is this sport dying?

over the last 5 years I've watched our district numbers drop considerably. most notable in all the nitro classes. one year we had about 15 sport 40s in 2-3 yrs time we can't get 3 to run. this class is on life support with scale following closely. We do run a lot of gas boats in our district but i also notice that only 3 classes have strong numbers G1 sport hydro,Cx-G1 mono Open cat. I would like some feedback on any ideas you guys are using in your districts to 1) increase your membership numbers 2)bring in young people. i know the economy has a part to play in the downturn but are there solutions that can be implemented outside of the economy? Your thoughts please.

Are Dayton club has pick up new members over the last 2 years and still growing.

Dave Roach

Evansville club has lost some good members & have picked up a lot of Good Boaters & Members that love to Boat....... the faces have changed But the FUN METER is still on the HIGH SIDE........ Jackson TN club has posted a GONE FISHING on the Frequency board just after having 20-25 members just 5 years ago.... We have to travel to Every Race, No club here....... So we race with the clubs that are having the Most Fun.......... After you get the boats running......... Its all about having a Little Fun & Meeting some Good people. Everyone of us could help the Sport By Sponsoning a class at a race or Helping a fellow boaters get to running well...... the Sport will Only Give what you are Willing to put in......... That goes for you boats too....

I think what you are seeing is a combination of two things. 1. This economy. 2. The high cost for newcomers to get into the sport, especially with gas boats. Limited, entry level low cost nitro stuff does not help either. There is an RC car club here in town that does pretty good with their numbers. Well, you can buy a complete RTR (new) and hit the track for under $300. Compare that with $300 and up prices just for a bare hull then $300 more for an engine and then more money for rigging and support equipment and you get the picture. If there is a such thing as a hobby like this becoming TOO structured where all the newcomers are pushed to get "racing" products and go race rather than just being able to buy a low cost RC boat and go enjoy it at a local pond. Maybe it has become too much of a sport and less a hobby.

Mark Poole ModVP said:

I think what you are seeing is a combination of two things. 1. This economy. 2. The high cost for newcomers to get into the sport, especially with gas boats. Limited, entry level low cost nitro stuff does not help either. There is an RC car club here in town that does pretty good with their numbers. Well, you can buy a complete RTR (new) and hit the track for under $300. Compare that with $300 and up prices just for a bare hull then $300 more for an engine and then more money for rigging and support equipment and you get the picture. If there is a such thing as a hobby like this becoming TOO structured where all the newcomers are pushed to get "racing" products and go race rather than just being able to buy a low cost RC boat and go enjoy it at a local pond. Maybe it has become too much of a sport and less a hobby.

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The RTR Nitro & electric boats on the market are Great Entry level boats & equipment & they are @ there all time Best Quality. inexpensive & Good Quality. all a club has to do is make a class for them.......after they are more involved they can come back & buy the used-new racing equipment if they like?? THE RTR`s have kept he numbers up with most clubs & members if they were including them into there racing program....... they are not for everyone. but they are a GREAT Entry level into model boating for kids & new members. Got to Think New Members. Cause you will lose some Old members due to whatever?

Joe W said:

Mark Poole ModVP said:

I think what you are seeing is a combination of two things. 1. This economy. 2. The high cost for newcomers to get into the sport, especially with gas boats. Limited, entry level low cost nitro stuff does not help either. There is an RC car club here in town that does pretty good with their numbers. Well, you can buy a complete RTR (new) and hit the track for under $300. Compare that with $300 and up prices just for a bare hull then $300 more for an engine and then more money for rigging and support equipment and you get the picture. If there is a such thing as a hobby like this becoming TOO structured where all the newcomers are pushed to get "racing" products and go race rather than just being able to buy a low cost RC boat and go enjoy it at a local pond. Maybe it has become too much of a sport and less a hobby.

Click to expand...

The RTR Nitro & electric boats on the market are Great Entry level boats & equipment & they are @ there all time Best Quality. inexpensive & Good Quality. all a club has to do is make a class for them.......after they are more involved they can come back & buy the used-new racing equipment if they like?? THE RTR`s have kept he numbers up with most clubs & members if they were including them into there racing program....... they are not for everyone. but they are a GREAT Entry level into model boating for kids & new members. Got to Think New Members. Cause you will lose some Old members due to whatever?

Click to expand...

+1. Couldn't agree more with The King.

A general question: Do you only consider those who actively race to be part of this hobby? What about those sport boaters who rarely race but run regularly for fun?

