Races and boat limits

Doc, I am confused.. when the IMPBA does not run for US1 I understand the annual "biggie" to be a NATS?.. Not an Internats. (yes.. no?)

Thanks

Grim

Here is the IMPBA end as far as formats.
International Regatta = Internats which is the US-1 format. Winners are declared "US-1 International Champion" for the class.
National Regatta = Nationals or Nats which is heat racing only format and declares a "National Champion" for that class

There is the other 2 Nats races out there, Atlanta Spring Nats and Charleston Fall Nats. These are premier heat races, but do not declare national champions for the winners. There are no other races allowed to have "Nats" in the their title per the rules.

The upcoming Namba race is called the "Annual Winter Nitro Championships" with no Nats in the title. I have no idea how Namba handles the terminology allowed on their race titles. Doesn't really matter to me, it is definitely a premier race and I'm looking forward to it.

dr gary turner said:

IMPBA INTERNATS INTERNATIONAL REGATTA

Spring Nats(Nationals) Atlanta
Fall Nats(Nationals) Charleston
Winter Hydro Nats(Nationals) Brandon

Nationals is a term that is used frequently.

I am not sure what NAMBA’s official name for their NATIONAL RACE

I think in the Rule Book there are guide lines that need to be followed in order to declare the race a National race.

Sorry a bit off original topic

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Striaght out of the Rule Book.
4. No club shall use the word “Nats” or “Nationals” in the name of their race without Board approval. Races that use the word “Nats” or “Nationals" in their name must follow the established IMPBA engine classifications.
a. Clubs that held a race in 1990 using “Nationals” in the name shall be “Grandfathered” to allow running of deviated engine classifications: The Atlanta Model Boat Club for the “Spring Nationals”, and the Charleston Model Boat Club for the “Fall Nationals”. Note: They may not use “National Champion” on trophies – awards will be First, Second, and Third, etc.
b. If these clubs do not hold their race for one year, they must request Board approval to use the word ”Nats” or “Nationals” again. If granted permission, they must adhere to the established IMPBA engine classifications going forward.

I knew the answer. I was just not going to be the one tossed under the bus.. LOL

In the end.. its nice to see Mike B and Brad B clarify for those that were not clear.. Nice eh!

Grim

Bradley Maglinger said:

Striaght out of the Rule Book.
4. No club shall use the word “Nats” or “Nationals” in the name of their race without Board approval. Races that use the word “Nats” or “Nationals" in their name must follow the established IMPBA engine classifications.
a. Clubs that held a race in 1990 using “Nationals” in the name shall be “Grandfathered” to allow running of deviated engine classifications: The Atlanta Model Boat Club for the “Spring Nationals”, and the Charleston Model Boat Club for the “Fall Nationals”. Note: They may not use “National Champion” on trophies – awards will be First, Second, and Third, etc.
b. If these clubs do not hold their race for one year, they must request Board approval to use the word ”Nats” or “Nationals” again. If granted permission, they must adhere to the established IMPBA engine classifications going forward.

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Pretty good rule I wrote when I was a director. There was a lot of chatter about clubs trying to use the word Nationals. At that time it was all board approval. So to protect the four clubs that were doing it at that time and to prevent everyone from doing it. I reworded the rules. We had Orlando with the Winter Nats, Atlanta with the Spring Nats, the race that was up in Canada east of Detroit was the Summer Nats, and Charleston was the Fall Nats. We only have two of the National races left. The ones we lost was the Winter Nats and the Summer Nats. The Winter Nats is now NAMBA and the Summer Nats are not held anymore.

dr gary turner said:

IMPBA INTERNATS INTERNATIONAL REGATTA

Spring Nats(Nationals) Atlanta
Fall Nats(Nationals) Charleston
Winter Hydro Nats(Nationals) Brandon

Nationals is a term that is used frequently.

I am not sure what NAMBA’s official name for their NATIONAL RACE

I think in the Rule Book there are guide lines that need to be followed in order to declare the race a National race.

Sorry a bit off original topic

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It's called the "NAMBA Nationals", plain and simple. The city hosting it might be added to the name but that's about it.

The summer nats Mark is referring to was the "Norther Nats"

Grim

Lamar_Huff said:

I'm only concerned about heat count... I could really care less about the max # of boats. Due to factors beyond our control we only have 2 days to run our event. We can reasonably expect to finish around 170 heats in two days and that's where we set the cap.

