OUTLAW EAGLE MANUFACTURING

[saz]

First off I have to appologize for not attending the meeting and awards last weekend i am out of the country with work.

I hear from the meeting that no large format gps are legal to run for the race due they are not safe?? can some one explain? this a tool that is mounted that if you do your prerunning can help you avoid trouble spots how is this not safe? I hope I have been givin poor information as this makes no sense, with the speed that some racers are now hitting I think we need to use every tool avalible.

[gatr]

the navigators eyes are better used watching the stuff outside the boat.
In nz they have banned the large mounted gps and chart plotters but a hand held with a less than 4 inch diagonal screen is the maximum size allowed in the uim proposed rule changes

[saz]

well I can tell you right now we run a small screen but wanted to go to a larger screen due to fact it is harder to see, my thought are that the large screen would be more of a glance then having to concentrate on a tiny screen. The navagivator in my boat does not stare at the gps just a quick glance for referance - My question still is how is a larger screen not safe?

[Will R]

I'm with you on this one fer sure Hal. in fact i cant understand how it would be unsafe at all. If anything it adds to safety. you can pre run a river ten times and still get ffffed up. the gps would help ensure safe passage through some forgotten obstacles!

[boosted]

We have a large screen gps and I can tell you that it is a safety tool. I only glance at it to see if we are coming into an area of extreme roughness or rock gardens. We have saved ourselves from large rocks many times because of it. Spenser king would not have hit the rock on the smokey if they had been using one this season. The boats are going so fast now that it should almost be required. Remember here in Canada we are travelling over 60 miles one way on some of the legs. In the old days it was like 20 miles max in Whitecourt and 45 in Peace River. When has it ever been a good idea to remove safety equipment from a boat. The governing body cannot tell a navigator how to navigate. If staring at the gps works for the guy then let him at it although I don't know anyone who races that way. Maybe the guys that made the decision have never hit a rock at 100 mph that was just below the surface. If they want some more injured people this is for sure the way to do it.[/list]

[gatr]

the justification for the prpopsed uim rule 900.5 Equipment
Safty,the GPS was being used as a navigational tool by the driver and the crew during the race, with big screens the driver has the tendency of looking at the GPS so the risk of crashing increases to the extent that they were not paying attention to the river course and/or natural hazards.One of the responsibilities of the crew is to navigate so he could be also using the GPS.

personally i know of an accident between 2 boats a couple years ago that the gps was a factor in one boat contacting another at speed on a section of river wide and deep enough for ten boats.

[Forplay]

Here's the text from the UIM proposal sheet I got from the meeting.

[boosted]

Hey why don't we remove the roll bars because they creat blind spots. This is a frigging joke!! My driver can't even see the gps in our boat and the last I looked there was not anyone but us two in the boat during a race so I don't think that they can tell me what I was or was not doing in there.

Really it is more about them asuming somthing and making a decision than actually knowing. Just wait until one of the turbine boats hits a big rock at 130+ mph that they would have known was there using a gps. They can tell there reasons to the families of the deceased

[sandman]

There is arguements for both sides on the GPS issue.
Sure would be sad if a 135+mph turbine boat ran into a rock because the navigator was watching a screen instead of looking for that sleeper that showed up when the water dropped overnight. If I remember correctly, a few years back an FX boat smacked a rock, tore the pump suction apart and ended up having to be hauled home. Gps was being used, submerged rock locator function must have been disabled I guess.
Unless the gps has a function that will locate these rocks for you when they are just below the surface, you better not be spending a majority of the time looking at a screen.
What this rule does is minimise the chance of something like this occurring again. Now you may not be one of those guys that looks at the screen all the time, but the guy that does is more likely to cause a wreck which will do nothing but hasten an end to the sport as we know it.
I used a gps for the first time this season and absolutely would not rely on it to get us through the rock garden, only a fool would. It worked good on the Ft. Assiniboine run to help remember the shortcut channels though.

[boosted]

I don't use it to get through the rock garden just to let us know that one is coming and to really pay attention to the river in front of you as appossed to checking guages and looking to far ahead for the quicker line. I can see your line of thinking but I still think that the gps is a safety feature and not a hazard. In the Watino downstream run our gps saved us from hitting the big riock that Colby did. We had just passed Spencer and had started really moving when I glanced down at the gps and saw the skull and crossbones that reminded me about the rock. We had been heading right for it. I pointed for Jesse to really be on the lookout for it and 1 second later he gave me thumbs up that he saw it. Would he or myself saw it without the gps. Maybe maybe not. If I check the gps and there is no dangerous spots flagged, that dosen,t mean that I close my eyes and have a nap(although I could the navigator doesn't have to be consious in order to win ha,ha).

The rule seems to be put in place to protect against the guy who stares at the screen. Do you or anyone know anybody who does that?

[gatr]

Mark, you do know this is a directive as a result of nz's racing rules and isnt a direct comment on canadian style racing or racing teams. Sure it will affect us as we follow uim rules for world marathons and our own race series, but we dont have to raise our hand to pass...yet.

[boosted]

Yes I understand that. That is one reason that it doesn't fit here. We have different rivers and the navigating assets of a gps over here are not really much of an advantage. It is the sfety aspects that bothers me being lost. The reason they are saying that you cannot have it is because of safety concerns so in my opinion it is for the wrong reasons. I can see in New Zealand that the navigating aspects of it could be more of an advantage with all the braided rivers and because of that it may have some merrit over there. If only ran 20mile legs over here then it wouldn't be alot of help either as it is pretty easy to remember 20 miles of river for rocks and danger spots after a few pre runs but 60+ miles is another story.

Really if it is a directive then me pissing and moaning won't make any difference. I can choose to put up with it or not race. And I thought they are trying to grow the sport. The younger generation likes technology.

[gatr]

They also want to start a dialog on the future of a and b class. Kind of a five year plan to try to bolster numbers in these classes as the believe them to be declining.Thoughts on uping the cubic inches in bolth classes to make them small block 440 and big block 560 to accomidate the engines already out there. any thoughts on that

[TOP DAWG]

We have used a 8.5" screen for a couple years now and its sure a nice tool as far as safety goes. We can plot the trouble spots on it ( IE rocks lurking below the surface that you can see when you pre-run at 45 mph ) and when those spots do come up you can avoid them. There is no way at 140 plus MPH you can read the water far enough ahead of you to avoid this type of hazard. We need to make some noise and get this rule reversed. This is a step in the wrong direction as far as im concerned.

[saz]

I agree we need to not support this step back in safety in our sport . I really have no idea on what the next step should be to protest this proposed idea.