State of Affairs for RC Boat Racing

[Hydro Junkie]

And, while I agree with you to a point, Tom, I do have to disagree the costs to the racer are the same in a one day event or a weekend. Travel costs won't change, for the most part, other than driving back and forth between your place of lodging and the race site. Lodging, however, will increase for every night you stay. By the time you add taxes and fees, you could be looking at anywhere between $100 and $200 per night, depending on the location and the type of lodging. That can quickly add up to be a considerable amount. You also have to look at food and drinks. Unless you have a way to bring your food and drinks from home, you can plan on $10 to $30 per meal which, again, adds up very quickly. For me to go to a race outside of western Washington, I can easily figure on $300 for a two day race IF I stay at a hotel. IF I drag my camp trailer along, I'm still looking at doubling my fuel costs and probably paying at least $25 per night for a campsite in a campground.

 

[Don Ferrette]

"Lodging, however, will increase for every night you stay. By the time you add taxes and fees, you could be looking at anywhere between $100 and $200 per night, depending on the location and the type of lodging."

Where the hell do you stay for $200 a night????? About the only time I top $100 a night is staying at the Hilton for the IndyMasters. Most other nicer hotels will run $70-$80 a night at best and the cheapies are in the $50-$60 range. Must be a west coast thing...............

 

[Robert Pickard]

I stay in Tampa at LaQuinta at 50 a night

 

[Bradley Maglinger]

I just like to race

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Long Beach Hilton, when we stayed there in 2009, averaged $185 per night for four nights. Greektown Casino and Hotel in Detroit in 2011 averaged out for the same amount of time at $165. What I'm saying is that lodging isn't cheap enough to be considered an "inconsequential" cost. By the time I get to a race site, check into a hotel, race for a day or two and drive home, I can easily have spent as much as $500 between gas, food and hotel costs. A longer racing event or further distance could jack that up even more. Just to race in Ellensburg WA a few years ago cost me a tank of gas at roughly $50, $129 per night for a local hotel before taxes and fees, $60 for food and $20 for entrance fees. When I take my trailer, it's two tanks of gas or $100, $25 plus tax per night for a partial hookup at the local KOA, food is from home so no extra costs there, and $20 entrance fee. That's still $175 to $200 for a weekend or one full day's wages which, if I don't work for at least four days a week, becomes very cost prohibitive

 

[JimZaremski]

People who race only make up a small section of the boating hobby, I have seen a lot of people worry about something not being impba legal vs helping a person out. For example on a forum someone asked if a certain motor would work good in a cracker box. One of the first comments was, that is not impba legal. Person never even mentioned that they where going to race, sometimes it seems sport boaters are not in the same group of people.

That's because they where given a realistic answer, most people want to race there friends, and then It grows from there, so instead of them wasting time and money, and a cd telling them they can't race because of a wrong motor now they have several more options.

No, that's an example of "answering a different question than was asked."

 

[Ray Sametz]

Long Beach Hilton, when we stayed there in 2009, averaged $185 per night for four nights. Greektown Casino and Hotel in Detroit in 2011 averaged out for the same amount of time at $165. What I'm saying is that lodging isn't cheap enough to be considered an "inconsequential" cost. By the time I get to a race site, check into a hotel, race for a day or two and drive home, I can easily have spent as much as $500 between gas, food and hotel costs. A longer racing event or further distance could jack that up even more. Just to race in Ellensburg WA a few years ago cost me a tank of gas at roughly $50, $129 per night for a local hotel before taxes and fees, $60 for food and $20 for entrance fees. When I take my trailer, it's two tanks of gas or $100, $25 plus tax per night for a partial hookup at the local KOA, food is from home so no extra costs there, and $20 entrance fee. That's still $175 to $200 for a weekend or one full day's wages which, if I don't work for at least four days a week, becomes very cost prohibitive

Lost wages, you can't count that, you build boats at work!!!!!!!!!