On the club level in large metropolitan areas, we've had the most success in my club by going grass roots and making club flyers for the club and district races to distribute to local hobby shops. Obviously the shops closest to the race sites have been the most productive as far as attracting new members. In more rural areas, the boating forums have been more productive for us on a district level. If you see someone new posting on the board from a nearby state, shoot them a PM. Ask them where they live and if they are not too far, invite them to run boats with your club or tell them to check out a local race.

Those that know me know what's coming up next so here it goes. We have had very good growth in IMPBA D12 the past couple years but the vast majority of new boaters in the district has been FE guys. These are the boats that hobby shops are selling the most. These are the boats that are getting guys into the hobby. These are the boats that for some are a stepping stone to get into gas and nitro boats. My son and I love our electric boats, but I'll also be racing two gas boats next season and my son asked me to build him a nitro tunnel. In D12 we have integrated FE's to bolster a dip in nitro numbers running combined classes. This might not be the best recipe for every district but IMO it's worked great for us. Heats are fuller and the racing is very competitive. So make an effort to recruit FE's and make room for them in the race schedule. One last thing. There are clubs and districts that do race electrics in combined classes, yet for reasons I cannot understand do not advertise the FE classes on the race flyers. We had that problem in my district last year and it took the district director riding some of the club officers to get the FE classes put in the D12 flyers. I've seen seen this in other districts and organizations also. You shouldnt have to go digging in a district rule book to see if you can run your FE. Most people will glance at a flyer and if they dont see a class they are interested in, they move on. You are not going to attract potential new members and racers outside the district if you do not advertise all the classes offered in a race.

I know in our club that I try ro help anyone and everyone with getting their boats going. If it were not for the club members I would be frustrated and probably would've stopped running all together. In our club if I have problem with something all I have to do is call and ask other club members. Which is great. We also meet sometimes as a club out at the lake and we help each other. Some people may not disclose all their secrets but I don't expect that either.

Boaters,

It is alive and well throughout the world with propeller orders.

I am going over my usual 1000+ propellers a year again.

The JAE's have made the Nitro classes come back alive.

The fast electric crowd is growing leaps and bounds this year.

It is a wonderful sport to grow. Now if I can find some time

to get my stuff ready for Hobart.

Thanks For All Your Support,

Mark Sholund

Props-4-U

231.590.3023

All,

Growth in any Hobby/Sport has to come from the CLUB level. All of us started with a club that normally has at least one experienced mentor to guide the new comer down the road to where each individual wants to go, competitive/sunday runner or otherwise. But at the end of the day it's the CLUB that brings all new members in! There was a post earlier of the fact he has to drive to all the races "no club here". Why not? Try to start one or ressuitate and old one. You could be a mentor for many new members if the circumstanses were there to promote it. As with me in Central Indiana, finding a place to run/test is a major hurdle and I'm sure thats a problem for many areas, but even with a small pond you can still promote the hobby and take a buddy along for a try. I keep a couple tunnel boats ready for action all the time so if someone is even remotely interested I can take them out for a spin, hands on is a darn good hook!

How long has it been since anyone has promoted a Mall Show??? or had a booth at the county fair showing off the hobby??? these are great places to spark interest in our hobby!

Many of the promotional avenues have been forgotten about and it shows with membership numbers shrinking.

If you are really conserned about losing members and want to stem the tide, consider taking the time to start a club if there isnt' one. Take someone out for a test run if they're interested, being excited about your hobby is contagous.

Yes our hobby can be difficult, it can also be expensive, but most hobbies are expensive and/or challenging. If everyone out there could/would snag just one person and be a mentor think how quickly our numbers would rise!

If not for Mike Z doing just that with me, I would still be flying only! it's all about giving some personal time to mentor a newbie! that's called GROWTH

gh

Our Northern Lights MBC here in S. Ont. is close to 50 members and growing.

I think you need decent water and you need to embrace ALL forms of boats, gas, nitro, electric, sail and scale.

From what I see there are more boaters than ever, except instead of 8 classes there's 28... :blink:

Four years ago our Club wasn't doing anything, until a couple of guys got back into the hobby after being away for a while and got down to the lake everyweek, until more guys came on the scene and then we got some regular racing going. We now have 15 members racing mostly Gas, Cats, Monos and Hydros particularly Thunder boats.

We also have two sport 40's in the club and two scale hydros.Nitro is definitely struggling in our neck of the woods. Although we run an offshore class where you can run any style of offshore boat, but the single most popular style is a 48" cigarette style hull and an ASP 61 nitro engine. In the conditions we run our offshore races these craft are very competitive even against the gas boats. It's pretty much our entry level class.

There are alot of people not invovbed in racing and it's hard to get them to engage in club activities because they seem quite happpy running their boats on there own.

