Take-off is 7am. Every boat has a seperate number from 1 thru 40.(if there is 40 boats), The person who has the highest number, which in this case is 40, would be the start boat. The start boat gets the furthest away from the beach, and calls off numbers 1 at a time, as the boat numbers are called, the boaters have to drive by the start boat with thier live wells open and running so the start boat can verify the air raters are working properly, so the bass will be given fresh water and oxygen all day long. They allow the boat to pass them and give them about 100 ft before they call the next boat, by this time the boat that passed already is well past the 150 ft mark. They should have been only going 45mph, while passing your palce on Black cat. And you are correct about the wake faster boats make, not much at all !
The weigh-in is usually 3pm, the workers who will be doing the actual weighing in, would be coming back sooner then the rest . For being part of the weigh-in team, you usually get a beginning number like 1,2,3,4,. so they will take off alittle earlier then the rest of the field, but have to be back sooner then the rest of the field. At 3pm there will be a boat out in the water somewhere with a flag or something distinguished, that every boater will have to check in with , proving they were back in time. If they are not they would be penalized, 1/2 pound per minute, that they were late. Which could lose you a tournament in a New York Minute!!
After you weigh in your fish, your partner is going to go up and get the truck/trailer ready and will drive it down to the launch, while he/she is doing that, you(boater) will be bring your fish out to deeper water to release.
By this time your partner has your boat at the launch waiting for you to drive it on, and this just continues until all boats are out of the water.
They do ALL take off from the same spot, and as far as the boater screaming past a MP, I believe strongly that if he was going over the speed limit going by a MP, he would have been stopped. Getting a ticket for anything by MP, constitutes a disqualification for the entire tournament.
Hope this gives you a little better idea how things work at a bass tournament.Also, if you really want to see how a boat is supposed to be put on a trailer, go to a bass tournaments weigh in, we can put the boat on in less then 2 minutes, and be driving out of the way for the next boat.
|