Subscribe To Powerboat Magazine...

[Ron Hill]

Trouble is, I don't know where Powerboat Magazine is anymore, as I want to buy a few hundred copies of the January, 2007, issue...

[Ron Hill]

Don't know the rules about Copy rights...but here is a Preview of January 2007, Powerboat Magazine. They covered The Blue Water Resort and Casino 300 Enduro...

[Ted March]

this will help

[Ron Hill]

I always liked this picture and I always was glad I wasn't diving this boat and for sure, I was glad I wasn't riding in it....

[Ron Hill]

I sold a propeller today, to Ken Warby...Was looking through some OLD magazines..and saw this:

I remember, like yesterday, Rod Zapf and I attending a cocktail party at Lee Taylor's shop, next to John Wayne Airport...Hard to believe it was 1979, as I also recall Bill Foster, Greg Foster's dad, launching Lee's boat with one of his cranes...

Rod and I looked this boat over and then looked at each other and said, "He's going to be killed in this boat." I said to Rod, "It would run better with the sponsons in the front...." When I heard Lee Taylor was killed trying to up Ken Warby's record, I wasn't surprised...

[mercmack]

If Your Name Is Trump..this Might Be A Mag For You..but There Is Little Or No Coverage On Ob Racing An Thats Been Going On For Years..the First Time I Seen The Mag Was At A Shop In La When I Was On My Way To See The Last Saltin Sea 500..and Was A Faithly Subcriber For Years After Tilll....now And Then You My See A Short Page Story On Some Champ Boat Thing But Thats It..
At Least Bass And Walleye Test New Engs And Has Eng Test Ariticals On Different Mod To Merc And Yamadog.. And Scream And Fly Site Goes To The Miami Boat Show With Tons Of Pick's
There Was A Good Overseas Mag Not To Fare Back But Its Died Too.its All To Bad...
Thank Goodness For Racing Facts And Others Here On The Computor:(

[flaursen]

Hey Guys I do know of a great Magazine that covers all aspects of Power boat racing as we like it
It is called H2O Full throttle and it has some of the best pictures and coverage that I have ever seen

Here is a link to their website and even the site does not do it justice when it comes to pictures

http://www.h2ofullthrottle.com/

Frank Laursen

[Miss BK]

Here's how boating magazines figure out what articles to print:

The publisher hires an editor to find out what types of articles are in demand. They print the articles, then wait to see how much feedback they get on each. If a magazine has 20 articles on a variety of things: offshore/outboards/drag racing/regattas/poker runs, they'll keep track of how many readers respond to those articles.

I once wrote a story on the Rumble on the River for Hot Boat and I made sure to tell everyone at the event to let Hot Boat know they want more articles like these. When the article hit the stands, only ONE person wrote to tell Hot Boat they wanted more like it. So, that's what's been happening to all the outboard coverage we used to get. It's mostly our own fault. We don't help ourselves.

[Ron Hill]

Just thought these were cool pictures...

Duff Daily, Jimbo, Billy Martin, Bob Hewitt, Bill Muncey and Ken Warby....

[mercmack]

JUST SAW THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE ABOVE MAG AT THE PART TIME JOB..
ITS CRAP@@@@@@@@@..THEY GAVE THE CHAMP BOATS 1/2 PAGE..
ALL THE REST WAS CRAP...NO OTHER OUTBOARD STUFF AT ALL..SURE NOT LIKE THE OLD DAYS..:mad: :mad:

[Miss BK]

There is a way to get more coverage in the magazines - it's called positive reinforcement.

And apparently that's exactly what these "other" guys are doing - writing to the editors and getting noticed.

Our sector of the powerboating world rarely keeps in touch with these magazines (but in the "old' days they did!). Until we change our habits and get to work, it will always be "the other" stuff that we see. It's all about how bad you want it.

[Cameraboy]

There is a way to get more coverage in the magazines - it's called positive reinforcement.

And apparently that's exactly what these "other" guys are doing - writing to the editors and getting noticed.

Our sector of the powerboating world rarely keeps in touch with these magazines (but in the "old' days they did!). Until we change our habits and get to work, it will always be "the other" stuff that we see. It's all about how bad you want it.

