Stock Outboard Mission Statement

[sam]

The price is what it is and there is no way around it.

We can not make the boat builders make boats any less expensive than they already are. Same for motor manufacturers/importers, hardware manufacturers and safety equipment makers.

Price is not the issue if the right newbies are targeted, it is if the WRONG newbies are targeted.


Like Pat said, the promo money is there, the key is figuring out how to spend it wisely.

[RichardKCMo]

Why No More?????

I erased my post because i know i'm not on to many favorite lists , but this is a subject that needs to be discussed, though i don't race i am most certainly interested.
RichardKCMo

[Skoontz]

I need to toss something into the pot here After reading Kristi's request to survey, my mind needed a drift from my bookwork, the curvature of the warp in my brain acted, so here goes.

The type of racer from the 40's 50's and 60's and even 70's, came from somewhere other than the world/country we live in now.

In those times, 40's through 70's, America still had a considerable amount of people who believed in work ethic. To bolster what those folks were taught at home, we offered industrial arts classes in school. We allowed kids to get after school jobs at machine shops, welding shops and gas stations, which by the way were SERVICE stations offering mechaincal service, as well as pumping your gas for you.

Further, hot rodding was on the grow as was the NHRA. The boat racing population was a trickle down from the hot rod generation in many aspects.

If you wanted to make your ride faster, you made what it needed, not added some piece of computer garbage or a carbon fiber hood which should never have been allowed to integrate into an engine to begin with.

Further, the labor laws were passed in 1938 with the good intent of keeping kids from getting hurt and killed in factories. This laws have been modified over the years and equate to this piece of stupidity....

A kid, under the age of 18, cannot in any way operate machinery, such as lawn mowers, such as outboard motors in a shop. It is so ridiculous that a kid under the age of 18 cannot place the dough into a roller at a pizza joint, because uncle sam calls that a machine.

When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's, it was the beginning of the end for youth and any opportunity to work on or with machinery. Industrial arts classes were removed from most schools, as is and were FFA programs.

We legislated, omitted and removed anything that would give kids a tiny spark of interest from schools, so they evolved to nintendo, skate boards, stereos and any ridiculous other form of entertainment available to them at present.

I think if you survey, you will find that the vast majority of boaters, racers and enthusiasts got their interest in the junior high level. Until such programs as industrial arts come back to the schools, and we allow kids who want to work in shops to do so without governmental issues, I think there is going to be a tough sell unless you make boats/motors allot more obtainable and much lower in cost.

Just a spin to the mix here, as we see a decline in intelligent employees with mechanical abilities who are interested in making things go faster, and a great loss in work ethic, and that is exactly where it came from.

[Blackhawkguy]

yeah...............

you hit the nail right on the head. It does not mean that there is not a group of people to target, my son is going to be 9 in August, I am going to try my best to get him into boat racing, he will be a second generation racer. Sam is correct, you need to know who you are targeting, putting adds in..... whatever, is a waste of time and resorces. The real problem is and has been on and off the last 30 years having new equipment readly available to purchase when people want it, and a clear and simple class structure to race it in. There seems to be at this time the most people I can remember building or making boat kits then ever before, now you need motors to put on them. Getting every body heading the same direction and keeping them going the same direction is another story in itself.

Kerry

[raceright]

I need to toss something into the pot here After reading Kristi's request to survey, my mind needed a drift from my bookwork, the curvature of the warp in my brain acted, so here goes.

The type of racer from the 40's 50's and 60's and even 70's, came from somewhere other than the world/country we live in now.

In those times, 40's through 70's, America still had a considerable amount of people who believed in work ethic. To bolster what those folks were taught at home, we offered industrial arts classes in school. We allowed kids to get after school jobs at machine shops, welding shops and gas stations, which by the way were SERVICE stations offering mechaincal service, as well as pumping your gas for you.

Further, hot rodding was on the grow as was the NHRA. The boat racing population was a trickle down from the hot rod generation in many aspects.

If you wanted to make your ride faster, you made what it needed, not added some piece of computer garbage or a carbon fiber hood which should never have been allowed to integrate into an engine to begin with.

Further, the labor laws were passed in 1938 with the good intent of keeping kids from getting hurt and killed in factories. This laws have been modified over the years and equate to this piece of stupidity....

A kid, under the age of 18, cannot in any way operate machinery, such as lawn mowers, such as outboard motors in a shop. It is so ridiculous that a kid under the age of 18 cannot place the dough into a roller at a pizza joint, because uncle sam calls that a machine.

