Stock Outboard Mission Statement

[reed28n]

Stock, Modified, PRO, Junior Classes Page 12 Rule 1 (General)

11. Stock Outboard Racing is a form of affordable, amateur, outboard powered racing, achieving maximum recognition and reasonable awards for
successful competitors. Our objective is to have competitive equipment, commercially available to all competitors on an equal basis. We wish to promote this sport on a national level and support it on a local level, giving safety a foremost consideration. We will achieve this mission by:

• Having a clearly defined set of rules. However, the General Racing Rules
shall prevail in all situations not specifi cally covered in the Stock Outboard
rules.
• Legislating up-to-date safety equipment, requirements, rules and
standardized interpretation.
• Having fair, impartial and trained judges and offi cials.
• Cooperating with engine manufacturers to meet our mutual goals and needs.
• Effecting a competent inspection procedure to avoid any unfair advantages.
• Promoting the sport to encourage new competitors to join.
• Promoting responsibility and participation of all members


A little food for thought, stumbled on this again while taking the referees test

[Matt Dagostino]

Jeez...............

Stock, Modified, PRO, Junior Classes Page 12 Rule 1 (General)

11. Stock Outboard Racing is a form of affordable, amateur, outboard powered racing, achieving maximum recognition and reasonable awards for
successful competitors. Our objective is to have competitive equipment, commercially available to all competitors on an equal basis. We wish to promote this sport on a national level and support it on a local level, giving safety a foremost consideration. We will achieve this mission by:

• Having a clearly defined set of rules. However, the General Racing Rules
shall prevail in all situations not specifi cally covered in the Stock Outboard
rules.
• Legislating up-to-date safety equipment, requirements, rules and
standardized interpretation.
• Having fair, impartial and trained judges and offi cials.
• Cooperating with engine manufacturers to meet our mutual goals and needs.
• Effecting a competent inspection procedure to avoid any unfair advantages.
• Promoting the sport to encourage new competitors to join.
• Promoting responsibility and participation of all members


A little food for thought, stumbled on this again while taking the referees test

Hey Scott
Sounds good but don't you have some boats you should be finishing up !!!! See you in Ocoee!!

Matt & Val

[Bob Dunlap]

New Equipment

We promote the sport and this mission statement is great but the most often question asked by new people coming to the races is "where can I go and buy a new rig to compete??" When we shake our head and say you can't but maybe we can help you find a used rig or you can buy a motor and have a boat built, they walk off shaking their head!

[sam]

Bob, I'm afraid most of those people are just tire kickers as they call them in the car business.

If the category wants to prove me wrong the thing to do is to pony up some cash and have one full race ready package for sale at all times. Ask boat & prop makers to enter a lottery to make it fair and buy one boat, one prop, one motor one helmet, cut suit and jacket. Lifeline & Security could flip a coin to see who goes first on their stuff.

That way when someone asks the "Where can I buy a complete rig?" question, just give them the contact info and if they send the check its theirs.

If the complete rig sells, package up a second rig, first suppliers not eligible for the second ... rotate or alternate suppliers to keep it fair.

The category owned "complete package" could be hauled around the country and always available for sale at the Winter and regular Nationals.

I think this would be a legitimate use of promotional fund money.

As long as there is no "complete package" ready ... people will keep blaming the lack of new racers on this. If it is available and never purchased ... that horse can be laid to rest.

[Blackhawkguy]

By george I think he's got it

Sam,

That has to be the absolute most perfect answer to the age old statement, build it and they will come. If Stock Outboard did that and then no one would buy it, what would then be the excuse, maybe no one wants to see or hear the truth, but by doing what you have proposed, it would solve the problem of where do I get it. The real issue may be that what you are saying and what you are selling are two diferent items. The last time a stock outboard was actualy purchased for racing in the United States was before I was born. The real stock outboard of today is PWC, you can go into any show room and buy a PWC and race it with whatever safety improvments they require the next day. Stock Outboard should realy consider changing it's name to say something like Sportsman, or Amature Outboard, then when you tell someone all the things they are going to have to do to race their just purchased stock outboard they do not look at you and go, yeh right. You start off by selling a lie, it just goes downhill from there.

