Galway Powerboat Festival

Discodog

vulcan57 wrote: »

I really have to agree with you on that point. If this is to come back next year then I think there are a few areas that have to be improved. The worst dissapointment IMO was the main event that this festival was built around. I, and many others were out in Salthill yesterday, not just to see the the ZapCats, but the arrival of the Round Ireland race. The commentry on the prom were asking us to give them a big cheer etc., and all we could see was a spec of white splashes on the horizon! the finish line must have been 2 miles away, absolutely ridiculous, this race should have finished in full view of spectators. Then they just motored off to the docks with out a care. There was a family behind me that were up from Ballinasloe for the day to take it all in and they just turned in disgust, not sure where they went, probably home. Whats the point of putting on an event that nobody can see? OK if you were in the docks then you could have seen them arrive back there, but these are big powerful Racing boats and people want to see them doing 60 knots not 6 !! The finish line, and the start line for that matter, should have been in full view. Whats the point of having sponsors if they can't even see the boats??

I hate knocking any attempt at getting events to Galway but this is really bugging me and I had to say something to get it off my chest.

The Zapcats were good fun to watch though, so well done on that one.

I totally agree. The PR & Publicity was shocking. I emailed the organisers on Sat to get an arrival time & I was told "about 3" which was far too late. All they needed to do was to adjust the course to bring the boats as close as safe to the Galway side. We had the same problem with the Volvo in searching for lights 12 miles away !. These events need radio coverage so that those watching away from Salthill can tune in.

It would be good for the Volvo & the Round Ireland to run a separate challenge race from Galway, around the Aran Islands & back to Galway. This would attract huge crowds all along the coast & everyone would be able to understand what was happening. It would be much better than the Volvo inshore races.

These events & boats cost a fortune which is offset by publicity. Yet they seem to do all they can to avoid spectators. The number one priority should be to get the boats as close to the people as possible.

cranky bollix

didnt bother goin out as i heard the whole thing was a farce

vulcan57

cranky bollix wrote: »

didnt bother goin out as i heard the whole thing was a farce

Don't think I would go quite that far.:eek:

kippy

cranky bollix wrote: »

didnt bother goin out as i heard the whole thing was a farce

You're living up to your name with that one.


Its not exactly designed as a spectator sport alright but there was good craic to be had around the docs over the week and it kept the hardcore enthusiasts happy.
It doesnt quite have the appeal as the VOR but that is to be expected. No harm utilising the docks at least once a year for something like this though, I'd like to see it used like this all Summer to be honest.

BoogieBill

I thought (as well as quite a lot of people) that the entertainment was very poor and more befitting the Ploughing Championships than an exiting event like the Powerboat Race.No Hothouse Flowers,Walls,Kila this year and local band Timbertramps were the only band that really got the place jumping and attracted a decent crowd.Whoever was responsible for booking the acts was so far off the mark it was great in one way because it was so easy to get served a drink.Even the DJs that were booked were 2nd grade(cheap?).It was embarassing to see one blonde DJ trying to entertain a crowd using just her laptop.Wheres the talent in that?The organisers would be well advised to remember next year for The Ocean Race that people need to be entertained.No wonder the whole atmosphere around the docks was not a patch on last years effort.

kippy

BoogieBill wrote: »

I thought (as well as quite a lot of people) that the entertainment was very poor and more befitting the Ploughing Championships than an exiting event like the Powerboat Race.No Hothouse Flowers,Walls,Kila this year and local band Timbertramps were the only band that really got the place jumping and attracted a decent crowd.Whoever was responsible for booking the acts was so far off the mark it was great in one way because it was so easy to get served a drink.Even the DJs that were booked were 2nd grade(cheap?).It was embarassing to see one blonde DJ trying to entertain a crowd using just her laptop.Wheres the talent in that?The organisers would be well advised to remember next year for The Ocean Race that people need to be entertained.No wonder the whole atmosphere around the docks was not a patch on last years effort.

I am assuming, like most logical people, that the entertainment budget wasnt a patch on the VOR........the same money wasnt involved as this was a far lower profile event.
I just dont get it.........what were people expecting?

BoogieBill

I understand the budget was far less than last year but whatever budget was available could have been managed much,much better for entertainment.Some blonde playing techno on her laptop scared people away and they left for the action up in High St.

kippy

BoogieBill wrote: »

I understand the budget was far less than last year but whatever budget was available could have been managed much,much better for entertainment.Some blonde playing techno on her laptop scared people away and they left for the action up in High St.

