Torquay 25/26th May 2013

[alice]

could an entry list be put up ,thanks

[mdm1uk]

Originally Posted by leeornsby

Anyone know a nice hotel in Torquay the imperial is fully booked.

Cheers

Osborne
Glen eagles
Palace
Liver mead

[Night Nurse]

Have any Race Instructions been sent out yet, if so where can i lay my hands on some please? Thanks in advance....

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Night Nurse

Have any Race Instructions been sent out yet, if so where can i lay my hands on some please? Thanks in advance....

Email Shirley - If you're entered then you should have had them!

[Night Nurse]

All sorted now... See you all at the weekend

[speedyboy99]

Big thank you to everyone for putting this race on , had a really good weekends racing

[Hydrostream]

Originally Posted by speedyboy99

Big thank you to everyone for putting this race on , had a really good weekends racing

You get your boat sorted, how did it go?

[NIC SURRY]

Thanks to Tim for some great photo's.I was asked to give my boat a name at the start of the event and chose 'BIG AIR' which seeing Tim Tapping's photo is an appropriate name.Cheers Nic

[SEPA]

Great weekend in the sunshine in Torquay - well done to all the competitors who competed and all got home safely - a big thank-you to all the officials, volunteers and safety crews, without whom events like this would not be possible!

[Keanaz]

Originally Posted by SEPA

Great weekend in the sunshine in Torquay - well done to all the competitors who competed and all got home safely - a big thank-you to all the officials, volunteers and safety crews, without whom events like this would not be possible!

Your welcome - EvenKeaner sat on Mark/Turn bouy 3
(White/Black Larson Bowrider)


Keanaz

[SAR Rouge]

Great weekend - pleased to be involved and work with safety officers and OOD who are competent, sane and sensible.
Many thanks to "Flipper" and the rest of my crew.
A big thank you to all racers, in that all we did was "bob" about off the Ore Stone/Wreck buoys etc.
Having just seen the photograph published I did not realise that it chopped-up that much!
More boats would be great!

[snapper66]

It is with much regret that ORDA - Offshore Racing Driver Association - announce that this year’s Torbay Classic will be their last!

They feel that they cannot put on any more races and continue to make the substantial loses that were incurred by the Club and its committee members, who also had to add their own funds.

We appreciate that with the current economic climate times are hard, but with only a few boats coming forward to race this year, it has not been enough. We sincerely appreciate those entries that did race and cannot thank all the officials and safety boats enough. All those concerned made every effort to make this event very successful, but sadly it was not enough. We will still continue as a Club but will not run any more races.

[Adam]

Very sad news - but also very understandable.

I don't really know how any club can break even on running races with todays expenses, low competitor numbers and lack of sponsorship.

It was bad enough when I was chairman of ORDA and we were getting around 20 boats per meeting and we were struggling then to make things work financially.

For a small sport powerboating has become very complicated and ever more expensive to take part in or organise!

[hunton69]

Sad news indeed.

Not sure why only a couple of marathon boats entered when others raced else where. I guess the ones racing in the venture cup next week did not want to risk breaking any thing and the added expense of racing twice.

The only way I see going forward for the marathon boats is to only have a couple of events each year. CTC will survive as it is stepped in history but any other race or races need to be organised well in advance and every club needs to pull together.

Changing the class regulations hasn't helped either as I understand certain over seas teams will never race here while there in force.

Possible some people have to much power and meddle in the regs. of the sport when really the powers that be need to talk to the guys who spend the money ( the teams )

What is interesting to me is no one within the sport has contacted any of our team and asked if there is anything that can be done regarding the sport to improve it or encourge us to race again.

A simple questionare to every team may help. Making a database of past and current teams.
I could go on.

[OCRDA]

A simple questionare to every team may help. Making a database of past and current teams.
I could go on.[/QUOTE]

This Questionnaire was sent out to all previous and current licence holders as well as officials. last year with only 30 replies from over 1000 sent .
It was then sent again earlier this year with a prize draw of £150 (won by Alan Power) this time only had 18 replies.
We have a series of events running to cater for all (not just marathon / endurance) which I am pleased to say is slowly gaining momentum and has the chance to win free entry and licences for 2014 but still not much take up.
Seems there is more to it than just cost, but without the feedback we, as organisers can only guess.
If there are any of you that want to give some constructive feedback as a competitor, official, or spectator please complete questionnaire and return either to me ocrda@btconnect.com , your club or Becki at the RYA

"What is interesting to me is no one within the sport has contacted any of our team and asked if there is anything that can be done regarding the sport to improve it or encourge us to race again"
Presumably you have contacted your Club and suggested what you think is the way forward !! What was the outcome ?

[hunton69]

Thank you for OCRDA Can't recall seeing that questionnaire but interesting that so few bothered to reply. I guess it means that not many people are interested in power boat racing any more.

More importantly then that only a select few races are organised and no one steps on any ones toes.

Interesting with such little interest why there would be 3 huge marathon races organised in 2011, 2012, 2013 all cancelled.

Regarding class regulations what is your view on changing them.

1: Are they changed for safety reasons
2: To encourage more people to race
3: To make it more affordable
4: To make the racing more interesting for the public
5: So a boat builder can sell more boats
6: So that certain engine conifgurations have an un fair advantage

Also who has those powers.

[OCRDA]

I think the questionnaire issue was that people are not notifying their clubs / RYA of changes to email / Address etc. so are not receiving correspondence !!

On subject of classes I assume you are referring to Marathon ??

[hunton69]

Originally Posted by OCRDA

I think the questionnaire issue was that people are not notifying their clubs / RYA of changes to email / Address etc. so are not receiving correspondence !!

On subject of classes I assume you are referring to Marathon ??

Yes

[Cookee]

Too many classes approved by the RYA and Clubs despite best efforts of a Boatmad member will not talk to each other about co-operating and putting on bigger better events on different dates.

[RHINO]

i see it as 2 problems,problem 1 is that the organising clubs have their own ajenda and will not compromise with each other,problem 2 is that the rya keep on approving races on the same dates which just dilutes the entrys.If the rya used its power and just approved maybe one race a month that all classes attended the organising club would cover its costs and the rya could get a bigger calender fee.I dont want to blow my own trumpet but when i was orda chairman and i worked alongside OCRDA and SEPA we got enough entrys to cover our costs,the only disappointment was that we could not convince the honda organisers and the kids class to join ,and that is where the rya could have helped.The race courses helped when we had OCR boats doing their smaller course while the bigger boats went round on a bigger course but all started together.