Originally Posted by
Silent-AV8R
It appears he was talking about IMPBA racing. The other boat racing group, NAMBA, has no such testing requirement. NAMBA is bigger in the west/southwest, IMPBA is more mid-west and east coast.
Here is the NAMBA District 19 schedule for 2015:
http://www.namba19.com/Schedule.php
25 races mostly in California and Arizona. Most gas boat races are seeing 40+ people racing in multiple classes. Head up to Legg Lake in Whittier Narrows park most any weekend and you'll see a good group of local boat racers. Boat racing (gas, nitro,fast electric) is very much alive and well in the US and in the SW especially.
2014 saw 125 individuals post scores over the season. Compare that to the approximately 55 souls who competed in IMAC in 2014 in the SW region.
So I think your statement is fairly inaccurate.
AEF usually 150+, 500+ show up to IRCHA each year, 150+ at SEFF, local car race series like JBRL have 80+, bigger races like Reedy or Silver State pick up 200+ entries.
Sorry, but much like building aircraft (which I like to do) from a forest-in-a-box, boats are a niche market. Everyone loves the craftsmanship, but few actually take the time to do it.
If boat racing was a big enough market one would see more of that at local hobby shops.
But that is a bit off topic now.
People needing to be licensed to play with toys would thin out the hobby. The point of the hobby is for enjoyment, the most amount of fun for the least amount of work. Very few people want to go to school to play with their toy.