Sorry MD could not help myself.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I wasn't counting lost wages, I was saying the cost of going to a race in Eastern Washington is the same as what I earn in a day. Since the powers that be have cut us back to no more than four days per week, that equates to 25% of one weeks wages. That can be a serious hit on the budget

 

[Tom Foley]

I wasn't counting lost wages, I was saying the cost of going to a race in Eastern Washington is the same as what I earn in a day. Since the powers that be have cut us back to no more than four days per week, that equates to 25% of one weeks wages. That can be a serious hit on the budget

You don't want to see my W-2's since 2009 . Somehow I make it happen , not sure how . I race maybe 5 times a year . I am fortunate to have a wife who works and contributes to the nightmare . It is what it is to use an overplayed phrase . There is no holy grail to race appeal and attendance . I'd love to have a 24 Skater with twin 300's but it's not happening . I drive a well cared for van with 376,000 miles and I'm OK with that . We do what we can . Merry Christmas !

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I know that feeling. Just got my schedule for January, Every week after this one, through the end of January is three days but one, where I get four. That doesn't include the week between Christmas and New Years where it's an unpaid work shutdown. I figure I'll have to wait until the start of the racing season to see how many races I'll be able to go to and hope I get more days added. I'm looking at probably an 11 race season where, work depending, I might make half. Guess it's a wait and see.

Happy Holidays

 

[RonShaw]

I wasn't counting lost wages, I was saying the cost of going to a race in Eastern Washington is the same as what I earn in a day. Since the powers that be have cut us back to no more than four days per week, that equates to 25% of one weeks wages. That can be a serious hit on the budget

You don't want to see my W-2's since 2009 . Somehow I make it happen , not sure how . I race maybe 5 times a year . I am fortunate to have a wife who works and contributes to the nightmare . It is what it is to use an overplayed phrase . There is no holy grail to race appeal and attendance . I'd love to have a 24 Skater with twin 300's but it's not happening . I drive a well cared for van with 376,000 miles and I'm OK with that . We do what we can . Merry Christmas !

Great points Foley!!! Lets go race and have some fun!!!! You coming to the Nats in Huntsville?

 

[PaulHail]

I know I'm brining back an old thread, but I can share some parallels with kart racing and what I saw that seemed to work well and attract racers.

One of the biggest things that made karting accessible to the newby was a healthy supply of used karts on the market. The thought of dropping $7-10+k on a new kart and engine package would keep most people out of the hobby, but when you could pick up a used kart with engine and maybe a few spares for $1500-2500 it was worth taking the plunge. Especially when you figured if you raced for a season and didn't care for it you could sell your outfit for roughly what you had in it.

While decent used rc boat race packages show up now and then, there just simply isn't the same ease of getting a used outfit to get going. Looking at ebay most of the used rc boats are either toys, are poorly built and belong in the trash and are often over priced. For those that aren't overly mechanically inclined or don't have a selection of tools at home, building a kit, mounting the engine and hardware and getting an engine installed and running reliably is pretty daunting.

As someone previously mentioned, how accessible is water to test and tune? I'm fortunate where I live now to have several lakes I can use (when thawed) that are 1/2-1 hour from home. I didn't have many places to run where I grew up and I'm sure it's worse now with noise issues. With karting I was a member of a club with a dedicated track I could test at anytime I could get out to the track without noise concerns or being hassled by a ranger, cop etc.

As are as too many classes, when interest in a class wanes the race organizers need to be willing to pull the plug on a class or classes, or combine classes so that the guys that run the oddball stuff still have a class to run in. If the number of classes offered is just impractical to run in a weekend then consider breaking up by hull styles. Have a hydro only race, and a deep V and mono only race.

Just a couple thoughts

 

[bzubee]

I wasn't counting lost wages, I was saying the cost of going to a race in Eastern Washington is the same as what I earn in a day. Since the powers that be have cut us back to no more than four days per week, that equates to 25% of one weeks wages. That can be a serious hit on the budget

You don't want to see my W-2's since 2009 . Somehow I make it happen , not sure how . I race maybe 5 times a year . I am fortunate to have a wife who works and contributes to the nightmare . It is what it is to use an overplayed phrase . There is no holy grail to race appeal and attendance . I'd love to have a 24 Skater with twin 300's but it's not happening . I drive a well cared for van with 376,000 miles and I'm OK with that . We do what we can . Merry Christmas !

Great points Foley!!! Lets go race and have some fun!!!! You coming to the Nats in Huntsville?

