Sorry I'm a day late posting, I don't do cable and rely on sources to provide me with taped episodes a day late. That being said I must cry FOUL! I have no problem with the disqualification of the power boat for using oars, but why wasn't that same standard applied to fireboats? There was no problem when the Brothers In Arms rowed to victory?? Jeff if you're still out there reading, the NERDS got reamed, big time.

-- ChanzReed (UncleNiblz@aol.com), February 28, 2001

Answers

I agree, see my previous note about the "Convenient Disqualification of the Yellow team." Clearly there are some alterior motives in the works with this disqualification.

Keith

-- Keith (keithsealy@yahoo.com), February 28, 2001.

Yup. The only thing I can think of is in regard to the differing objectives between the two challenges. In the powerboat episode that aired this week, the fundamental task was to propel your boat through the water, thus the title "powerboats". If you lose your capability to do this, then you're out. In the "fireboat" episode, there was no effort/requirement to power the vehicle through the water through any other means than shooting water aft or rowing. IOW, there was no prop. So, if you lose your "mechanical" ability in this scenario, it isn't that big of a deal, just paddle. It's a "fireboat" after all (yes I know that "real" fireboats have locomotion).

In short, two different animals. IMHO, you're comparing apples to oranges, though I do agree with the 4-1 vs. 3-2 let's-keep-it-interesting argument.

Finally, the cause of the "problem" seems to me to be the lack of a CLEAR set of rules prior to the beginning of the competition, not in the judge's decision making. That is, when watching this old powerboat episode (they did one in the later episodes remember) I couldn't figure out why they were making paddles if there was no mention of paddles being allowed. It's entirely possible that there WAS a set of rules, but if so, those rules were definitely NOT made CLEAR in the evolution of the build process or prior to the competition. There are a plethora of reasons for this, not the least of which is time. However, for us junkies, ya gotta cover all of the bases, 'cause we're gonna and when something like this comes up, we'll notice and let you know about it. Thus the posts that you two have made.

YMMV,

Jerry Adair - Leader, The Desert Rats

-- Jerry R. Adair (adair@iglou.com), February 28, 2001.

Human powers still power after all!!

-- ed flores (Edftow@yahoo.com), March 01, 2001.

I agree to the foul with the fireboats. I was totally upset by the way the whole thing was handled. The object was to have the water be pumped onto the fire. The geeks did at least get some water pumped onto the burning shed from their machine. The pitt crew did not get any water onto the shed through their pump. I think that this was wrong. They should have at least pumped one stream of water onto the shed before going to the bucket. They gave up too quickly on their own pump and started using the buckets. This has upset me to the point that I will probably not watch the junkyard wars any longer. The rules are being broken left and right here lately on all of these shows. Everyone knows that the rules are being broken and in the end alot of people are going to quit watching the show.

-- Brenda Weikel (Bdfw33@aol.com), June 20, 2002.