US A-TEAM Rocks Boston

[TPLACE31]

Once again the US A-Team was hard at work spending another day promoting the sport of powerboat racing. Captain Billy Allen and the Team were part of a Boys Scout festival along the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts. The event drew over 5,000 spectators and their display was a show stopper and one of the most action packed booths. With engines being fired off every hour, throngs of visitors stopped by to see the beautiful display which included a ASH, CSH, OSY400 and a 250CCH.

1. Mike Akerstrom & Colleen Tweedy
2. Mike Akerstrom, the fastest Eagle Scout on the water.
3. The Captain and Bob Cronin
4. Bob Cronin, Alan Akerstrom and Billy
5. Part of the massive crowd
6. Proudly displaying the Stock Outboard poster

[Graham]

Nice job Bill.

Sincerely,Don Graham

[Racerkyle20]

Fastest Eagle Scout?

2. Mike Akerstrom, the fastest Eagle Scout on the water.

We'll have to have a race off!

Troop 312 Eagle Scout 2002, Edmonds Washington

Set up looks great guys!

[TPLACE31]

We'll have to have a race off!

Troop 312 Eagle Scout 2002, Edmonds Washington

Set up looks great guys!

Ahem, fastest Eagle Scout on the East Coast? Great to know that there are more Eagle Scouts in APBA. I never knew much about them until Mike's ceremony last spring. Very, very impressive. Who else is among the ranks?

[csh12M]

Stephen Lisius

Stephen Lisius, MRHA completed his Eagle scout requirements this season.

Very impressive, it is hard to do.

12M

[GarE-12]

Great job!

This is a great idea and looks like it was a great success. Go Team!!!

There have been several connections of boat racing and the boy scouts at the local level (the recently cancelled Berwick race was going to have a boy scout presence). Has there been any official connection between APBA and the Boy Scouts on a national level? If not, maybe some official recognition/promotion of the Boy Scouts from APBA would be a good idea. Is there a boat racing merit badge? Do they still have merit badges?

Looks like a good place for a boat race. I remember a boat race on the Charles River in Boston.

[HRTV]

Great job! Trust me when I tell you that there is not a web site on earth that will ever take the place of real life hands on interaction. You can take every powerboat racing web site, every Facebook Page etc and delete them all. This is how new members are attracted to the sport. I read an article over the weekend stating that we are becoming completely overwhelm with information from the Internet.

Lets get back to basics.

[JackGlasses40B]

GarE-12
You have a good memory. The Stock Outboard Nationals were held on the
Charles River in Boston late July early August of 1963 and there was 1 hour of live coverage on television on Boston's Channel 5 on the Sunday of the finals.
Glasses

[Dudley13F]

Eagle Scouts

I know of 3 in the IOA. Tom McCain, Patrick Proctor, and myself.

[Hutch06]

Agreed

Great job! Trust me when I tell you that there is not a web site on earth that will ever take the place of real life hands on interaction. You can take every powerboat racing web site, every Facebook Page etc and delete them all. This is how new members are attracted to the sport. I read an article over the weekend stating that we are becoming completely overwhelm with information from the Internet.

Lets get back to basics.

I can't agree more with you Dan! Almost all of our Racer School participants in our last school came from people finding Stock Outboard at an event (Novi Boat Show, Waterford Quake on the Lake, Trenton Roar on the River). At 2 of these 3 events we were there promoting the sport and Racer School. Sometimes taking a weekend off from testing pays off for the betterment of the sport.

[TPLACE31]

At first I was puzzled why we were part of the Science exhibits until I heard Professor Billy explain to the Scouts the evolution of speed.

[Aussie Steve]

Queens Scout

We'll have to have a race off!

Troop 312 Eagle Scout 2002, Edmonds Washington

Set up looks great guys!

Yeah race off although I think I out rank you

[Racerkyle20]

[QUOTE=GarE-12;210794] There have been several connections of boat racing and the boy scouts at the local level (the recently cancelled Berwick race was going to have a boy scout presence). Has there been any official connection between APBA and the Boy Scouts on a national level? If not, maybe some official recognition/promotion of the Boy Scouts from APBA would be a good idea. Is there a boat racing merit badge? Do they still have merit badges?

QUOTE]

They do have a motor boating merit badge (had to get that one!) as of 2002. They also have a sail boat merit badge and water skiiing. The motor boating merit badge was mostly being able to run a outboard motor on a 10 foot or so craft. Gee that was difficult, LOL. Pretty basic stuff for us. I tried to get an exception because of racing, but they told me no, so I did it one summer at scout camp.

It would be cool to get more of a promotion between the two orginizations. I know the Scouts have done some things in our region at races. At newberg on Memorial day they are our 'security' (actually pretty tight) and our trash boat operators.

The thing with scouting is they are always in need of volunteer hours. Lots of them. I can't remember the number, but per rank there are tons to earn.

[raceright]

positive

Nice to see all positive things.

5,000 spectators is great --reason racing in larger venues is important for Powerboat racing to grow.

Again Nice Job

Pat Wright

[U.S. "A" Team]

Thanks~ and a few more pictures

The U.S. A-Team would like to thank the Akerstroms, Colleen Tweedy, Bob Cronin, Racer Allen, and Steve Noury for coming out and helping with this joint A-Team and South Shore Outboard event. A special thank you to Bruce Nichols for the art work, and to the Boy Scouts of America for inviting us and giving us the opportunity to have a display at this incredible and well-attended event.

Before the day was over, Eagle Scout Mike Akerstrom was able to take a rip in the CSH on the Charles River.

We had an exceptionally well attended booth!!