Cowes Event 2008 Race Entries

[flightracingteam]

Hi All

With the Cowes Event a month away, it is becoming increasingly urgent that if any of you guys are intending on entering, either the Cowes Torquay or the Cowes Peveril (Basic Race) that you get your entry forms completed and back to P1 asap. We have made it as easy as possible for the maximum amount of teams to enter and tried to remove as many of the barriers as possible - so now it's up to you guys to do your bit and support the Event.

I have done my best to make it possible for as many boats to qualify to Race and I now need your help in proving to Race Organisers and the RYA, that if life is made easy, you all come out to play.

Kind regards
Gary Manchester
ORC Chairman

[blind dog]

sent to day

[scottyboy]

Mine went friday!

[hunton69]

Not enough entries then. what a surprise . Just look at the fees.

Gary you have worked hard on this however a 6 year old could work out what wrongs. Answers on a post card please.

[flightracingteam]

Hunton

Yes - you could put the answers on a postcard. Trust me it would be jammed full of figures that would blow your head. I am not going into financial details because they are confidential but I know what they are and how much this Event costs to stage and trust me if you were looking at the figures that I'm looking at - the Entry fees are very reasonable for a brilliant weekend.

A brief insight into the costs of this Event - the Marina at Cowes will cost in excess of £30,000 to hire for the weekend. Cranage costs on average a £1,000 per day - there will be cranes available Thursday, Friday and Saturday. To hold this Event there will be over 40 Safety boats involved - 9 of which are being specially chartered to carry divers.

These are just a few of the costs to stage this Event - we have not even got to the fact that Race Crews, Race Officials, etc will receive breakfast, lunch, promotional Event packages and one hell of a Race Party at the end. All part of the Entry fees.

So I'm sorry to say I do not agree with you.

Speed costs money - how fast do you want to go - trust me the amount of money this Event is costing to stage is far beyond what any Event in the UK spends on an entire season - let alone one Race staged on one day.

On a more positive note - I look forward to seeing you at Cowes fully participating in the Event.

Kind regards
Gary Manchester
Chairman, RYA Offshore Racing Committee

[hunton69]

Gary you failed. ( Breni liked your jokes at milford )

WHY IS CLASS 2 THREE TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE THAN CLASS 3

Very bloody simple. Same size hull different engines and believe it or not they sound better.

The day F1 cars run Diesel is the day it will die

[hunton69]

Jim needs to understand simple maths £500 x 30 = £15000 or £1000 x 3 = £3000

[Jon Fuller]

Are you unhappy about how much you're paying, or how much they're (class III) paying?

[225]

If the event costs that much, why are you adding extras on like the breakfast and lunch

[hunton69]

Originally Posted by Jon Fuller

Are you unhappy about how much you're paying, or how much they're (class III) paying?

Class 2 is £1000 and class 3 is £350 how would you feel?

Some of the boats in class 3 are larger I feel i'm penalised because i decided to install big petrol's which in my opinion sound better

If the cost of a race is x amount to put on why is the cost not evenly shared.
The bigger and louder attract more spectators.

The entree fee structure isn't encouraging anyone to invest in the bigger boats.

[Jon Fuller]

Maybe the differential between classes is a little large, but it'll be based on ability to pay, as it's always been.

Remember we're talking 'as a general rule'. Someone with a 45 footer and 1000+hp can and usually will afford a bit more than a guy with a 20 footer with a 200 horse OB. It stands to reason that if the guy with the 20 footer could afford a load more, he'd prolly have a bigger boat anyway!

Try and charge 1k entry for a guy to enter a 9' apollo + 15 yam,... he aint gonna play.

I don't think there's any merrit in claiming your entry should be cheap because in your opinion your boat 'sounds good', or is 'a nice colour', you'll need a better argument than that.

If everyone had to pay the same price in sharing the cost of the event, only Hannes Bohinc, Fabio, and Drew Langdon would turn up, so we still wouldn't have an event. The smaller, cheaper boats need to have an entry fee they can afford and that is appropriate to their financial standing. It's a little unfortunate for you, that your motors are as big as some of the race boats that have cost 1/2 a million quid, even though yours are standard production units in a relatively small boat, but you have to have a class/cost structure that works across the board.
As I said, mebbe in this case the difference is a bit hefty, but the principle is I think right.
It could be worse though, you could have an outfit that was a grands worth of old hull with a pair of knackered 454's, total outlay 5k, and you'd still be in the £1000 entry class. Likewise, you could spend £1M building a one-off carbon superboat for RB4 rules and jump in the cheap seats!

