the 80s, 90s and today

[Bill Gibson]

A question for the "veteran" model boaters/racers....what differences do you see in the hobby from the early 80s to today.....i remember good turnouts, hardly any enclosed trailers, less classes, way more entries per class...at the'85 Winternatnats i ran in 40 outboard tunnel and i believe there were about 20 boats in the class and that was low compared to other more established classes...boats seemed cheaper, engines too....i did say seemed! I could be VERY wrong about that! :lol:

 

[Andy Greene]

If Foley dont say it , Im gonna .

Quit drinking the Windex, Get off you azz and get out and race with us...........

Take em off the shelf from time to time and get em wet :blink:

Thats coming from the newer generation, but Im pretty sure it carries over

Missed ya at the last race Bill B)

Andy

 

[Bill Gibson]

If Foley dont say it , Im gonna .

Quit drinking the Windex, Get off you azz and get out and race with us...........

Take em off the shelf from time to time and get em wet :blink:

Thats coming from the newer generation, but Im pretty sure it carries over

Missed ya at the last race Bill B)

Andy

Missed you too man...and everyone else for that matter......Thanks Andy.

 

[Tom Foley]

If Foley dont say it , Im gonna .

Quit drinking the Windex, Get off you azz and get out and race with us...........

Take em off the shelf from time to time and get em wet :blink:

Thats coming from the newer generation, but Im pretty sure it carries over

Missed ya at the last race Bill B)

Andy

Put down your new Shark Steam Cleaner and new Swiffer attachments and get dirty !! On topic, now the motors are much better , the boats are faster , props are WAY better and the technical info mainstream is fantastic , learning everyday.I feel more connected to the hobby now going to some great races and meeting new people and great competition . Now I will say this that I have to basically GUT my 90 Twin to put in my new VAC 91's so I'm glad I have a mill and a lathe at the shop .New mounts , stuffing tubes etc . The old style simple light , rotary carb that came on the old Evo 2 CMB's has been replaced by a MONOLITH of a carb that is way too complicated and heavy ..i'm using the old ones adapted !! Finally back in the early to mid 80's my net worth was less than what I have tied up in this hobby now so ......heading for a cold one bro !!!!!!

 

[RaceCraftBearings]

Mr Gibson The only back then you need to be concerned with is that you had a Scale boat and I need you to enter it in the Gulf Coast WCRA in September so i can run mine for the first time in 4 years then I gotta get Don R to run his so we have a class of at least 3.

Hope to see ya there!

 

[Ray Sametz]

80's vs the 90's. One word "INTERNET" and being able to share info without being face to face.

.... ==={}

 

[captwalter]

Hey Ron: For another one of those things you gave me when I arrived at the Brandon Race last week, I forget what you call them, I might be convinced to show up with one or two of my scales. I would really like to see you running your's again after your short retirement from racing. Perry

 

[Andy Brown]

1978 NAMBA at Naples Fla. I ran one boat. .40 hydro. There were about 50 boats in that class alone. Only two engine choices K&B or OPS. There was also SuperTigre if you were willing to convert an airplane engine...which I did. I don't think there was a .90 engine available until early 80's OPS .90 followed by CMB and Rossi as I recall. Many here in Fla ran twins with K&B 40s or OPS 60s.

 

[RaceCraftBearings]

Hey Ron: For another one of those things you gave me when I arrived at the Brandon Race last week, I forget what you call them, I might be convinced to show up with one or two of my scales. I would really like to see you running your's again after your short retirement from racing. Perry

You got it Perry! Bring em and ye shall receive :lol:

 

