team with the greatest driving skills will be the ultimate winner at each race, not the equipment. THANKS GEORGE JR

George, being a leader of anything in Offshore is tough, trust me, I understand that better than most. You are learning the truth of what I said a couple of weeks ago here the hard way, but that is OK. Doc declared his own boat illegal under the SBI rules he cited in his email to you. Plant your feet buddy and lead. Do not let history repeat itself for the sake of all the racers who trusted you to make SVL fun and protect their investments.

[RumRunner]

I,M NOT GOING TO LOOSE THIS CLASS , I WON,T LET IT GET BEAT DOWN , OR HAVE A TEAM WANT TO LEAVE BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT HAVING FUN ANY MORE !


Super Vee Lite Class
Mission Statement

The Super Vee Lite class is designed as an owners’ organization whereby we form our own rules that the Sanctioning bodies that we race with are asked to enforce. Our class is designed to be the least expensive way to get into Offshore Powerboat Racing within the confines of a fully canopied vee hulled boat. The object of this class is to provide new and old hull designs the ability to run at very similar speeds where the Driver and Throttleman’s ability is more responsible for boat position than the hull design.
While we understand that newer and potentially faster equipment will continually enter our class, we can’t allow older boats in the class to become obsolete, or lose them to Performance Class Racing. It is our goal to always allow new technology in hull and propeller design while finding a way to keep all of the teams on a level playing field so that no one can outspend someone else in order to win.
In our class, the best prepared team with the greatest driving skills will be the ultimate winner at each race, not the equipment. THANKS GEORGE JR

George,
I wish you the best of luck with it. One suggestion I would make, is to have a game plan outlined now to level the field in the future if need be. Sort of like insurance, we all hope that it’s not needed, but knowing what will happen in case of an emergency makes it a little better when we have to deal with it. My reasoning is that other forms of motorsports that have to deal with similar situations inevitably do not have a game plan set out prior to a change, and the teams who are “Re-adjusted” always seem to feel they are being picked on. I know that the hydroplane guys had some sort of deal (heck they may still do it) based on fuel flow to their turbines. If the parameters for some sort of adjustment or written out so all of the participants (and more importantly future participants) know ahead of time what constitutes a situation that the group would have to make some sort of decision, and how the decisions would be made it would eliminate all of the BS.

[Mike A.]

George,
I wish you the best of luck with it. One suggestion I would make, is to have a game plan outlined now to level the field in the future if need be. Sort of like insurance, we all hope that it’s not needed, but knowing what will happen in case of an emergency makes it a little better when we have to deal with it. My reasoning is that other forms of motorsports that have to deal with similar situations inevitably do not have a game plan set out prior to a change, and the teams who are “Re-adjusted” always seem to feel they are being picked on. I know that the hydroplane guys had some sort of deal (heck they may still do it) based on fuel flow to their turbines. If the parameters for some sort of adjustment or written out so all of the participants (and more importantly future participants) know ahead of time what constitutes a situation that the group would have to make some sort of decision, and how the decisions would be made it would eliminate all of the BS.

Solution - Adopt the 2003 LLC SVL rules, lower max length to 30' and be done with it.

[Sean Stinson]

I am betting the next Fountain SVL comes from the 35' mold because of the current rule that permits 32' boats. This is what happens when rules are written in a crayon held by Mike Tomlinson. It went on for years before I took over APBA and removed him from that process, but those old days are back. Where did all the homologation rules, which were put in the book years ago, disappear to anyway, and when did they disappear?

As I said, if the current SVL fleet does not put its collective foot down now, their boats will be obsolete and worthless by the end of this year and there will be 3-4 boats next year.

This P1 thing is laughable and will be the death knell for what should have been a fun class for the next few years. Think about it. P1 started out as a great class because it was based originally on the old Factory 2 premise which allowed old boats to come back and race. Within 2 years they allowed high tech canopy boats in and now P1 overseas is all but gone. The same thing is going to happen here with the SVL class. I guarantee it.

A suggestion: Form a club among the current "old boat" teams, create a set of rules that require homologation of new boats, and then ask Smitty to recognize your club as the official SVL organization, then race OPA events.

Now there's the voice of positivity.......

[imco offshore]

their was a unanimous vote june 3 at 8;30 pm to limit the length to 30'
despite after thoughts and consultation,

[mdkeywest]

so where does that leave the new fountain?

[imco offshore]

he is fine 29'6''