Ho Hum

[russellramjet]

Put my entry in yesterday! Hoping to finish the race without sinking or blowing up the engine this time!! See you all there. Russ

[hunton69]

I agree with you about paying more for a larger boat after all mooring fees are based on size. It's the proportion that i feel is unreasonable.

Don't presume that just because someone has a bigger race boat means they have more money it probably means there a bit stupid. I live in a 2 bed bungelow with a big mortgage ( not after sympathy )



I feel the entree fee should be discussed in greater detail after all in certain sports the bigger the attraction then there paid to attend. I'm certainly not saying that should happen in this case.

I went to watch CTC in the 80's and 90's to watch the class 1 and 2 not to see a fleet of small boats.

I'm guessing but by the sounds of it there doesn't seem to be many entries so far. And i'm sure there are boats out there that would like to enter.

Are you charging the bigger boats more for the poker run ?

Maybe it's time for a change

[Jon Fuller]

The DW poker runs are virtualy charity events.
Gill chooses to run the events to help publicise Drivers Wharf and give her yard a club feel in the hope that people will be attracted toward her business. There is a basic charge per boat, and an additional charge per person. the fees cover the cost of food, cards, insurance, entertainment etc. The only profit seen by Drivers is the additional cranage seen over the poker run weekend. If she had to hire a venue, cranes, etc, etc, there would have to be a far more aggressive and calculated pricing structure, where I'm certain you'd see some 'ability to pay' pricing structure going on. Lets hope things can continue as they are for Poker Runs.

Powerboat P1 is a business, the books need to ballance, or at least that have to try for this.

It aint perfik.

[Jon Fuller]

Originally Posted by hunton69

I went to watch CTC in the 80's and 90's to watch the class 1 and 2 not to see a fleet of small boats.

If the smaller boats hadn't been there in their hoards, there wouldn't have been an event for the big boats to enter and you wouldn't have been there watching them!

Also remember that the small race boats are stepping stones to bigger race boats.

Just like the housing market, if the stepping stones at the bottom are put out of reach, it'll eventually all fall over like a house of cards.

Like I say, it aint perfik, but there's always the option, like Mike Lloyd, to grasp the nettle and organise an event yourself. maybe your formula would work.

[hunton69]

i agree its not always perfect. But

You need boats to make a race. No boats means no revenue

Information would help.

For the extra fee's do we get anything extra in return. ie:

More room in dry pit area for our guests

More pit passes

More invites to the party

etc.

[Jon Fuller]

Originally Posted by hunton69

For the extra fee's do we get anything extra in return. ie:

More room in dry pit area for our guests

More pit passes

More invites to the party

etc.

No idea, you'll have to ask Jim.

But please don't piss him off too much, or we won't even have an event to argue about.

[hunton69]

Originally Posted by Jon Fuller

If the smaller boats hadn't been there in their hoards, there wouldn't have been an event for the big boats to enter and you wouldn't have been there watching them!

Also remember that the small race boats are stepping stones to bigger race boats.

Just like the housing market, if the stepping stones at the bottom are put out of reach, it'll eventually all fall over like a house of cards.

Like I say, it aint perfik, but there's always the option, like Mike Lloyd, to grasp the nettle and organise an event yourself. maybe your formula would work.

Couldn't agree more

Thats how we started in a 13'6 concord. Got to cowes looked in the marina and said one day.

If you check out the season entree fee for the 2 classes in P1 the fees are the same.

By the way i have lots of respect for P1 afterall they have bought back the big monhulls

[verytricky]

There was an initial battle and some ( quite stupid IMO ) shooting of oneself in ones foot by the club organising the event.

However, as it stands right now, almost any reasonable boat can enter one of the events ( there are three running ).

Yes it costs more for some boats - that was something you could have taken up with the organisers three months ago.

We started pushing for the acceptance of V24's in January with letters to the organisers, and we got acceptance of the boats in April. ( changed a month ago - then re-instated - see note about shooting in the foot.. )

You could have tried to sort out something regarding the fees months ago.

IMO it istoo late now, but perhaps I am wrong. Write to the organisers, with your point of view, and see what they can arrange.


I am happy because I am allowed to enter. For me that is the big step.

[BluFin]

club - foot and shoot sums it up for me. I dont think the club have changed their opinion one bit, just put under pressure from outside & the higher end of the food chain