[Dan Hutchinson]

bill your right about the old days. back when the sarasota race was real big. nitros were king and the nitro classes had more people racing in them. i remember when i got started i bought me a hotshot tunnel and a k&b motor had all my gear. just to have my boat run a half a lap and die. i was ready to quit, then i meet tom von mello. and he mentored me. he would shake his head and say (you butcher) what are you doing. your doing everything wrong!! do this and try that and i was hooked. my boat was fast and it ran for a whole tank of fuel. i couldnt get enough. there was tons of people racing nitro. at that time the gas motors were just getting started and everyone wanted gas boats . people were trying to figure out how to put a homelite line trimmer gas motors in them. now look at the r/c boating more gas classes than i can keep up with. us nitro guys are becoming a thing of the past. move over nitro. gas is the ****!! and now fast electric is next. i dont know but it seems that as fast as the times change so does the technology. just the other day i was in hobby town. and i was looking around at all the cars & trucks. before they were all nitro now only a few left. all the rest are brushless electric now. i dont know the first thing about FE but im learning. i think back at all the people i knew that have quit racing, or have passed away, the true pioneers. that paved the way for all today. the ones that nobody has heard of they are the people i look back at. and think to my self what if that person didnt show me what to do. what would i be doing right now. i probally wouldnt be building r/c boats thats for sure. bottom line is the technology is changing how we play with these boats weither its nitro, gas or electric we need people to show the next generation

 

[Glenn Gates]

A question for the "veteran" model boaters/racers....what differences do you see in the hobby from the early 80s to today.....i remember good turnouts, hardly any enclosed trailers, less classes, way more entries per class...at the'85 Winternatnats i ran in 40 outboard tunnel and i believe there were about 20 boats in the class and that was low compared to other more established classes...boats seemed cheaper, engines too....i did say seemed! I could be VERY wrong about that! :lol:

Probably comparing apples to oranges Bill, In the 80's I lived in NorCal and like you said more entries,less classes big turnouts. Now I'm in N. Utah-hard to get 3 boats to make a class and some of the classes here are .21 tunnel- stock and mod ,.21 mono and .21 hydro- in a place where the wind blows 15 mph or more-makes no sense to me. More time is spent picking up "dead mosquitos" than racing. Add the .12's , .15's .18's rtr and gas& electrics to the mix and what have ya got?... CLUSTER >#@&

Glenn

 

[Hydro Junkie]

When I started on my first boat back in 1982, the only .20 I could find in Millington TN was an HB 20, nothing more than a 20 sized airplane engine with a factory water jacket. A Dumas 30" Pak was the only kit available and the epoxy was the hobby shop garbage that crystalized when used for coating. In the 90's, I found R/C Unlimiteds with the required K&B, OS, Picco or one other brand of motor, scale boats that were unbelieveable in looks and speed. More unbelievable was that every boat I saw at the races I went to were wood with hand made glass cowls. Now, we have paper thin RTR's, parts made and sold from overseas and many of the old manufacturers gone. The worst part is all the keyboard experts that have no real experience trying to teach others how to do something that they don't know how to do either. Do I know everything? HELL NO, and I don't claim to. It's too bad that now when I ask a question, I have to pick out the good info from the garbage in a thread with less than 10 posts :angry:

 

[Tom Foley]

A question for the "veteran" model boaters/racers....what differences do you see in the hobby from the early 80s to today.....i remember good turnouts, hardly any enclosed trailers, less classes, way more entries per class...at the'85 Winternatnats i ran in 40 outboard tunnel and i believe there were about 20 boats in the class and that was low compared to other more established classes...boats seemed cheaper, engines too....i did say seemed! I could be VERY wrong about that! :lol:

You were newer to it then as was I . Ignorance is bliss . Basically we ran junk , boats were heavy and slow with the exception of a few FAST guys . motors blew up all the time , your K / B stuff although new to you then and cherished ...was... and is JUNK compared to the power and reliability of todays motors . You personally own some of the trickest state of the art boats out there , but pining about yesterday is a waste of time and should be saved for BS sessions after the days run with your new and VERY fast boats . I need to get out more myself but model boats is only part of the equation for me ..but when you get in the zone with your Macs , Piccos , CMB's or Zenoahs thats all that matters . Looking forward to getting IN THE ZONE for 4 days in Charleston ...gonna be a barnburner .

Hydro Junkie ...in 82 there were many other kits than trhe Pay N Pack ...i started boating in 1981 with a Drag N Fly 40 with HB 61 Side exhaust and went to my first race in 82 in Hagerstown Maryland ...been in it pretty solid since then .

 

[Andy Brown]

Tom,

My first build was a Drag N Fly 40. 1973... Wow! I did not realize I'd been doing this so long.