Val, I've played the game of leading the media to water, even handing them the cup - unless it's a small town newspaper, they won't drink regularly. So some of us that "got to work" have gotten a little frustrated. But, I'm not disagreeing with you on how the game has to be played. However, when you're racing, you have to choose where your time and money as an individual gets spent.

What these magazines want is someone to write the articles and take the pictures, or pay them to have it done. The old days of covering boat racing as a journalist are gone. And as you say, providing the article and pictures aren't enough - you're going to lose to the bottom line every time because they focus on what people are reading. So you have to make the contact, provide the material, and provide the reader feedback. That's practically buying an ad in the magazine. I don't think that falls under the traditional definition of journalism, but it's how corporate media operate. I personally feel that sucks.

That's a lot of effort. And there just aren't a lot of people that are passionate about boat racing that just want to do the promotion side - most of them want to race first. And that's our fault? (rhetorical question)

It bugs me when people make the generalization that boat racers don't do anything to help themselves in promotion. I've even seen a magazine official say that he called the APBA office for information "but they couldn't be bothered to get off their asses and respond". Know any boat racing publication staff that will even take the effort to surf to Web looking for boat racing events? You know as well as I do the information is out there.

Outboard racing made it harder to promote ourselves when we lost touch with mainstream boating. And we get farther away year-by-year. You can run 70 mph on a jet ski and over 90 in a bass boat without kevlar, helmet and a racing sanction. I think promotion now needs to focus first on the local level to get people interested and maybe involved. I don't think national/international magazine coverage does that as effectively. Especially when they live off of advertising from jet ski and bass boat suppliers.

[Skoontz]

Having been involved in the industry I am, our company has been written up numerous times in trade publications...I have had opportunity to talk to many of an editor, and in many cases, it's about economics and clout. When you had factory wars going on for example, as this was the time when writes came regularly in most publications, OMC says to the advertising manager, "We spend X amount of dollars in your publication a month, so we expect you will be covering alot of races this season, right?"

Merc said similar things, especially when Mr. K was behind the wheel, I have no doubt having heard about many of is antics ..... You can lead the horse to water, and cannot make him drink, but, when you throw the great motivator (money) into the mix, money that supports the staff of the publication, the horse is them willing to walk himself to the water, and drink.

I'm not saying that is a then vs now snapshot, but I do know how the game is played in the magazine business at least through my industry.

[Miss BK]

Yes, magazines as well as TV, enjoy seeing ready-made reports. As long as the images and the story is well put together (they do pay for these).

But in late August, I was asked to do an article on the Michigan Hot Boats social club. The MHB paid the magazine absolutely nothing, and didn't have to write anything either. All they had to do was encourage the magazine (over a period of months) to come to Michigan and cover their event - and they gave examples why their entertainment was better than poker runs/offshore races/drag races or any other boating event. These guys were really FIRED-UP! They didn't sit and wait for someone to show up.

And their constant communication with Hot Boat eventually paid off. Hot Boat sent both a photographer and a reporter to see what they were all about, resulting in a three page article (which covered outboards, inboards, IOs and jets) and a dozen pictures.

I've also seen first hand how POKER RUNNERS get fired-up and demand attention. And the impact from their noise is huge. When an POKER RUN article is published...they send letters! Their feedback has a big impact on whether there will be another poker run article soon.

So what I'm saying is, we are such a QUIET group compared to some other groups who spend all summer rallying this media attention. As long as we stay silent like this, so will the magazines and newspapers.

Another example of the silence: The APBA has a website with a coordinator that stays pretty much on-call 7 days a week (holidays too) to post information as soon as it comes in from clubs & regions around the country. But more often than not, there will be no e-mail in the coordinators mailbox. No race results submitted. No pictures. No pre-race info. And sometimes, weeks can go by with absolutely nothing sent to be posted. The same is true for the APBA E-alert, which now is sent to over 4,600 people!

So, here we have two free and willing places where we can get some great attention for our sport - but even with them being handed to us - these are rarely used. Other than Ross Wallach and a couple other clubs/series who do keep up the communication, our OWN site stays mostly silent.

My question is: Why? Why don't we write to the magazines like the other people do? When will WE get fired-up?

[Miss BK]

PS
When I was racing, I used to drag my boat right up to the front door of the local newspaper office. First, I'd call to make sure the sports editor was in the office. I got a picture and story written about my team every single time. I learned this from my dad, who was the Northern AZ ASA Softball commissioner. He had used these same tactics during his men's fastpitch softball career.

