April 2022 Propwash Web

Anyway, this article isn’t about ice boats but it is about three situations that I witnessed. The first situation occurred back in the mid 1980’s within the outboard class. During a “B” OPC Tunnel stock race, I watched another driver stroll by the other boats on the pit tables and stop and gaze at the competitor’s hulls. I thought nothing of it, as it seemed to be harmless. When the horn went off, the six racers began starting the boats. Five of the six of us entered the water, with one racer stuck on the beach. That evening, I received a call from that boater and he told me there was a ball-bearing loose in his engine that hammered the head and sleeve. He then told me his bearings were fine and he didn’t know where this “spare” ball-bearing came from. The light just went off in my head. Yeah, you guessed it. That other boater dropped a single ball bearing into the carb of that boat to ensure that he would be out of the race! I could NOT believe it, so I called that guy up and told him that I witnessed him dropping something in the carb and he fessed up. He went on with excuses, blah, blah, blah. I told him he didn’t belong in NAMBA and not to come to any races. I never saw him again. The second incident occurred in the 90’s, but dealt with the 75MHz radios. One of the long-time mono racers, Roy, seemed to always have radio troubles with one of his mono hulls. He did range checks and looked for loose wires, and kept taking his radio box apart. Roy never found the root cause of his radio issues, and we never found out what the issue was, so it was chalked up to be some errant frequency at the lake. So, a few years later I was at a club member’s house who was looking to sell all of his stuff because he was done with boating, moving on to something else. We were telling stories about stuff that happened over the years and just laughing about the crazy things that we had seen. During the night, he just blurted it out. This guy admitted he used to sneak into his trailer and turn on his radio while Roy was racing. He said he turned his transmitter on and off just to screw with Roy. Fortunately, Roy never had an accident, but he did have a number of unexplained “DNF’s”. Things like this are funny to some, not me! There’s the second sh**h**d in our midst. My third story is one that hurts the most and still haunts me to this day. At the end of the third round of racing, I was standing at the side of the driver’s stand listening to three members of the same “race team” chat. One racer said he needed a first place in the fourth round to win, and another racer, who already had 1200 points, to get a DNF in the fourth round. His buddy said, and I quote, “Don’t worry, I’ll take him out because he’s in my heat.” The three walked away without seeing me standing to the side. I strolled back to my tent and sat there a while, feeling very troubled and confused. Listen everyone, this isn’t just random occurrences in model boating, but this happens in all types of sports and with many other levels of desperation. Look at major league baseball. Since Abner Doubleday, hundreds of instances of cheating from scuffing the baseballs, banging drums, stealing signs, electronic pagers taped to the batter’s skin, corked bats, pitchers using stick-em, and the use of steroids to enhance the power of a hitter. How about soccer, with one team being a goal up, you will notice a player who BARELY gets bumped, then drops to the ground writhing in pain as if his leg was torn off, but the clock keeps ticking. The first aid crew comes out, sprays the freeze mist on the guy’s leg, then miraculously he’s up on his feet looking for the horn to sound. A few years ago, the New York Giants were playing late into the fourth quarter and they needed the clock to stop because the other team was about to score. As the Giants’ defense was switching players, some type of signal came from the sidelines and TWO players fell to the ground as if they were injured. (Continued on the page 26) Octavio Rivero was an amazing man who was always there to help a fellow boater out. He was a true ambassador and innovator to the hobby. The heart and soul of the RAM Club of Miami. The love, the wisdom, and humor he brought to his friends will be missed forever. The absence of Octavio at the lake and to the hobby will be extremely tough to overcome, but we will continue to do what Octavio would have wanted us to do “Keep Racing Boats”. His presence and contributions will forever live in our hearts and in the hearts of our boats “CP MODS.” The Dark Side of Model Boating By Dave Rychalsky NAMBA Historical Chairman For the majority of our members, model boating is a means of competing in a hobby which will pair up a person’s building skills, driving skills, control of their anxiety and ability to make quick decisions in milli-seconds. For the ones that want to make a difference and run for District Director, VP, President or Race CD, it can become an entirely complex world. Whether it’s at a race or just at a meeting, as long as there is more than one person involved, a controversy may ensue. To top that, when it’s a NAMBA national event, there’s so much at stake and so much pressure to do well, people tend to get all lathered up, so Dr. Jekyll disappears and out comes Mr. Hyde! Many years ago, I wrote a few articles about “Ice Boating in District 1”. I thought I did a fairly nice job on those articles and evidently, the few that I did write were somewhat convincing. Well, one member of district 1 was furious with me because my articles expressed an intense race where all had a blast making boats from ice and racing them in the dead of winter. This member was ticked off that I did not invite him to this event and no one told him about it. As he cursed at me, wondering if I purposely ignored him, I could not let him continue, so I told him that I made the entire event up. “It was entertainment – no one made any ice boats. That’s ridiculous.” Two of the guys I mentioned in the articles were close by and they verified that the story was BS. It is funny how a simple article can send someone off the deep end and let the flood gates out. C’mon man! Ice boats – LMAO. PROPWASH April 2022 25 In Memory of … Octavio Rivero By Steve Rodriguez NAMBA District 3 Member