 

[moparbarn]

hey foley, that's 1 thing that hasn't changed, i'm going to that same race in hagerstown, end of september. last dist. 12 race of the season, about 45 min. from the house. good tuneup for c-town B) .

 

[Tom Foley]

hey foley, that's 1 thing that hasn't changed, i'm going to that same race in hagerstown, end of september. last dist. 12 race of the season, about 45 min. from the house. good tuneup for c-town B) .

I'm looking for ward to meeting you and your son . Andy I have a NIB drag N Fly 60 in the box gonna put one of my Mac 67 's in it ...gonna be an airplane for sure !!

 

[HTV Boats]

The big difference I see between the 70's-80's and now is choices of classes. Back in the day you ran 20-40-60 mono or hydro and maybe a scale. OB's were kind of tollerated. Now the dam has burst and the choices allow many new racers an opportunity to race. This hobby is still growing and evolving. FE & Gas are on move. Nitro won't die but may have to regroup and specialise races and classes to survive. If your willing to adapt and make changes the future is bright. The internet has accelerated everyones learning curve. Equipment is far superior today and that is also due in part to the internet and knowledged shared.

Races are going from small club get togethers to major events. Better competition for sure or at least more of it. Only drawback is the best competators are spread out further with too many choices.

Mic

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Not disagreeing with you Tom, just saying I didn't have access to them. I was an E-2 going to Avionics School at NATTC Millington TN and could only go as far as my feet would carry me. Between the base hobby shop and the one hobby shop I found in town, the only boat and engine I was able to get was the Pak and the HB 20. It wasn't until I was transfered to NAS Whidbey Island WA in 1983 that I was able to get a Dumas catalog to see what I was missing. Only problem there was that there wasn't a base hobby shop per se and the only hobby shop in town didn't carry much in the way of boating stuff so I was sort of screwed again. It wasn't until I was able to get some wheels and enough gas money to get into the Seattle area where I did find a good hobby shop that had boating supplies. Only problem I had after that was the Noobie blues and, unlike today, there was no internet to turn to for help, nor was there other boaters in Oak Harbor that I could find to ask. That was many years and lots of sawdust and nitro ago. Needless to say, I'm still learning

 

[Marty Davis]

Back in those days we put only a few races on the top of the list to attend.

The Nats, The Indy Unlimited and my favorite by far, The Indy Masters.

Andy and John came every year and it was the most competitive race ever. The A Mains were AWESOME.

The Nats had usually 25-40 boats in your hydro class. 20 Mono usually had 25+, 1/8 scale had 20-25+

Because of cost (initial and continuing) the Gas boats have taken over. Breaks my heart, but that is just the way it is. With a new Nitro engine costing $400+/- and a new Gas enging costing much less, it is easy for people to choose gas.

Maybe something will change all of this, we will see. Glenn has contributed some to the increase in 20 hydro with the cheap 5 port engines and that is very good. Someone will pobably come up with a solution to spur the rebirth of the Nitro Classes - I hope.

Within the next couple years, I hope to see our Tampa Mobel Boat Club come up with some specialty races that should help to spur interest down here. Maybe even an IMPBA Nats in the future. We sure have a great new pond to host almost any type race.

Maybe we can even get John and Andy to make the drive down I-75 and race with us.

I remember the Naples/Ft Myers Club hosting a Thanksgiving Race in Ft Myers. Maybe the Northern People would like a break from the cold around Thanksgiving. I always loved coming to that race.

 

[Chris Wood]

ALOT has changed.

I remember hard shaft hydros.. NO flex shafts.. I remember the radio boxes were screwed down with wood screw and silicone.. the motor mounts was solid hard wood like oak.

i remember the first time i saw radio box tape.. I that WHAT!! you got to be kidding me lol.

boats are MUCH MUCH better.. Props i wouldn't say have changed a ton other than abc comming into business.. just different people doing props and new things are being done to them.

the one downer at least in this area is boat/people count.. it is way down. I remember in the 80's even 90's when our club had 40-50 people.. now we have 6 - 8

the one thing that hasn't changed is that there is still alot of people that make there own stuff or sell there own stuff and that is what makes this hobby different from all the rest

chris