Should be a great turn out and for the racers that are not interested in the US1 award you can always just enter the heat racing events and still win a National Champion award and only have 3 or 4 days invested depending th eclasses you plan to run. Check the heat racing schedule at http://racemastersevents.com/event-list.php

 

[Andy Brown]

I wasn't counting lost wages, I was saying the cost of going to a race in Eastern Washington is the same as what I earn in a day. Since the powers that be have cut us back to no more than four days per week, that equates to 25% of one weeks wages. That can be a serious hit on the budget

You don't want to see my W-2's since 2009 . Somehow I make it happen , not sure how . I race maybe 5 times a year . I am fortunate to have a wife who works and contributes to the nightmare . It is what it is to use an overplayed phrase . There is no holy grail to race appeal and attendance . I'd love to have a 24 Skater with twin 300's but it's not happening . I drive a well cared for van with 376,000 miles and I'm OK with that . We do what we can . Merry Christmas !

Great points Foley!!! Lets go race and have some fun!!!! You coming to the Nats in Huntsville?

Should be a great turn out and for the racers that are not interested in the US1 award you can always just enter the heat racing events and still win a National Champion award and only have 3 or 4 days invested depending th eclasses you plan to run. Check the heat racing schedule at http://racemastersevents.com/event-list.php

National Champion award? That be for the Non US-1 classes, correct?

 

[Don Ferrette]

I wasn't counting lost wages, I was saying the cost of going to a race in Eastern Washington is the same as what I earn in a day. Since the powers that be have cut us back to no more than four days per week, that equates to 25% of one weeks wages. That can be a serious hit on the budget

You don't want to see my W-2's since 2009 . Somehow I make it happen , not sure how . I race maybe 5 times a year . I am fortunate to have a wife who works and contributes to the nightmare . It is what it is to use an overplayed phrase . There is no holy grail to race appeal and attendance . I'd love to have a 24 Skater with twin 300's but it's not happening . I drive a well cared for van with 376,000 miles and I'm OK with that . We do what we can . Merry Christmas !

Great points Foley!!! Lets go race and have some fun!!!! You coming to the Nats in Huntsville?

Should be a great turn out and for the racers that are not interested in the US1 award you can always just enter the heat racing events and still win a National Champion award and only have 3 or 4 days invested depending th eclasses you plan to run. Check the heat racing schedule at http://racemastersevents.com/event-list.php

National Champion award? That be for the Non US-1 classes, correct?

Andy is correct. It's either US-1 or National Championship format, not both. You win just heat racing you get the heat racing trophy. You run well enough to win US-1 you'll usually get a heat racing, SAW and ovals trophy as well as the US-1 as the odds of winning a US-1 without placing in the top tier of all three are rather remote (but "technically possible").

 

[Bradley Ward]

Never raced! never attended! but never want to! Nothing kills a sport quicker than the ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE! In my country the thing that put me off was fact you had to snivil,Suck up,bow down to fluff up the egos of the high and mighty RC boat racer! They think they fart perfume and can lay golden eggs! In my mind some of the most pathetic people I've ever met in life!(my opinion!!) I know this is a thread on how to make this sport move forward! But the skullduggery and the heads up ass attitudes is what's killed the sport for me! Then when you do tell people who has helped out you get people from the USA contact manufacturers like NOVAROSSI and say "take his dealership off him! As him and his company has ruined our profits and we cannot compete!" So on one hand a guy's simply saying try buying here! Or i got helped out by such n such! buy Octura or ABC props! Then the two faced backstabbing starts behind the scenes? Like they say in prison "THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IS A COWARD" this is MY opinion! This is not ANYTHING TO DO WITH RACE SCHEDULES or anything about NAMBA IMPBA but it's a view into a sport from a beginners perspective! Nothing made me run faster from any sport quicker than RC model boating! Some of the most shifty! Snake like! Rip off artists and con men ive ever had the displeasure of correspondence with or dealing with!! Then when you do find the FEW GOOD MEN! the knives come out and there beaten down with sticks n stones!! My opinions! My words! Don't take it personally! As this my VERY LIMITED experience! If you find it offensive let me know who the moderator is and i will ask him to remove the post!

 

[David Ashcroft]

Calm down Bradley.

 

[dwilfong]

And a perspective from the outside looking in........................................how refreshing.....................

 

[David Ashcroft]

Yep

 

[KenOlvis]

1)The Hobby is alive.just to many classes of boats,Spreads the hobby to thin.

Some classes are growing some are not.

2)Few aproach as Pros not hobbiest. An ELITE few would do better An Elite class if you can qualify run the class an be reward.Gives us dreamers a goal or face reality an just enjoy the hobby.