With waterski racing still on hiatus, the club will hold the Boatarama for a second straight year in place of the Southern 80, though its discussions of a racing return with the relevant bodies are heading in the right direction.
“Ski Racing Australia, which is the peak body for ski racing, they've been in discussions with NSW Maritime,“ Shipp said.
“We're very close to getting some waterski racing back on the lakes and I know it's not long until we'll have racing happening at Lake Charm up near Kerang.
“We're working through with Maritime about their investigation and what they see as stuff we need to address, plus there's stuff that Ski Racing Australia wants to address as far as safety and moving forward into the future to get the sport back on the water.”
In place of the competitive water sport is the Boatarama, which this year will be held at Brick Alley Oval at Moama from 11am to 6pm on Saturday, with a $5 entry fee.
The Echuca Hotel will also be hosting an official after-party for the event.
The club expects more than 100 boats to be on display, with the most significant change from last year’s edition being the expansion to all types of boats, as the focus will be more on boating in general and not the history of the Southern 80.
Those attending can expect to see party barges, social boats, tin boats, offshore boats, locally manufactured timber boats and family boats, alongside the usual ski racing boats.
“It's really like a car show where we've got a lot of things happening, a lot of things on display, and it's basically the boats and the tow cars and some of those tow cars are beautiful cars, they’ll be sitting there all day long, so people can come and have a look,” Shipp said.
“We're expecting a lot of people just to come in, spend an hour or two and browse around the boats, and then come back, and more people come in, so we're hoping to get 3000, 4000 people through across the course of the day.”
Last year’s Boatarama was well-supported and this year’s edition is expected to draw visitors from Melbourne and across Victoria, with even some travelling from as far as Sydney.
There will also be trade displays, a bar, food stalls and merchandise to purchase and boat fanatics are in for a treat, with a smorgasbord of fascinating models to view.
The show will include offshore boats with huge horsepower that only raced as recently as last weekend, ski racing boats with six, eight litre engines, and some with twin turbo engines and 2000 horsepower.
Locals can also see previous Southern 80 winner Island Cooler, well-known boat Cinders, and quite a few models emanating an aura from the early days of the famous race.
Although the club is excited about the event the absence of the Southern 80 race continues to take its toll financially.
Without the racing its ability to cover expenses is more difficult, with support from the Boatarama’s main sponsor the Echuca Hotel, the Murray River Council and other local business key to keeping the club afloat, along with the revenue it will raise from the event this weekend.
“The Southern 80, the last time we ran a full event, it brought like $13.4 million into the local economy for the weekend, and our last one, which was a smaller event, was still well over $10 million coming into the economy,” Shipp said.
“So that's a big number that, we've got to get this race back on the water.
“The economy of the twin towns, it's a vital part.”