Yes, it was a pain and I could have done other things with my time, but I was trying to get a little promotion so I could keep my sponsor happy. And it worked.

True, it was a smaller newspaper (pop 20,000), so it would probably be much harder to get that done in a bigger city. I've never tried that. But the point is that I would have been covered in cobwebs if I just sat on my sofa waiting for them to find out about me on the Internet. That's not going to happen with a newspaper, but does occasionally happen with magazines. I've seen that occur from time to time. :D

[mercmack]

JUST LOOKED A MARCH ISSUE OF THIS MAG...GESS WHAT..NOT ONE AND I MEAN ONE WORD OR PICTURE OF A OUTBOARD IN THIS ISSUE..WHERE IS THE OLD POWER BOAT...:mad:

[mercmack]

Looking A Little Better, There Was 5 Pages Of Outboards In The April Issue...still Got A Long Way To Go Before I'd Subcribe To It..

[Skoontz]

Mercmac:

Unfortunately, the boating population, I mean pleasure boat population is changing to the cast iron hunk of junk hooked to a lower unit crowd very fast. Go to the river during season. You are just not cool unless you drop 3-400K on some oversized over powered yuppy float. 90% of the people who own those boats would not have the first clue as to what to do with them under full throttle, very similar to the clientele I have who own Ferraris. You have to have them just to have them... They just thunder around, being with the in crowd. Outboard powered boats can't hardly be given away. That to me is plainly stoopid, because of all the advantages an outboard powered boat has over an inboard, from fuel effeciency, to higher performance, to more room in less boat, outboards have every advantage you want to write in. Not defending Powerboat here, but, they print what is selling in the marketplace. If you were an inboard owner, and Powerboat wants to sell to you, that's what they are going to print because I'm betting they know their market and target markets. If there are few outboarders in the group, they won't sell magazines.

Very sad but true reality.

[flaursen]

I think you have to put horse before the cart:D here they took a chance and put in a couple great articles and they have gotten some a few great responces now they put in a bit more and have more outboard articles then I have seen in along time and all we do is complain about what they have done sort of bitting the hand that gives us food
more positive reinforcement the more they will print

Frank Laursen

[Mark Poole]

Just to get back on track.....Lee Taylor's "reverse" 3 point hydro was influenced mainly by wind tunnel testing. These reverse style hydros always seem to have very positive results in the wind tunnel. They are also very successful in RC racing. I am no hydrodynamicist but it is a fact that what works as a scale model does not always work in full scale. Taylor's team designed this boat shape that copied a 3 wheel land speed car. The fastest RC boats going right now are pushing 150 mph and they are not reverse 3 pointers. The sponsons are up front even though the boats are still very radically designed.

The ride surface angles on Taylor's boat were way too aggressive (steep). This is half the reason the boat crashed. The other half is the fact that he, for whatever reason, attempted to set the record on a far less than perfect day for it. With such steep ride angles the boat began to sponson walk in the rough water and basically rolled over, pivoting on the one forward ride point.

Personally I believe if the water speed record is to ever climb above 400 mph a 30 ft. boat with one jet engine bolted to it is not going to work. It will need to be much larger with more horsepower and more weight so it can maintain stability at extreme speeds.

[mercmack]

Just Looked Over The May Issue Of Powerboat..sure Would'nt Spend Any Money On The Rag..its To Slick To Even Wipe Up Spilled Soda Pop While Eating Lunch..put It Back On The News Stand..:( :(

[Miss BK]

Kick em hard. We sure don't want them to continue to support us like they did with the original post on that FANTASTIC article in the January issue, do we? :confused: :rolleyes:

On another note, my photographer was just given an invitation to ride in a helicopter with a group doing a poker run. He's pretty excited about the opportunity and I'm sure it will be seen in at least one major magazine. I only wish boat racers spent half as much time contacting the magazines as the poker runners do. :( I've been doing this nearly 10 years and I'm not any closer to getting the support I need from the racers to keep it going. The first 5 years were pretty exciting, but it's dropped off dramatically since.

In fact, it seems to be going the opposite direction as more folks keep saying "DUMP THE MAGAZINES", rather than campaign for more coverage. (and there is a lot of campaigning going on elsewhere in the boating world) We will get what we work for - its up to us to determine what it is we want.

