Why are there 2 model boating organizations?

[OffShore_RC]

Being new to model boats, I was wondering why there are 2 model boating organizations (NAMBA & IMPBA)?

Seems to me they have similar rules and goals for us RC boaters.

[Flyguy55]

I don't know all the reasons , but I was at the IMPBA Nationals at San Diego in 1970 when it happened.
IMPBA at that time was turning left , counter clockwise . The west coast racers wanted to turn right as we do now . I went to the annual meeting . It wa obvious something was up . All the east coast guys were sitting on one side of the room . The west coast guy were sitting on the otherside.
It was my first Nationals as a racer. I had attended the 66 Nationals in San Francisco as a spectator .
There was some pretty heated debate about other rules also. Mike Mehlbush had an Octura designed Wildfire lapstrake mono that won one or two mono classes . After some balsa " steps " were taped or glued on it also won hydro . If you look at the NAMBA rules even today its very clear a hull is either a Mono or a Hydro .
I think the west coast guys had already contacted Ma Coad of the WAM ( Western Aero Modelers ? i think )
because it didn't take long for NAMBA to be formed .
The NAMBA Nationals this yr is the 40 th Annual NAMBA Nationals , to be held at Legg Lake near Los Angeles .
There is also third organization . The APBA ( American Power Boat Association ) also has an RC division .
The Organizations still disagree on many areas of the rules .
That's my recollection of how and why there are more then one organization .

Dick Roberts

[OffShore_RC]

There is also third organization . The APBA ( American Power Boat Association ) also has an RC division .

Dick Roberts

Thanks for the insight.

I didn't know the APBA had an RC division too. I thought they only dealt with real powerboat racing.

Oh well, you always learn something

[Fluid]

In the PNW we broke from NAMBA in the early 1990s due to......disagreements in how the organization was being run, not the racing rules. APBA was starting their R/C Division so we joined them. We raced FE under the APBA organization through 1996. Then changes in both ABPA and NAMBA prompted us to return to NAMBA starting in 1997.


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[Flyguy55]

My info may not be current,the last I heard one of the clubs that race 1/8th and
10th unlimited scale in the NW and a club in KS still belong to APBA .

[Fluid]

That could be right Dick, I never ran with the scale PNW club. The big FE clubs back then were the Northwest Fast Electrics and the Puget Sound Fast Electrics.


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