Nitro in District 19
By Al Waters
NAMBA Executive Secretary
I mentioned in the April 2016
NAMBA
Propwash
about a Nitro series
that Mark and Kim Grim and myself had
put together to see if we could muster up
some support and see where it would
lead to.
Our District Director, Richard
Romero was kind enough to lessen some
of the district rules on race entry costs
and contributions to the district treasury.
We just wanted to see if anyone would
show up. Nitro classes would be run on
Saturday and FE and SCSTA club
classes would be offered on Sunday. The
first boat entry fee was $15.00 and any
additional boats entered would be $10.00
each. Lake fees were taken from the
entries and the rest went back to the
boaters. The boaters wanted to see a first
place trophy for each class at the end of
the year so a few dollars was saved from
each race. The only requirement for
there to be a trophy was for the class to
run at least three of the four races with a
minimum of three entries. Mark Grim
made sure that all of these races were
scheduled after a district race so that in
case of a damaged boat at our race, it
would lessen the effect of someone not
having enough time to do repairs and
still chase district points. Mark also set
up a NAMBA legal coarse and the races
were sanctioned so that records could be
set in the stand alone classes. Donuts,
coffee and lemonade were donated each
day and for a $5.00 donation, lunches
were served (pizza one day and Subway
the next) that always ended up in an all
you can eat affair. And that included
Kim’s salads, desserts, chips and soda.
We took entries by e-mail. I built up a
private blind e-mail list so that all
entrants could see who was entering and
what classes they had entered. This
really helped as a number of people
entered boats that they normally would
not have entered so that classes could
qualify to run.
We had between 70 and 90 boats at
each event. That was about twice as
many boats as we expected.
PROPWASH
10
October 2016
My First Boat
(Continued from page 9)
guy with lots of stories to tell. I could listen to him all day. Bob was a representative
for Aeromarine Laminates. He told us that an outboard motor would be the way to go.
Bob told us about a model boat club in Needles, California (Needles River Rats) that
supposedly had thrown away all of their inboard motors and went strictly outboard
(aka Richard and Judi Hazlewood). As a kid, all I was thinking about was wow, I wish
they would have given me those inboard motors (LOL). Anyway, Bob wrote up an
order for an A OPC tunnel hull with a K&B powered 3.5. It blew my mind that I was
going to get my first real model boat. Not something from Toys R Us.
Several months went buy and no boat. My dad and I paid Bob Erickson a visit at
the pond and he informed us that Aeromarine had a fire and that he would have to
refund our money and find a different boat. I was devastated!
Later that year we went to my stepmom’s parents house in Whittier, California for
Christmas for a few days. We had some time to kill so my dad looked in the telephone
book for some local hobby shops. He found one not to far from us. We went for a
ride, however I was not overly excited because I had never seen a real model boat in a
hobby shop in person. We pulled in to the parking lot and walked in to the hobby shop
and let me tell you, it was a very impressive hobby shop. My dad asked if they had
any model boats to sell and as a mater of fact they did. They had just received a real
nice one that was sitting on the counter around the corner. I was excited to see what it
was. There was this beautiful red mono with a K&B 3.5 outboard motor on it. Perfect I
thought to myself as my dad had already been talked into that particular type of engine
anyway. The boat was a little more expensive then what we planned on paying, but I
know the look on my face must have been priceless to my dad. So we bought the boat.
You have no idea how excited I was.
I remember the ride back home to Las Vegas. I stared at that boat for that entire
four hour drive. The boat came with an owners manual from K&B. I can tell you that I
had that entire thing memorized by
the time we got home. The boat
was complete except for the radio
so my dad bought a stick radio. I
think it was called an Attack. We
finished rigging the boat and took
it to the pond. We did not have
very much luck getting it to run
but I did not care. We were now
part of the hobby. We became
NAMBA members and members
of the Las Vegas Mini Mariners
which was the local Las Vegas
club. It is all history from there.
I am going to write an article
for the next NAMBA
Propwash
about the racers I have met and
admired and what I can remember
about them. I thought it would be a
good idea to write my first article
about myself and where model
boating started for me.
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