Kerry

[sam]

Another interesting and probably worthwhile proposal to consider!

Truth in advertising never hurts.

Sports-racing? Sportsman?

[raceright]

Stock, Modified, PRO, Junior Classes Page 12 Rule 1 (General)

11. Stock Outboard Racing is a form of affordable, amateur, outboard powered racing, achieving maximum recognition and reasonable awards for
successful competitors. Our objective is to have competitive equipment, commercially available to all competitors on an equal basis. We wish to promote this sport on a national level and support it on a local level, giving safety a foremost consideration. We will achieve this mission by:

• Having a clearly defined set of rules. However, the General Racing Rules
shall prevail in all situations not specifi cally covered in the Stock Outboard
rules.
• Legislating up-to-date safety equipment, requirements, rules and
standardized interpretation.
• Having fair, impartial and trained judges and offi cials.
• Cooperating with engine manufacturers to meet our mutual goals and needs.
• Effecting a competent inspection procedure to avoid any unfair advantages.
• Promoting the sport to encourage new competitors to join.
• Promoting responsibility and participation of all members


A little food for thought, stumbled on this again while taking the referees test

Commercialy available we have different Ideas about that one, can't
do it any more, guess name change might be in order. (they changed alkies to pro many years ago they for some reason though the was more suitable)
I said enough maybe it is time for Stock to have a new name,just talking.

Pat

[Kev43V]

Great idea Sam!

[22W]

If Racing Outboards can get their stuff together, that is what they plan to do. I know it has been a long and difficult road, but hopefully they can come through.

[Dave M]

Problem Up Front Sam

What class do you build ? Not meant to be a dig to ANYONE, but all the news agencies report today's society is larger than in previous years. So with that perhaps if you did one boat combo it should be a C or D class size. I doubt a Hot Rod is gonna haul a 220 pound man around the course and be competitive. It will get them around the course, but if it were me I would sue you for decpetive advertising. Just food for thought.

That being said, you need to come up with a COMPETITVE package and not just something to get them in a boat. Nobody wants to invest twice initially. Especially given today's economy.

And now then, with that being said, I would offer to build for this specific reason a boat at just over cost for clubs wishing to do this. For a D class I would ask Bass to pony up a Tohatsu engine on consigment to a club. And also Dave Scott a D Merc race ready. Provide a detailed cost list sheet to be included with the package when it is sold so the buyer knows they are not getting priced above what they could get it for if they bought it all seperate. After that, Dewald might provide a good prop to go along with it, or even two, punch prop and long course prop.

For a C class, Montoya might pony up a 302 just like mentioned above. Ready to race. Same thing on props. We can also get all the prop builders involved. Whoever wants to work for the sport.

If they want a Hot Rod package (Sidewinder) Ron could have an engine in stock at all times for this. We could build a boat.

Three rigs to haul for sale is asking a lot from someone. So lets have them on hand, just not hauled around.

All of the above mentioned rigs could be used in Mod or stock. Add a pipe for mod. We could then break down where to send the engine to if they want it tweaked for Mod, or get them in touch with people who can tell them what to do to go fast if they prefer to work on it themselves.

Just thought of something, hardware for the boats. Cronk, Tietz, Brown, etc could supply a full set of hardware when boat is built on consignment like the rest. Get paid when the rig sell.

I doubt having the saftey gear on hand would help, because of sizing issues. But, we could have a sample suit to show them so they can order it.

Anyone else ready to pony up and get this in gear ? The question is there, time to call, so play or fold.

EDIT - This Rig would only be available for sale to a new to the sport of Mod & Stock. Same can be done for Pro as well........ or any other category if they wish.

