Is the OB class doomed?

not sure where you get you $700 from? They are $860AUD which is $570USD (plus postage) is still pretty cheap really IMO...you get a motor, hardware and a pipe, even a prop and flex shaft!

Anyway, people need to just understand that if people want to do this hobby, they will. The internet is a wonderful thing, where people can search for things like this. The problem is that a lot of clubs say things like 'you should sell that POS and get a gas boat' or similar...

Might sound pessimistic, but there is no point worrying too much about it...just keep having fun doing what you do and that is all that matters!

Last I looked the OS is $725 at Tower H. Is there another complete OB readily available? Hard to get new racers that also need to piece meal together something.

Kris, because today in 2024, 700 creates more stress then 570. Lack of research or tweakening the truth is what is important in this arena if you want to make a point. When people let go of the fact that motors are no longer 125 bucks like they were when they first got into the HOBBY... LIKE EVERYHTING else.. Futaba Mag Jr was 70 bucks.. Fuel was 18bucks a gal, Plugs 1.25 each.. Hot Shot kit 69 bucks.

TO ME.. the REAL deal is humanity's time being wasted on a phone. We are cyborgs to our devices.

SET THE PHONE DOWN,.. and watch your interests flourish. Sure.. Use it to research, learn, connect.. but to just watch somebody else enjoy the hobby... silly..

BUILD A BOAT, Get together with friends, ENJOY, teach and learn.

Grim

All,

I have only been in the hobby for 5 years and have a passion for outboards. To give you all an idea, to build a decent gas hull that is fast and reliable will set you back around $2500 to $3000 aud complete with a basic remote. now plenty of guys will persist in buying someone else's crap for $1000 to $1500 and persist with it constantly playing up and either leave the hobby or do it the right way and build a new hull at the large cost. When we consider this larger cost, you can build a 3.5 nitro hull for this. Where it becomes hard is what's required to building it. if it's a timber kit it's a lot of work and for a glass hull here they are pretty much no existent.

I have been importing gas hulls into Australia for the last 3 years and sell a complete built boat that is race ready for under $2500 aud. this has not only been a great success for the hobby here but also getting new guys into the sport. My plan next is to look at outboard tunnels and try and push complete boats ready to race. I think this is really the only way to get the new or younger guys into the outboards.

I was lucky enough to have 3 guys share their massive amount of knowledge when i first started getting into this hobby and Kris was a massive part in this and still is. If we want the class to survive i think it is on us all to help out and push it.

Cheers
Neal

We have 8 signed up for our race coming up. Not dead. I thinks it depends on your area.

We have to ask ourselves the question: How do successful clubs get so many people involved in their events? For example, the VooDoo Club has huge turnouts to their races. How does this happen?

The answer to this question has nothing to do with model boats. VooDoo puts a LOT of effort into hospitality and comradery both at races and sometimes even practice days. They pay attention when someone new comes along and may look interested. They make sure to take the time to stop what they are doing, find out what he or she may be interested in and make sure that that person does not leave without having had someone who is there to answer questions about getting started. This is how to grow classes and have huge turnouts for events.

Outboard guys need to notice who shows up at the pond and be ready to stop and spend a little time talking to them. Maybe even have a flyer made up that list all the outboard classes that are commonly raced at your site with a couple of cell numbers so that they can be helped by people who actually know something about outboards if they have any questions. They need someone to tell them what classes are popular at your site so that they don't build something into a class that nobody runs. They would most likely get bored and quit if that happened.

Recruiting takes time and class direction is very important to keep interest up. You need to be ready to direct them to where they can buy the components needed to rig out their boats. Stuff they can actually buy new off the shelf.

If your club wants to grow outboard classes this upfront club member effort along with some outboard class direction of "what is still available to purchase new" will pay off and grow outboards at your site.

Florida had all kinds of tunnel boat racing some time ago, and then simply died, but because of some folks who have an interest in bringing it back, there may be a resurgence of it soon at least in Sport B Tunnel! I have no idea how much it will catch on in this lousy economy and what appears to be so little equipment to pick from, but thanks to a few people who wont give in, at least more effort is being made than just talking about it. I will say that i just built a Zipp Kits G30 just in hopes that something like this might happen! Ron, Eric, Gene and anyone else that might be involved in this little endeavor, many thanks!

So, what it comes down to and probably always has...

Is get out there, run your outboards, show that you are having fun and people will want to join you in having fun...then some racing can spawn from that.

Do your best to promote, include and show support where possible to get new or old (not age, just past racers lol) people into the outboard scene.

There are options that are pretty easily obtained, OS for Sport/Stock and the BP racing for the mod class. Use either the car pipe setup with the BP or get the traditional "j" pipe setup and start testing and tuning


On a side note...there are plenty of people building 4S outboard tunnels, so that is a scene that needs to be nurtured, they could be brought across to the dark side of nitro boating with some guidance

Neal Hyland said:

All,

I have only been in the hobby for 5 years and have a passion for outboards. To give you all an idea, to build a decent gas hull that is fast and reliable will set you back around $2500 to $3000 aud complete with a basic remote. now plenty of guys will persist in buying someone else's crap for $1000 to $1500 and persist with it constantly playing up and either leave the hobby or do it the right way and build a new hull at the large cost. When we consider this larger cost, you can build a 3.5 nitro hull for this. Where it becomes hard is what's required to building it. if it's a timber kit it's a lot of work and for a glass hull here they are pretty much no existent.