[Roy Hodges]

was a write off, for Bob Nordskog . He loved boats & boatracing. Making money from the mag was not a consideration, in my opinion. At least that was what i heard Ted May say,once in about when he was holding court at Parker, in 1989 ,i'd say. He also said same about Nordskog Marine. Ted worked for Bob , so he probably knew what he was talkin about . and, in my opinion there will NEVER be another like Bob's Powerboat mag, $ is the bottom line .

[Skoontz]

Roy:

That nailed it. And, BK has excellent ideas here. On a side note, one of the reasons we keep getting our company published, is that we submit regular, detailed press releases formatted the same way an article would be written.

The reutrn is credibility. If you want more outboards, you gotta say more outboards. It will trickle down and hopefully, the public will start buying outboards again. I could never figure out why anyone would want a cast iron hunik of stuff taking up 4' out of your boat but that's the route people are going. Which, in turn, is whay lots of inboard write ups.

[Miss BK]

Not long ago a major boating magazine ran 8 articles on one particular racing series - this meant 8 out of 11 issues had beautiful, full color coverage on this one series. (there were others mixed in as well).

What people didn't know was the behind the scenes situation - the series promoter was in contact with the magazine constantly, with all sorts of creative offers for on-site advertising to benefit the magazine - on-site banners, on-site T-shirt sales, crew uniform sew-on patches with the name of the magazine, booth space, etc. They came up with lots of ways to exchange much needed exposure for each party.

No "money" changed hands but the benefits to both sides were immeasurable. What pained me was that some teams complained about having to sew on the patches in the contracted locations on their uniforms and rebelled against it. They didn't realize that this "silly" appearing demand was actually an integral part of international media attention for their own series -- in other words, that single patch might have been a key to securing a good sponsor.

Once this particular race series CEO was gone, the agreement fizzled away, no similar partnerships were ever formed, and the coverage has never been as good.

That's just one example of how a creative mind will find a way to get coverage when they feel they aren't getting enough. And the rest of us have to show support as well.

I know some race groups are very good at submitting a pre-race announcement as well as a post race recap in press release form to as many media outlets as possible - including free websites like this one or APBA (Ross is a good example of this). This isn't easy, and takes more time from a volunteer - in some cases it's likely left to the scorer - who is probably already donating hundreds of hours and is usually exhausted by the end of the weekend.

If you think you can help your club with something like this, ask your club President if there's a spot for you. :)

And then maybe we'll start seeing even more articles in those great magazines!

[Skoontz]

BK nailed it. Unless you are actively doing this type of work for your club, you really should not complain. No offense intended for anyone.

[Roy Hodges]

Roy:

That nailed it. And, BK has excellent ideas here. On a side note, one of the reasons we keep getting our company published, is that we submit regular, detailed press releases formatted the same way an article would be written.

The reutrn is credibility. If you want more outboards, you gotta say more outboards. It will trickle down and hopefully, the public will start buying outboards again. I could never figure out why anyone would want a cast iron hunik of stuff taking up 4' out of your boat but that's the route people are going. Which, in turn, is whay lots of inboard write ups............................................
I can tell you why it's all on inboards. It's because you can still buy an I-O for less than 20 grand . Try buying a new bass rig. 45-50 thou ? New buyers think that the" iron hunks are SUPERIOR", as well as cheaper. The magazines are NOT going to tell them any different .

[Roy Hodges]

When mercmac and I mention the lack of ink on outboards , we are talking about outboards in general, not racing in particular . There are a lot of us who don't need or care about the "glory" of winning . we only want to compete for personal satisfaction. and we don't insist on somebody else paying our way, (sponsorship) we just want it cheap enough to afford it , without our whole life being
taken over and dominated by it .

[Ron Hill]

I wrote for Power Boat Magazine fore it was POWERBAOT, in 1967 and when Bob Nordskog bought the magazine, he fired me. I NEVER took it personally, as a few years later when we became good friends, I never mentioned the firing, for fear HE'D feel bad that he'd made a BUSINESS decision.

I read old magazines, too often....but one thing that "JUMPS" off the pages in magazine after magazine was "HOW TO" articles....People don't do things anymore. They BUY them or they WATCH them.

