Event ideas

[drmarcc]

I am looking for a fun event to add to our club''s calendar that would involve the motor boaters. Would welcome ideas other clubs may have tried?

[gunnyman]

As a past Commodore of a 50 boat sailing club we ran into the same thing. How to include the power boaters. We found that in the spring a good draw was to have a pig picking to include a raft up etc. Made sure that any visitors to our marina were given courtesy dockage for the night helped as well. In the fall we would combine a halloween thing to get the kids involved and have an oyster roast and low country boil. Door prizes never hurt. We found that West and others were more than willing to contribute to our cause. Don''t overlook your local Wal-mart as they have great discretion in their budget to help local causes.
Other than that it takes a bunch of work by a few people as you well know.

[paulk]

We do an "away" cookout. The sailors have a day or afternoon- long race to the destination point, often an island. The powerboaters zoom over to join them for cocktails, then burgers, steaks, or whatever on grills at the beach they''re anchored off of. Bunkless powerboaters can can raft up overnight or head back. If you pick a spot on the mainland, boatless people can drive there too!

[FalconEddie]

Why not include a ''poker run'' for the power boaters? Select five locations and either anchor a boat there or get use of a dock. Send off the powerboats in two-minute intervals. They cover the course in a predetermined speed, based on speed limits and wildlife zones, etc. At each of the five stops, they pick an envelope out of a bucket with the number of the stop on it, sealed. The time is written on the envelope to verify their skill at the speed portion. At the finish line, their closeness to the required speed is entered in the skill portion, and the five cards are revealed for the best poker hand, the luck portion. Ties will be broken by cutting the deck.

A little planning can have the sailboats and powerboats all arriving around the same time.

Just a thought

[maestro]

Keelhauling and walking the plank are good activities to use with power-boaters...........

[Silmaril]

A bit more traditional is the idea of a "Predicted Log Race", for the powerboaters. Poker runs are fast and fun, but lack the thinking that us blow-boaters do.

The "Predicted Log Race" is like the poker run, but each skipper has to predict his arrival at the waypoints in advance. An observer on-board takes down the actual arrival at each waypoint.

The true test is that the skipper of each powerboat can only use a compass and tachometer, all other nav aids are off or blocked out. The observer ensures that no "Cheating" occurs.

The powerboat skipper now has to have a good idea as to his boatspeed at a certain RPM, take tide or current into affect, and also sea conditions (he may go slower into a headwind with 3'' waves.) Not to mention that he will actually have to know how to navigate using a paper chart, dividers, parrallel rules, compass rose, et al.

At the end of the race, the boat with the lowest differential to his overall prediction wins.

This is a true test of the powerboat owner''s skill and knowledge as a yachtsman.

[sailnaway]

Raft Race this gives every one a team to enter what ever you want just no power or sails. The area selected for this becomes the raft up area for both power and sail. The water baloon fights with the funnel and bungee cannon come out some beer gets consumed and a day long BBQ and and party is usually thrown. The teams pay a small price to join the fun marinas tackel stores local buisness all join in and the money can be donated to both a prize and your local cause what ever it may be. This gets power sail and the public involved if you set it up where the public can watch and join in. The New River Raft Race use to be a blast I do not know if they still do it or not. You might check the Ft Lauderdale Chamber on that one.