I have been importing gas hulls into Australia for the last 3 years and sell a complete built boat that is race ready for under $2500 aud. this has not only been a great success for the hobby here but also getting new guys into the sport. My plan next is to look at outboard tunnels and try and push complete boats ready to race. I think this is really the only way to get the new or younger guys into the outboards.

I was lucky enough to have 3 guys share their massive amount of knowledge when i first started getting into this hobby and Kris was a massive part in this and still is. If we want the class to survive i think it is on us all to help out and push it.

Cheers
Neal

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Hi Neal,,Are you the guy I met at the Lansvale lake about a month ago? I had a yellow sprintcat

Yes Rod that would be me

Neal Hyland said:

Yes Rod that would be me

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Hey cool,,you guys have some nice boats,,I forgot your mate's name,,That big gorgeous tunnel with the 35 on it was crazy lol,,Iv'e been waiting for the rain to stop/dry out and go for a run,I worry about getting bogged driving in/out to the lake,Have you had any probs in the past?

Rod Fonda said:

Hey cool,,you guys have some nice boats,,I forgot your mate's name,,That big gorgeous tunnel with the 35 on it was crazy lol,,Iv'e been waiting for the rain to stop/dry out and go for a run,I worry about getting bogged driving in/out to the lake,Have you had any probs in the past?

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It completely closed off now. You can no longer access it.

Neal Hyland said:

It completely closed off now. You can no longer access it.

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Oh bummer,,thanks for that Neal,,,,,sorry to hijack the thread folks

I was thinking the other day and.....this is simply my thinking put into words here, not a proposal. So, since the lack of engines, especially the larger nitro outboards has resulted in basically no participation in E and F outboard and very little in D, why don't we consider a whole different approach to 'grouping' nitro outboards.

This idea eliminates engine classes. Instead, the divisions are created by hull size. The first class would be up to 30 inch. Second class would be 31 to 36 inch and the biggest class would be anything over 36 inches.

Keep in mind you can use any size engine in any of the classes. The only limit is the F class displacement cap. It is obvious that the first class would be filled with B class engines. If you want to put a D engine on a B size boat, go ahead but that is usually a waste of time and effort. The second class is where you will get a myriad of engines and even multi engine boats if one chooses to do so. This class is where an unlimited choice of nitro engine power would compete. The last and biggest class would most likely suffer with poor numbers since it would be the hulls to take the most power. An option would be to allow gas in this hull class. Personally, I would allow any hull design in all three divisions. If you want to have specialty hull classes...have them. That would create more interest and fun. I don't expect this idea would be 'sanctioned' but it could be done at a club level. Something needs to happen.

why not group all of the boats together, kind of like IMSA does with their racing, all run together in same heat, have B class winner, C class winner and D class winner, all in the same heat.

that would allow low boat count classes to run. the only problem is with the smaller boats running in the large boat wake and how rough the water gets with the larger boats.

At least people are starting to think about this and talk...this is good.

Has anyone spent the time to document a cheat sheet on available hulls, engines, basic setups? I know Kris likely has something for his Dragon hulls, but are there others? I have produced something similar for FE classes where I give a list with links to motors, ESC's, lipos, etc and identified what type of set up is for example an entry level conservative, an aggressive heat race setup or a SAW setup.

Most of the sponsored car guys publish setup sheets which gets a noobie a pretty good starting point and perhaps more importantly a little confidence to show up a track and race.

RaceMechaniX said:

Has anyone spent the time to document a cheat sheet on available hulls, engines, basic setups? I know Kris likely has something for his Dragon hulls, but are there others? I have produced something similar for FE classes where I give a list with links to motors, ESC's, lipos, etc and identified what type of set up is for example an entry level conservative, an aggressive heat race setup or a SAW setup.

Most of the sponsored car guys publish setup sheets which gets a noobie a pretty good starting point and perhaps more importantly a little confidence to show up a track and race.

Click to expand...

This is a great idea. As I mentioned above, what I found is new people coming into the hobby have no idea and don't even know where to start.

What I did with the gas hulls in Australia really took off, and I know it will with the outboards. Unfortunately it just takes time from someone who wants to give back as its not a big money maker. I hope to have something available by the end of the year which will be a 3.5 hull with os setup and be ready to run. Price point in Australia will be around $1600 complete.

Once people get into it with a very reliable engine like the os they will want to go faster and have learnt enough to then start looking at building faster and bigger boats.

Rick Sowell said:

why not group all of the boats together, kind of like IMSA does with their racing, all run together in same heat, have B class winner, C class winner and D class winner, all in the same heat.

that would allow low boat count classes to run. the only problem is with the smaller boats running in the large boat wake and how rough the water gets with the larger boats.

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The other problem with a single group is OB racers historically run multiple classes. This is where we had numbers. That said keep the ideas coming.
Mic

I personally believe we just have way to many options in all three disciplines and it's completely watered down all but the strongest of classes.
Joining the two organizations may help as well, there's just not that many people serious about racing.