Greg is right it starts at the Club. Madison In has been enjoying some growth with some people getting back in from years ago. What brought the turn around RTR for one the kids are racing in this class and having a blast doing it. Thunderboat is the other class we have 13 in our club alone with 3 more being built over the winter. People do not have the free time like they use to and face it gas is much easier to work with and keep running. The other thing is the economy you have to be willing to adjust to what people can afford. Nitro is expensive plus Glow plugs are not cheep and hard to get anymore. If it was not for Towers Hobbies I would have not been able to run Nitro this year. And one more thing people can not afford to travel like they use to so the Madison club is having more home races Grass Roots thing. Lake is the other thing yes we are the home of little Bristol but we are proud of what we have.

Don McKay

boats have never been cheap and im affraid they never will be,but here in d-2 the problem is clubs,the closest one to me is 2 hours away.so no the sport isnt dieing, all the old farts with the real money are lol.

I think that RTR classes are a step in the right direction for getting new blood into organized racing.

Also, bring a neighborhood kid with you to a race. I took a 15 yr old neighbor boy with me to the last district race and now he is mowing his way to paying for a B mono.

Is this question based on race attendance? If it is than I don't believe the cost of our sport is the undoing. I worked in a hobby shop more than thirty years ago and feel that the cost of the hobby today has not kept pace with inflation, especially the electronics aspect. I do wonder at the number of classes that the organizations (IMPBA/NAMBA) offer. It seems like anytime someone (or a manufacturer) comes up with a new type of boat, we generate a new class to accomodate them, are we diluting our own sport? It's easy to lose interest when you show up at a sizeable race with a 40 Mono and end up in open mono. How many times have you shown up at a race and ended up in an "open class"? Do we need to steer ourselves back to basics? Should we be looking at possibly offering a more limited number of "competitive" classes? I'm heading in this direction because every year we a seeing more new classes. I feel we are doing this to ourselves. Just like being a kid, it's hard to play when we all show up with different toys. Kerry

I am new to the hobby about 3 years. I think that what the problem is this thing we are using to see if it is dieing. When i was young you had TV no Internet and no video games. I spent most of my time in the cellar or the garage depending on the weather. messing with stuff. Trains slot cars and RC eng if I could get my hands on one. tore every thing apart to see what made it work.

Today gaming has taken over and the Internet also. don't need to find some thing to do its all right in front of you. texting has taken over as the pass time and when not texting gaming on line.

It is a much different world than what we grew up in. who has the time to mess with a eng that takes so much effort to make it run right.

Just pull the cord and go why would you want any thing else.

David

Lay26 said:

over the last 5 years I've watched our district numbers drop considerably. most notable in all the nitro classes. one year we had about 15 sport 40s in 2-3 yrs time we can't get 3 to run. this class is on life support with scale following closely. We do run a lot of gas boats in our district but i also notice that only 3 classes have strong numbers G1 sport hydro,Cx-G1 mono Open cat. I would like some feedback on any ideas you guys are using in your districts to 1) increase your membership numbers 2)bring in young people. i know the economy has a part to play in the downturn but are there solutions that can be implemented outside of the economy? Your thoughts please.

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hi, if you are out of the TRI-STATE area you will see a big drop in interest 1,because the economy sucks espeacially up by you,no one has no $$$,they pay 1,000 times the taxes,tolls,fuels,morgages and so on! and i think that also what dave wilfong said is very true, we live in a different world,all high tech toys and no desire to learn something different.i also think that the parents today work more than one job just to pay the bills and kids are left with not many choices.ps, if your are out of NAMBA D1, please tell the guys "squrrill" said hi. mike.

I'll have to agree 100% with Kerry on that one! we're having the same problem in RC aircraft............too many classes and divisions. It spreads not only the time available but also the resources trying to accomidate all of them. Just trying to get four rounds of racing in at a weekend race is next to impossible anymore. Not easy to come to a solution though without stepping on toes but the situation here can also cause a loss of interest with some racers.

Just a quick example from the AMA at this year's nats we had around 800 individual entries where most are competing in multiple classes. of those 800 folks there were 1800 class entries and we gave out 540 awards. That's one award for every 1 1/2 persons entered! That's how watered down (excuse the pun)our Nats have become, so boating doesn't own this issue by it's self.

An example in boating is B tunnel. With B novice, B sport, and B tunnel you can essentially bring one boat and run three classes. I know and understand the reasons for this but 12 heats with the same boat? I've also watched sport 20 hydros run competitively with the 20 riggers that may be the exception but.........

like I said a solution is not easy here but definately needsa look!

gh