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We do the exact same thing at our "Can-Am" race as we never know from year to year what will be popular. For instance one year we had nine Crackerbox's entered, the next we had two and the class didn't make.

We are also limited to two days and can't start until 9 am. We go 9 - 6:30 on Saturday and 9 to about 4:30 Sunday, 1/2 hr. for trophies and our guests are on the road at 5. That gives us 17 hrs. of running time and at eight heats per hour (pretty good clip for one retrieve boat) we can run 136 heats. Divide that by four rounds equals 34 heats per round. We usually end up with about twenty classes making the minimum so If all heats had six boats that would make 204 boats. We ran about 175 the past two years.

We've heard a little grumbling in the past that we've ran too many classes but what else is a club to do these days? We offer anything we "think" might make our five boat minimum and let the market decide...

Daniel's Racing said:

Don't see the point/correlation. Everybody had similar opportunity. You snooze you loose.
So lets just say everybody was a paid 2020 member(like say if that was the rule). Would it have been any easier for anyone to get signed up in the first 55 minutes. Doesn't change anything. If anything it could possibly make the matter even worse.

Members should know when the time to sign up is. If the others were members too surely they will be there ready to sign up when the time opens up.

What is the answer ?

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Misquote The Gas Nats sold out in 12 minutes

Something I am trying to work around here in Australia revolves around what you are talking about here.

It sounds like in the end it comes down to limited time (be it 2 or 3 days of racing) and clubs wanting to limit boat count to ensure all classes get to run 4 (or more times).

Doe this mean that everyone who is against capping boat count (heat count limits) are all for less racing? ie 3 rounds maximum per class?

Kris Flynn said:

Something I am trying to work around here in Australia revolves around what you are talking about here.

It sounds like in the end it comes down to limited time (be it 2 or 3 days of racing) and clubs wanting to limit boat count to ensure all classes get to run 4 (or more times).

Doe this mean that everyone who is against capping boat count (heat count limits) are all for less racing? ie 3 rounds maximum per class?

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Krys,

One potential solution to all of this would be to allow the minimum entry number to carry a class to vary based on actual entries. Allow as many entrants as come in, but any class that doesn't make the cut, based on a given number of heats in a day, gets cut from the race schedule. This shouldn't be to hard to figure out. You would just start with the most popularly entered class, working your way down until you meet the maximum heats in the time available. This automatically ensures the most popular classes are what actually run and keeps the heats full. Refunds would have to be given for entries whose class got cut. In the event a racer was only planning on running one boat, and that class didn't make the cut, they could be offered an entry in another class that did that their boat would qualify for (Sp40 in 40 hydro, for example) or they could be given the opportunity to enter another boat that could be added to classes that made the cut. Final race schedule should be set and announced well enough prior to travel time to allow racers to load their trailers accordingly.

Seems simple enough to me.


I'm sure this might ruffle a few feathers, but it seems to me that we're having this discussion because people are getting their feathers ruffled. Not enough rounds... Three and four boat heats... Etc.... Whatever. This is being proposed as a means to keep the ruffling to a minimum. We're never going to please everybody.

Thanks. Brad.
Titan Racing Components
BlackJack Hydros
Model Machine and Precision LLC

I suggest limiting the number of boats per individual to 2-3 during the first two weeks of registration. Then open it up to previously registered boaters for an additional 2 boats. Then have a final time frame to have last additions. This method would allow for a larger number of PARTICIPANTS. Is the goal to grow the number of boats at a race or the number of contestants? I contend it should be the number of participants (veggies) is more healthy...then you can add the number of boats (ice cream).

I have stopped going to some races because being limited to one heat of C or E hydro is not worthwhile.
The long term health of RC boating is hindered by too few participants racing each other in 5-10 classes. Now if there is room for a guy to bring his entire fleet after all potential participants have registered...bring them!

Recognize your club's race is a product being sold. You need multiple customers and multiple orders over one large sale. The mad rush to get signed up is causing numerous no shows at the larger attended races, and this procedure could minimize this problem too.

I know the Indy Unlimited would generate 150 boats...one boat per participant. This race was very healthy!!!

Respectfully,

Well stated Mark. I loved Indy Unlimited

dr gary turner said:

Well stated Mark. I loved Indy Unlimited

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Doc, I am working on a two entry unlimited style race in IMPBA D3 in the near future.