I was reading Circle Track about two years ago, and they were predicting economic problems for many small tracks because NASCAR was showing NASCAR TRUCKS on Friday....

Things change...BRF will replace magazines...with or without advertisers. This is OUR MAGAZINE....

I love outboards more than the next guy...but they really don't sell..new or used...This 24 Hour Race, is the coolest thing I've ever seen, but does it sell ONE MOTOR in the United States??? Winning outboard races, in Europe, may sell motors in Europe, but that isn't a very large market....

Magazine run on ad revenues....Big Boat companies spend big bucks...Sometimes, Like the Blue Water Resort and Casino 300, magazines run articles......because they have interest to the readers...

I haven't bought an ad in a magazine, for my props, in over 20 years. I don't feel the return is there, a business decision...

Like it or not, most of BOAT RACING IS BORING unless your kid is racing or a close friend...If you look at Hot Boat's site, V-Drive and Jets always seem to have the most views.....Well, the T and A section has the most but, boat parts, where people fool with their boat is V-Drive and Jet guys...Lovers of their passion...V-Drives and jets won't carry a magazine any better than outboards....Bass fishing is different...

A need to LEVEL THE FIELD: Bass fishing ain't the most fish you catch, it is your five best. Nostalgia Boat Racing levels the fiield.

If you truely love Boat Racing and want to see FAMILY, FUN and Friends GROW....You need to ask yourself, "Self, what is Ron Hill saying???" See in Nostalgia, you don't need the best prop, you don't need the best motor, you don't need the best driver, ...you need to RACE within your bracket....

We spent a lot of money on Pat Bowman's Nostaglia Endurance hull with new gelcoat an all, because we hope the boat will be raced for years to come.

Magazines will follow the money and or numbers...Nostalgia can bring the numbers...

Thanks BK for writing great articles...few of us ever thank the writers....but trust me, I aways got good ink, because those who wrote about MY boat racing knew I appreciated their KIND WORDS...Nice words about Ron Hill fixing a prop for a NEW RACER won't sell magazine ads....Home made trailers and boats don't sell them either...but we loved making them!!!

Would a MOD C be safe with a 55 MPH Speed limit????

[Roy Hodges]

I did a little racing in the late 1950's ,when in nor cal , we had some races that did not even require a crash helmet . I was a deck rider in a race in Point Richmond,ca,w/no helmet & i got thrown across the cockpit and hit my head on the carlin and lucky to only get a sorehead . The worst i heard of then , was at Stockton and some guy who had NOT bolted his motor to the transom had his motor come loose & into the boat. He got his leg cut by the prop. I think SAFETY begins by not tolerating those who will do anything to win, even running over his own son in the corners. I saw that happen.

[Roy Hodges]

Ron, you know who the guy is who ran over his son, I told R.J.West about it ..at the lakeXXX playday , saturday , & he surprised me when he said , "i have that on tape !"

[mercmack]

Just Looked Thru The June Issue Of Powerboat..and They Did It Again..not One Storie On About Outboards...they Was A Penzoil Add That Had A Outboard In It...there Was A Great Race In Rouen The First Of May They Could Have Put Something On At Least Quarter Of A Page.....

[Miss BK]

Rouen was only 20 days ago - the current issue was probably already at the printers.

Besides, I wrote and told them I wanted to see more deck boats :D j/k

[Ray Lumpkin]

I did not renew and wrote to Powerboat (my letter is in April 05 issue) beacuse they do not cover boat racing at all. In the old days it was great, but now nothing!! Boat Racing Facts. com is way to go today!!

[Miss BK]

Their is a huge downside to leaving the magazines behind....

My basement is full of magazines, all in date order starting about 1977 to present time. Images and history I can EASILY turn to when I want to read about a particular time in our boat racing past. In fact, this very website frequently posts scans of those well written articles and great shots of boat racing. I freeze in horror when I think that there may never again be any PERMANENT records we have enjoyed to date, and our alternative choice to store this history is prone to vanish in a flash.

If we have decided to stop encouraging magazines to cover, I can only hope that 30-40 years from now, these websites we love will still be have their FULL, huge databases available to us to view: and won't have disappeared like www.hydroprop.com, www.boatracingworld.com, and so many others have done already. Hundreds of photos, historical records, and race recaps that appeared on those sites are now gone forever.