Without knowing what the budget was and what the costs were, how can you make that conclusion?
What time was this DJ on at?

biko

That how most DJs do it nowadays. Mp3 on laptops = clubnight.
I've done it myself with a software mixer and you can't tell the difference.

BoogieBill

A "software mixer" that selects the tracks and mixes them for you.Not much talent involved in that is there?No wonder the nightclubs are suffering poor crowds if thats what "most DJs" are using these days.A pre-mix CD amounts to the same thing.Its just laziness on the behalf of the user.Anyway its the content that we thought was off-putting.Maybe OK for a small party or clubnight but not for an openair affair like the Powerboat Race.It amounts to a band using "backing tracks".Same thing surely and not very entertaining.

tonyhiggins

BoogieBill wrote: »

A "software mixer" that selects the tracks and mixes them for you.Not much talent involved in that is there?No wonder the nightclubs are suffering poor crowds if thats what "most DJs" are using these days.A pre-mix CD amounts to the same thing.Its just laziness on the behalf of the user.Anyway its the content that we thought was off-putting.Maybe OK for a small party or clubnight but not for an openair affair like the Powerboat Race.It amounts to a band using "backing tracks".Same thing surely and not very entertaining.

Er not quite. "Software Mixer" in this case is analogous to a hardware mixer, as in the physical thing with sliders etc on it. It doesn't pick the songs for you. You pick the songs and you can fade them in and out on the screen, just like you'd move up and down the faders on a physical mixer. A good DJ can still do beat matching and all that other interesting craic as well as picking a good overall set. That's where the skill is.

vulcan57

Just thought that I would post this from Saturday.



Unfortunately crowds a little dissapointing.

BoogieBill

tonyhiggins wrote: »

Er not quite. "Software Mixer" in this case is analogous to a hardware mixer, as in the physical thing with sliders etc on it. It doesn't pick the songs for you. You pick the songs and you can fade them in and out on the screen, just like you'd move up and down the faders on a physical mixer. A good DJ can still do beat matching and all that other interesting craic as well as picking a good overall set. That's where the skill is.

Oh so you can still at least select the songs to be played.Its almost like the old automatic versus manual transmission discussion(automatic for the less well able).A quick survey around DJs that use Ableton,Traktor and Virtual DJ programs all tell me that they prefer to use the automatic beatmixing features because its much handier and precise than manual mixing.Glad we cleared that one up.

tonyhiggins

BoogieBill wrote: »

Oh so you can still at least select the songs to be played.Its almost like the old automatic versus manual transmission discussion(automatic for the less well able).A quick survey around DJs that use Ableton,Traktor and Virtual DJ programs all tell me that they prefer to use the automatic beatmixing features because its much handier and precise than manual mixing.Glad we cleared that one up.

Something that automatically and coherently picks the songs for you would be a pretty amazing piece of software. Unfortunately, from the overall enjoyable set point of view, I'd say there's a lot of less able DJs around the place

kippy

Lads, seriously, take the technical talk to a technical forum.
I couldnt have given a toss whether the DJ played "pop" music or some arty farty mixes.

JohnCleary

Just to give the whingers something to think about re. entertainment and comparing it to the Volvo.

The Powerboat Festival got 1/1600 of a budget than the Volvo. You can't do a whole lot with that little money. The other money collected was scraped from stalls, donations etc.

As I said before, I agree that there could have been better advertising, but for those saying "We didn't know what was going on", well you obviously didn't look hard enough. I just printed off the PDF of the timetable from aroundireland.org and knew exactly what was going on all week, and at what times.

Hope people enjoyed the racing. A friend was racing the Superstock and he had a ball. I was racing the P750's (Thundercats/Zapcats) and was exhausted after it, but it was great to race right on my doorstep... I can honestly say that the memory will stay with me forever.

kippy

JohnCleary wrote: »

Just to give the whingers something to think about re. entertainment and comparing it to the Volvo.

The Powerboat Festival got 1/1600 of a budget than the Volvo. You can't do a whole lot with that little money. The other money collected was scraped from stalls, donations etc.

As I said before, I agree that there could have been better advertising, but for those saying "We didn't know what was going on", well you obviously didn't look hard enough. I just printed off the PDF of the timetable from aroundireland.org and knew exactly what was going on all week, and at what times.