[sam]

rewrite ...

There is no need to ask the builders to DONATE to this like a charity. Stock has promotion fund money that they are afraid to touch for fear of being caught "wasting" it. Its been around for years and no one ever figures out how to spend it wisely so it just sits. A little is used to print the schedule fliers we hand out each year.

I think there is more than enough cash on hand to build and have both a C and a D, and later a rig with a Sidewinder.

Safety gear could be bought on a contingency that it can be returned for a different size if needed. I'm sure they can make a guess at what the size is of the "average" boat racer better than we can.

Dave, you are the first one to take this outside of Stock. I think it needs to stay in Stock because as I understand it the promotion fun money is already allocated to the specific categories. If J, Mod and PRO want to do the same thing, money would have to come from their own accounts. But I cannot see Mod and PRO doing it. There would be too many questions of class, which motor and which lower unit, etc, plus the cost would be much higher. J could do it, but J is controlled differently from the other categories.

The 4 classes and soon to be 6 fully active classes in Stock simplify it. I had forgotten that for each motor there are 2 boats. I guess there would be the question of whether just a runabout should be built, just a hydro or both.

These prospects mentioned by Bob (and others going back years) don't want to wait for a rig to be built and assembled from a standing order. The idea is they walk away because you can't click BUY IT NOW and have it shipped tomorrow. The only way to get those tire kickers to be racers is to have it already made, waiting to go.

[sam]

The only place I'd have the boats hauled to is the Nationals. Outside of that I agree, they need to be stored somewhere.

If no one can haul the boats, again, use the promotion fund money and have them shipped via commercial carrier.

If this is not done, we will never know whether these people are "real" potential racers or just "tire kickers" with an excuse

[swheeler]

Does anyone remember the Cougar Cub? Maybe early 80's. A stock 25 HP. Merc on a fiberglass cat with trailer. Could be bought off a showroom floor. Mercury hauled 6 of them around to races, loaned them, used them for celebrity races. All together a first class promotional effort for the class and boat racing in general. Guess what? Nobody cared.
I do have one question. When people say that they want to buy a complete rig or even just buy a new motor how much are they willing to pay? I suspect much less then a builder would need to sell for to make it worthwhile.

[csh2z]

That is not a job for APBA or Stock Outboard. There is money to be made here that can best be handled by an entrepreneur. All it would take is an energetic and experienced person with a modest amount of capital that is willing to take a risk, to go into the boat racing business. The door is wide open, the opportunity is right there for someone to grab. If I were younger and didn't have a family to support, I'd do it in a heartbeat!

[sam]

Does anyone remember the Cougar Cub? ... Nobody cared. I do have one question. When people say that they want to buy a complete rig or even just buy a new motor how much are they willing to pay? I suspect much less then a builder would need to sell for to make it worthwhile.

One of the Cougar Cub's problems was it was kind of a dull ride compared to other rigs. I think another issue was it was an OPC class, sort of J for OPC, which sort of ended up as a misfit given the huge performance gap between the Cub and other OPC classes.

In this discussion we are not talking about providing a ready to go J rig to enhance the Stock category, we are talking about actual ready to win rigs in main thriving classes.

I agree with your main point, but I say the only way to prove it is to have the rigs ready to sell for 4 or 5 years. That would prove the theory that the problem is lack of race ready packages and point us to continue the program or prove it is wrong and direct us to move on to another theory.

In the day to day nature of my work I have to develop theories about the problems I encounter. I then have to devise proofs to test the theories. After the proof/tests are done and I examine the results and decide on the next step. Often my first theory is wrong, I have to admit this in order to move on to another theory and tests.

I do not know of any other way to PROVE the package rig problem one way or the other. Do you? If we don't do the test and learn the results we are stuck with the theory and have to accept it as a possibility. If we do this and learn the answer one way or the other we can move on; either continuing the program (and possibly expanding it) if it works or discarding both the program and the theory and moving on to the next theory.