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Tips for growing FE in your local club/district.
I want to use this thread as a source for people to post their tips, success stories, and experiences for growing FE in their area.
I’ll start…
I started racing FE 3 years ago and my first FE boat was an AquaCraft UL-1. I quickly got bored running my boat by myself on my lake, so I did some research and found two clubs near where I live, West Bend, WI. One club, Madison Area Fast Electrics, was a FE only NAMBA club located 2.5 hrs from my house. The other was an IMPBA Nitro club located 1 hr from my house. I reached out to the appropriate people in each club and joined as a new member.
Both clubs were very welcoming, but as a FE boat guy I had to work a little harder at the nitro club to assimilate into their culture.
Some difficulties that I initially encountered after joining the nitro club, and how I dealt with each:
I didn’t know anyone in the club and they didn’t know me. While it feels like an awkward situation, the best thing to do is to be outgoing. If you see someone you don’t know, go up and introduce yourself. I quickly learned everyone’s name and a little bit about each of them.
The other thing that helped was that the club requires everyone to where a name badge at all times. I think this is really important for getting to know people. I was fortunate because the nitro club had a few individuals who were kind enough to show me the ropes and go over the pond rules. Learning the club/pond rules is VERY important. The fastest way to make a bad impression is by breaking the rules. So learn them and follow them. If you don’t know the answer to something just ASK!
Another difficulty that I had was… I only had one boat, a FE sport hydro, and there were no classes for me to race it in. Initially I just ran my boat with others that were testing and tuning on non-race days. I didn’t complain and decided that the best way for me to learn about racing was to volunteer at a club race to see what it was all about.
After volunteering for several races I was then approached by a few members who said that it would be fine if I ran my FE sport hydro in the nitro sport 20 class as long as I didn’t mind not collecting points in the heats. I jumped at the chance, and finally got to race my FE in the nitro club. I didn’t care about the points. I just wanted some stick time on the course in race water.
Mixed racing like this accomplished two things. It showed camaraderie, and it got some of the nitro racers interested in FE. By the time the next race season came around there were enough nitro crossovers, and additions to the FE class for us to have our first electric ONLY class. YIPPEEE!
In my second season of racing with the nitro club I decided that racing one boat left a lot of time on my hands, so I decided to race another class. Instead of building another electric boat, I opted to get a nitro boat. I thought that it would be a nice gesture to repay the favor by reciprocating. They made it possible for me to race an electric boat/class, and I reciprocated by adding another boat to one of their popular nitro classes, D-Mono. This reciprocity proved to be very helpful in growing FE acceptance. Some members of the nitro club viewed FE boats negatively because they feared that IF it caught on in the club, it would push out some of their nitro classes. By me building and racing a nitro boat, I helped support the nitro side too.
Our IMPBA club now has two FE only classes, P-limited Sport Hydro, and P-Limited Hydro. I now also race in two nitro classes to show my appreciation and support for the nitro side (D-mono, and nitro Sport 40).
Another thing that we implemented to ease the fear of FE classes pushing out the nitro classes, or complicating the race schedule was to start the FE classes ½ hour earlier than the original engine start time. This allowed us to get 2 FE heats out of the way before the normal start time, thus relieving the stress of fitting all of the heats in before sunset.
Please share some of your experiences and tips to keep the trend growing.
I’ll start…
I started racing FE 3 years ago and my first FE boat was an AquaCraft UL-1. I quickly got bored running my boat by myself on my lake, so I did some research and found two clubs near where I live, West Bend, WI. One club, Madison Area Fast Electrics, was a FE only NAMBA club located 2.5 hrs from my house. The other was an IMPBA Nitro club located 1 hr from my house. I reached out to the appropriate people in each club and joined as a new member.
Both clubs were very welcoming, but as a FE boat guy I had to work a little harder at the nitro club to assimilate into their culture.
Some difficulties that I initially encountered after joining the nitro club, and how I dealt with each:
I didn’t know anyone in the club and they didn’t know me. While it feels like an awkward situation, the best thing to do is to be outgoing. If you see someone you don’t know, go up and introduce yourself. I quickly learned everyone’s name and a little bit about each of them.
The other thing that helped was that the club requires everyone to where a name badge at all times. I think this is really important for getting to know people. I was fortunate because the nitro club had a few individuals who were kind enough to show me the ropes and go over the pond rules. Learning the club/pond rules is VERY important. The fastest way to make a bad impression is by breaking the rules. So learn them and follow them. If you don’t know the answer to something just ASK!
Another difficulty that I had was… I only had one boat, a FE sport hydro, and there were no classes for me to race it in. Initially I just ran my boat with others that were testing and tuning on non-race days. I didn’t complain and decided that the best way for me to learn about racing was to volunteer at a club race to see what it was all about.
After volunteering for several races I was then approached by a few members who said that it would be fine if I ran my FE sport hydro in the nitro sport 20 class as long as I didn’t mind not collecting points in the heats. I jumped at the chance, and finally got to race my FE in the nitro club. I didn’t care about the points. I just wanted some stick time on the course in race water.
Mixed racing like this accomplished two things. It showed camaraderie, and it got some of the nitro racers interested in FE. By the time the next race season came around there were enough nitro crossovers, and additions to the FE class for us to have our first electric ONLY class. YIPPEEE!
In my second season of racing with the nitro club I decided that racing one boat left a lot of time on my hands, so I decided to race another class. Instead of building another electric boat, I opted to get a nitro boat. I thought that it would be a nice gesture to repay the favor by reciprocating. They made it possible for me to race an electric boat/class, and I reciprocated by adding another boat to one of their popular nitro classes, D-Mono. This reciprocity proved to be very helpful in growing FE acceptance. Some members of the nitro club viewed FE boats negatively because they feared that IF it caught on in the club, it would push out some of their nitro classes. By me building and racing a nitro boat, I helped support the nitro side too.
Our IMPBA club now has two FE only classes, P-limited Sport Hydro, and P-Limited Hydro. I now also race in two nitro classes to show my appreciation and support for the nitro side (D-mono, and nitro Sport 40).
Another thing that we implemented to ease the fear of FE classes pushing out the nitro classes, or complicating the race schedule was to start the FE classes ½ hour earlier than the original engine start time. This allowed us to get 2 FE heats out of the way before the normal start time, thus relieving the stress of fitting all of the heats in before sunset.
Please share some of your experiences and tips to keep the trend growing.
I’m not sure. 
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