Hope people enjoyed the racing. A friend was racing the Superstock and he had a ball. I was racing the P750's (Thundercats/Zapcats) and was exhausted after it, but it was great to race right on my doorstep... I can honestly say that the memory will stay with me forever.

Thanks for the post John.
I didnt know the figures but thats significently less than the VOR and I'm surprised the events/entertainment was as good for that money. Fair play to the organisers/volunteers for a great job!

kayos

Jesus you just can not keep some people happy.

It was a welcome boost to Galway and well done to all involved.

Plus I managed to get some decent photos on the first Saturday although it did show I need a better telephoto lens

BoogieBill

Agreed.This debate is for another page.Considering that the budget for entertainment was that low I suppose a pat on the back for everyone involved.At least the bands that played used real instruments and did their best to entertain and it was the first time my two young lads got a chance to see some water based races and were thrilled with the whole affair.

vulcan57

JohnCleary wrote: »

As I said before, I agree that there could have been better advertising, but for those saying "We didn't know what was going on", well you obviously didn't look hard enough. I just printed off the PDF of the timetable from aroundireland.org and knew exactly what was going on all week, and at what times.

I hope that I am not sounding like one of those whingers, John, because I am all for this sort of thing. I think the organisers should be congratulated in the main, and I would love to see this become an annual event as I have stated already. Anyone that was going to this event, or actually planning to could, as you say, have downloaded a program from aroundireland.org. The people that didn't know about the whole week and what it was about are the ones that should have been earmarked with a little more agressive publicity and advertising. Its those people that are looking for somewhere to go for the day, weekend or even the week that maybe need to be targeted.

We all, on here anyway, should be only too aware that this was not going to be another VOR.

Eman Resu

We as Irish love to sit around doing nothing and give out sh1t about people who try, of course the speed boat race couldn't live up to the Volvo race because of the shear scale of money involved but you know, give out sh1t about the people who provided entertainment essentially for free.

kippy

Eman Resu wrote: »

We as Irish love to sit around doing nothing and give out sh1t about people who try, of course the speed boat race couldn't live up to the Volvo race because of the shear scale of money involved but you know, give out sh1t about the people who provided entertainment essentially for free.

In fairness, Id say MOST of the artists were paid a fee of some sort, although some may have done it for nothing.

kayos

kippy wrote: »

In fairness, Id say MOST of the artists were paid a fee of some sort, although some may have done it for nothing.

Think what was ment was the public got it for free, not that the entertainers did it for free.

I'd like to see this be an annual event also. We'd have multiple good festivals over the summer months and this would just help to boost the tourism sector.

It was great to see the boats booting around the bay, the sun shining over head and enjoying a Mr Whippie 99 down at blackrock at the same time .

kippy

kayos wrote: »

Think what was ment was the public got it for free, not that the entertainers did it for free.

I'd like to see this be an annual event also. We'd have multiple good festivals over the summer months and this would just help to boost the tourism sector.

It was great to see the boats booting around the bay, the sun shining over head and enjoying a Mr Whippie 99 down at blackrock at the same time .

Agreed.

ciotog

Eman Resu wrote: »

We as Irish love to sit around doing nothing and give out sh1t about people who try, of course the speed boat race couldn't live up to the Volvo race because of the shear scale of money involved but you know, give out sh1t about the people who provided entertainment essentially for free.

Dead right, I was on a critical mass cycle on Saturday the 5th and we passed along the prom. It was a beautiful day, there were people chilling out and you could see the powerboats off on on the water in the distance. It was inspiring to see how vibrant Galway looked because of people who put their hearts into organising an event. A couple of tourists joined the ride and commented on how much they were enjoying themselves around Galway. Fair play to those involved in the Powerboat Festival.

For those who sit back and critique these events, how about stepping up to contribute instead of always being the complainer. Feedback is great but be prepared to act.

brembo26

vulcan57 wrote: »

Best I can do John, Steyr arrived at the moment of capsize so I missed it, so blame him :D.

i love this post, thats me like a wally with the two hand in the air! :P

brembo26

I have pictures here of the P750 racing that I will post.

Disclaimer: I did not take these pictures and if the person or persons who did take the would like me to remove them pm me at any time and they will be removed asap.

brembo26

More...

Disclaimer: I did not take these pictures and if the person or persons who did take the would like me to remove them pm me at any time and they will be removed asap.

brembo26

More..

Disclaimer: I did not take these pictures and if the person or persons who did take the would like me to remove them pm me at any time and they will be removed asap.

brembo26

have more but will post later... :pac: