Andy this sounds really cool but if you go to a back up boat you should still lose your points. I can't afford to have back up boats just sitting around as I'm sure many other racers will agree.
Jeff,
I'm glad you like the format. We are still adjusting it. I hope to see you here. It will be a great race. We are working out the details and more information will be available soon.
Jeff, these are my thoughts on back up boats.
IMPBA use to have a 2 boat rule for the US-1 classes. The very reason was so that the guys with all of the knowledge, money and time could not enter every class and walk away with all of the trophies. I thought it was a good idea because I saw the results from the Baltimore, Md. NAMBA nats when I was first getting into boating back in about 1972. Herb and Ricki Stewart won 80% of the trophies.
At least it seemed like that many. They had a truck load of boats and they both got trophies in a bunch of classes.
Some years later IMPBA decided to allow multiple boats to be entered into US-1 classes by one contestant. Seems like they did this when Internats entries became less in the 1990's. ??? So today there are no limits on how many boats an IMPBA member can enter in a race or the IMPBA Internats.
Jeff, you and I both know at least a couple of very good racers that show up at the races with 12 boats. And sometimes they leave the race with nearly as many trophies.
You and I and a bunch of other guys can't afford to support more than 1 or 2 or maybe 3 boats to race. So where is the fairness with these "deep pocket", "12 boat" guys? Are you and other racers questioning the fairness in racers showing up with 12 boats?
Jeff, my purpose in allowing back up boats is for the UNLIKELY event that someone's boat becomes severely damaged to the point of putting him out of the race.
He came to race and we are putting on a race to have full heats, full of good competitive race boats. Not to have a guy side lined and not to see how many heats we can combine because of attrition.
There are racers that will travel a long distance for this race. What if a guy comes from Australia or Europe and his boat gets cut in half in the first heat? What do we say? "Sorry bud, get on the plane and go home because IMPBA has this "deep pocket" rule, so your done? "
"Oh and BTW Mr. Australian, It is ok with the IMPBA if you had entered 11 high dollar, custom built, best of everything boats, but if you bring two average boats and your old 15 year old beater as a back up in case some guy looses radio and cuts your good boat in half, sorry but you can't do that!"
Jeff, I have raced at the NAVIGA world champs several times. They allow back up boats. Some racers, but not most, do bring back up boats. I can not say that I have seen the ability to run a back up boat give anyone an unfair advantage.
Someone here will say: "But if a guy can bring two boats for every class he could have a rough water boat and a calm water boat. That would be an unfair advantage." I guess he could. But would he be any different than the guy that entered 12 classes? Well, I guess he would if he entered 12 classes and brought 24 boats!
The bottom line is this. I see allowing a back up boat as a practical solution to the guy that says, "Well I don't know if I want to travel 10,000 miles to a race in which I could get side lined if my only two boats get destroyed." My answer to him is, "bring your two boats". "If they get destroyed we will find you two more boats that are not being raced by another competitor so you can continue in this competition."
Is that not what happens at any give race when someone breaks an engine, losses a shaft, folds a prop, explodes a sponson, looses a cowl...and another competitor walks up and says, "here ya go!" "I have a spare cowl you can borrow. Can I help you get it mounted?"
Well in the case of my race, you can loan your competitor your spare boat if his sinks in 60' of water!