Can you pull up HYDROPROP.com's years of fabulous digital records from 1998-2002? Nope. They are all gone. Luckily, HYDROPROP also kept actively involved with the magazines, so all those years are permanently recorded there. Thank heavens!

This is something to think about if we really want to say "good bye" to the magazines that have served us so well in the past. Are the website volunteer owners willing to keep paying to have these digital images and records available to their visitors for an eternity?

I'm sure they will say yes, and are glad to, but an eternity is a very long time.

[Ron Hill]

If we shut BRF down tomorrow, we'd have everything that was here today on a DVD.

If you spend anytime on the internet, you realize that the WORLD has changed and is changing daily. Network TV show are way down in viewer ship...BRF and 40,000,000 other sites are hurting Network TV..

I speak openly about BRF being larger than the NRA someday...Well, if there are engouh people that like boating, we could be larger than the NRA....My boating friends love their boat more than their rifles.....Not sure they love their boats more than their guns...

Well, anyway, magazines run from ADVERTISER's MONEY....Web sites run from LOVE. I personally have not subscribed to Powerboat in twenty years, not to say the magazine is bad. It is just that they write nothing of interest to me...usually..

I posted HISTORIC PICTURES of the Molly Bee (Molly Ballou's) drag boat today....Would a magazine ever print those pictures???? Well, maybe no one cared, but I DID!!!

Now, if I was in this business for the money, maybe a nice article about a Fountain would be what we need....Not to say I don't like Reggie or Benny Robertson...as Benny will be making an attempt at 200 MPH in a Fountain V Hull, soon....This will be an HISTORIC event in Boat racing history...and BRF will be there!

[Miss BK]

I've written articles about Warby, Bill John's "Obsession", Rumble on the River, Switzer Reunion, many small boat club stories including the one that ran last fall on the "Michigan Boat Club" and many more. Why? BECAUSE I love this sport ONLY. And you are trying to say that ADVERTISING was involved in those stories? Really.

I'm a strange case, I guess. I have no family that races (anymore), I don't sell boats or props on the side for extra cash, and to top it off, I GIVE my photos away for free to websites like this! (At least the magazines pay my gas!)

Thanks for the info. For the last few years I've felt like I was really wasting my time getting those stories in print. Now I know it's true. But I knew our RACERS needed real media exposure to keep their sponsors, so I kept doing it OUT OF LOVE all summer long while my kids protested and begged me to stop so they could do other things. Thanks for making it clear that I'm just spinning my wheels and all that work really was never appreciated.
Thanks for helping me plan my summer. Have fun ya'll.

[Ron Hill]

Hey, I'll pay your gas...Lovew to see you and the kids...hell with the OLD MAN! (LOL)...Love to see Brad, too!!!

I've ordered 300 T-Shirts and may order another 300...The Reunion will be BIG!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Miss BK I think you took Ron's reply wrong. Both of you are doing what you do for the love of the sport and not the money. It is the same way with myself. Many of the guys I used to sell pictures to are now BRF members, and they are seeing other pics they never bought along with everyone else.

I think Ron was merely stating the obvious that there is a big change in the way we receive our communications and he is very proud of what him and Ted have put together, and rightfully so. He was responding to the fact that there are backups to BRF so that a gigantic sunspot or west coast power surge won't wipe everything out. But that still doesn't mean it will last forever.

I think there is a place for magazines as well as the internet to fill. With magazine articles, a story is complete in itself, and can be preserved for future reference. I, like yourself can go way back to find past articles as Ron has done many times here. The internet however can provide immediate feedback and much more in depth info than can be covered in a magazine article. Participants and fans alike can add their two cents right after the story appears. However, you can see that posts can almost as quickly get off on other tangents and the original story disappears. It is sometimes very hard to go back months later to recall something you remember reading--even with the search function. Not so with a magazine article. So I think both are invaluable to keeping us informed. That being said, here are some more thoughts on Powerboat and other magazines.

Specialty magazines like Powerboat do not have the readership or advertising dollars to have full time staff members to go out and cover a sport that has relatively few participants compared to other sports like golf, soccer, football, etc. They depend on people that have an interest to spend their own time and money to go to events, gather the results and story info and get it to them in a timely manner for publication. I, like you Miss BK did stories for publications from 1972 through 1984. I started out strictly in order to get my photos published. Unless there was a spectacular crash sequence or a pretty girl hanging around boats, pictures usually are not published without a story, and most of my shots were not of the boats that would make a cover.

