The Waterline
By Rags Grenier
District 11 Director
Editors Note: The Waterline is an e-mail
publication of the District 11 newsletter
sent out to it’s district members. The
following is the April 2013 edition.
Jack Frost Shows Up at Mansfield!
I was not surprised to see frost on the
ground in the middle of October in
central New Hampshire as my son
Andrew and I headed out for the last
race of the 2012 season at Mansfield
Hollow. I was a little surprised after
three hours of driving 182 miles south,
Jack Frost was still nippin’ at our noses.
New Englanders (and one Canadian) are
a hardy bunch and by the start of racing,
the jackets were coming off. This was
the best attended race of the season with
54 registered boats. 20 above the average
for the previous four races. The races
went smoothly and all four rounds were
completed well before dark. Something
that is always tough to do this time of
year.
Points were now critical to
maintaining or increasing individual
standings for the year. The racing was
serious and competitive as it always is,
as well as fun and entertaining for all
that were there. The results from this
race and the season totals have been on
the District 11 website for some time, so
I hope you have had the opportunity to
review them and see how you did in
2012.
Thanks to the Greater Hartford Model
Boat Club for hosting and the work they
did to put on this event.
Season Recap
Just where did this season go? It
seemed like five district races and a Nats
passed by so quickly, but it is not gone
from our memories. It was a pretty good
time in District 11. Of course, the Nats
was a big event for us. It enabled many
district members a chance to chase a
National Championship when they may
never have such an opportunity again.
Not to mention the experience of
competing with top racers from other
parts of the U.S. and Canada. All of you
deserve a round of applause for
contributing to the history of NAMBA.
PROPWASH
4
October 2013
read in to all proposals and see if they
are in the best interest of NAMBA
members.
Please don’t get me wrong. I am all
for fire extinguishers. I have one that
hangs inside my boat trailer and one that
is in my accessory box that I place by
my boat tables at the races (and test
days). And I have found that most all
model boaters do the same.
Now let’s look a little deeper in to the
proposal and see the differences
.
Each
registered participant must have a fire
extinguisher.
If it is discovered that one
person does not have a fire extinguisher,
the possibility exists that he or she could
become personally responsible if
something was to happen.
It is the Contest Director’s
responsibility
. That means that he has to
check and verify all entrants have fire
extinguishers. Do you really think in the
real world that will happen at every
event whether it is a nitro, gas, FE, or
combat? If there isn’t 100 percent
compliance with our own safety rules,
then we possibly become personally
liable and also jeopardize site insurance.
The proposal meant well and most all
of us do follow that proposal. But we
can’t pass rules that we know we won’t
get enforced 100 percent of the time.
What we need to do is pass intelligent
safety rules that keeps model boating as
safe as possible for everyone involved.
Why Proposal #1 Failed
By Al Waters
NAMBA Executive Secretary
In April of 2013, there were nine
proposals NAMBA members had the
opportunity to vote on. One in particular
that interested me was Proposal #1 that
dealt with fire extinguishers. You may
recall a few years back when the
membership was voting on increasing
displacement for nitro and gas engines,
the NAMBA Board of Directors was
working hard at putting together rules for
maximum boat weight, no smoking
areas, and a rule on fire extinguisher use.
I thought that the Board of Directors did
and excellent job at time. The concept
was to pass rules to show the insurance
company that we are an organization
committed to safety. In doing so, we had
to make sure that we passed rules that
could be enforced in the real world. Now
let’s take a look at the proposal the
membership voted on.
Here was the current rule at that time:
At NAMBA events, the host club will
provide a fire extinguisher in the hot pit
area. The hot pit area is defined as the
area where boats are started and
launched. It is the Contest Director’s
responsibility to insure that the fire
extinguisher is in place, readily
available, and meets the following
requirements. The fire extinguisher must
be at a minimum BC rated and legally
operational.
Rather than print the entire proposal
that the membership voted on, I will
highlight the changes.
Each registered participant at the
event will be required to own, and have
on hand in their compound area a fire
extinguisher.
It is the Contest Director’s
responsibility to insure that the fire
extinguishers are in place, readily
available, and meet the following
requirements.
When you look at this proposal, it
looks pretty good on the surface. After
all, why would anyone put a fire
extinguisher proposal out for voting if it
wasn’t a good idea? That is the problem
with many proposals. They have a 75
percent chance of passing by just being
there available to vote on. It’s up to the
membership to be educated enough to