When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's, it was the beginning of the end for youth and any opportunity to work on or with machinery. Industrial arts classes were removed from most schools, as is and were FFA programs.

We legislated, omitted and removed anything that would give kids a tiny spark of interest from schools, so they evolved to nintendo, skate boards, stereos and any ridiculous other form of entertainment available to them at present.

I think if you survey, you will find that the vast majority of boaters, racers and enthusiasts got their interest in the junior high level. Until such programs as industrial arts come back to the schools, and we allow kids who want to work in shops to do so without governmental issues, I think there is going to be a tough sell unless you make boats/motors allot more obtainable and much lower in cost.

Just a spin to the mix here, as we see a decline in intelligent employees with mechanical abilities who are interested in making things go faster, and a great loss in work ethic, and that is exactly where it came from.

I agree with you
Pat

[swheeler]

Perhaps the group to survey would be people who raced for a few years and quit. Find out what it was that they didn't like.

[sam]

Perhaps the group to survey would be people who raced for a few years and quit. Find out what it was that they didn't like.

Yeah, sort of like an "exit interview" when you leave a job. Might be hard to find them and get them to respond for nothing; they already quit

I don't think we need to know why people quit, we really need to know why people stay. We don't want quitters we want stayers.

[Skoontz]

That's a good to toss into the survey. There were about 5 guys i knew in Illinois who did very well in OPC for just a few years, then stopped. Of those, I know 3 left because their families asked them to, so to keep the family in tact, they stopped. Charley Rullman for example, cleaned house in Sport J with a Hustler tunnel/ Kozan built 135 Merc, then his wife did not want him racing so he started a boat company.

[reed28n]

Survey

If you guys would like to propose a template of a survey I will put it in front of the commission for discussion use of the promotional fund budget. In the mean time I will confirm with APBA the cost of the mailing.

To be successful we must follow through. If you are volunteering to help in such a project please have the stamina to see it through. As part of our meetings we talked about "Obtainable :Sustainable Goals" If you don't want to help get to the end result I am not interested in pursuing it.

Send me what you might think it should look like in word do***ent form to

reed28n@gmail.com


Scott

[mercguy]

rules....

I, for one, think we need to NOT have so many rule changes every year (more so the technical ones). It is hard to be consistant (the racer) when the rules change every year..............

[sam]

I, for one, think we need to NOT have so many rule changes every year (more so the technical ones). It is hard to be consistant (the racer) when the rules change every year..............

Back in the 1960's Claude Fox slammed a 5 year moratorium on tech rule changes in the NOA

5 years is a long time, but I can see 2 years being reasonable ... tech rule changes only on even years to slow it down?

[mercguy]

Back in the 1960's Claude Fox slammed a 5 year moratorium on tech rule changes in the NOA

5 years is a long time, but I can see 2 years being reasonable ... tech rule changes only on even years to slow it down?

I think every couple years would be better. The way it is now, is that you could build up your boat/motor programs to current rules and then they get changed 8mos later, kind of like the CSH height rule, etc.

there also needs to be more stringent procedures put on "safety" rule changes, etc that relate to motor technical items, etc.

another helping thought/idea would be that if a rule is changed, give us more time to adapt. Such things recently (last season) have been changed, which only allowed a month or so to be followed. If the racer was given 2yrs notice, then he/she would have more than enough time to adapt. The way it is now, is some racing areas (such as S.Cal or Florida) can race pretty much year round, thus not having a big down time to make necessary changes, like other regins that have 5mos or so to make the changes and test.

just my thoughts............

[Dave M]

Freeze Them

My dad froze all rules for I think 2 years when he was VP of Mod in APBA. It caused quite the stir, not many people liked it. But it did make for some fantastic racing for a couple years.

[reed28n]

Rules

Our current system will continue to work.

Our calender is a little tricky Nov 1, 2007 through Oct 31, 2008 with our meeting in January......

We did make an effort to not bring in too many rules for this season this year.

[raceright]

Our current system will continue to work.

Our calender is a little tricky Nov 1, 2007 through Oct 31, 2008 with our meeting in January......

We did make an effort to not bring in too many rules for this season this year.

Scott there was discussion at the steering meeting on new rules and January meeting I think in the not to distant future you will have to go online after the convention to find any changes to the rule book.

Pat