So I had to learn to write. I am fortunate to be able to say that not one article was ever turned down or one word ever edited except for captions. I hated to write captions and the editors did a much better job than I did. The point is the editors were hungry for this material. Few people take the time to do it. If I was competing against 40 other photojournalists each month to get published, then I may not have ever seen any of my stuff in print because I was just an amatuer. But I loved the sport and the fact that I also drove gave me a perspective that I think helped my articles.

All the articles I ever did paid 50 dollars a page. I forget what the Powerboat & Waterskiing articles paid because it was in pounds, but I think it was about the same. You can't make a living off of it, but the way I did it along with selling my photos I was able to write off expenses on my taxes. The stuff I did for the tabloids was gratis, but I did it for the sport and am as proud of those articles as any I wrote.

I subscribed to Powerboat from the first isssue dating back to when somehow Powerboat came out of the ashes of Boating News and continued until 1981. At that time I was on the masthead as a contributing editor so they sent me comp issues until around 1986 or 87. I never read any, but I still have them because I am a boat racing pack rat. I had to quit racing abruptly, but I didn't want to abandon my interest. It just lay dormant for a couple of decades.

I think Miss BK, that there are a lot more people out there that appreciate what you have done for the sport than you realize. There would be probably more that would work like you have at writing and promoting if they felt they had the talent, but it just doesn't happen. And I have also learned that when someone comes along that is good at what they do, others don't step up because you are handling it so well. When you're gone is when others realize what they had and lost. It is many times a thankless job, but don't give it all up. Magazines will always have a special place for a lot of us. If they don't have the articles we want, it really boils down to us for not providing support and input. It's not the big dollars coming in that keep our interest in boat racing alive....it is the love of the sport. One time a fan asked me if their was a lot of money in boat racing and I said " Yeah, there's a lot of money in it.....but it's all going the wrong way!":D

[Master Oil Racing Team]

My previous post took so long to write that Ron's post beat mine so I will add that I too would like you to come to DePue so I could meet you in person.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

.....I just had another thought. I am going to be way to busy talking to old friends to take notes or look at this event objectively. It will be historic. Think about this. Why don't you come to do an article about it for Powerboat. Ron, Joe , I and others can help with any background info you may need as well as provide and I.D. photos. Just think about it.

[Ron Hill]

We always joke: "How do you end up with a small fortune in boat Racing?"

Simple: "Start with a LARGE fortune..."

Thanks Wayne, for trying to say what I meant..

As I see things, pictures by Master Oil are some of the GREATEST legacies in OUTBOARD Racing's history, and it would be very hard to post these on Powerboat's magazines...

I don't think a day goes by, that I don't stop and look at Wayne's pictures on BRF and just SAY, "WOW, what wonderful photography...and I'm lucky enough to see it..."

I've mentioned here that Bob Nordskog "Fired me" in 1967 when he bought Power Boat Magazine....I honestly had no problems with it then or now...It was BOB's DREAM. It was Bob's magazine. It was Bob's money...If it had been my money, my dream, my magazine, I'd have done it differently....

The only thing constant is CHANGE.

I've read every work MISS BK has ever written (Several times), I'm sorry if I didn't understand what she was saying....Her writing has always come from the heart and with deep passion....

As APBA's OPC Chairman, I paid BK some promotional monies, and had my budget ever been approved, she'd have gotten most of the budget...Except, my budget never got approval......a budget was aprroved, but NOT MY BUDGET!

[Ron Hill]

Mike Nordskog offered me ever back issue ever published. I just need to go get them.

Without Bob Nordskog's CASH, interest and changing times, the magazine is gone.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I hate to hear they shut down Ron,. But you need to go get those issues Mike offered. I bet people would be interested in certain issues such as the ones covering Paris 6 hour, Parker, Havasu, Rotaries, 1974 Stock Nationals, first 200+ blown fuel hydro run, etc, and every one of the October issues. That's the one that had National Championship results from all categories. You could use that as a fund raiser.

BTW, email how to do that thing you sent me. Do I have to do my own password?