AFTER years in the doldrums the Bermuda Powerboat Association hopes the new cut-price craft from South Africa can get more speed freaks back in the water.

Five South Africa-made ThunderCats are already on the island while five more are on order.

BPA vice commodore Ernie Mello tested the boats at the weekend and believes they are the wave of the future.

"It was interesting. They feel like a lot of fun. That's the direction we are going in," he told the Mid-Ocean News.

The rigid inflatable catamarans come in various sizes including ten footers sporting a six hp engine for the juniors and 13 footers with a 50 hp engine which are raced all over the world including the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Mello, who is returning as vice commodore after nine years having held that position from 1991 to 1999, said the price of boats had increased tremendously in that time. A basic A class boat had gone up from about $18-19,000 to nearly $30,000.

But the South African boats are cheaper, particularly in bulk. Racers could be on the water for under $20,000.

"There's a big difference money wise. But at the end of the day we are talking a marine-based sport so nothing is really cheap.

"I have ordered one for myself and my son and we have three other people who have ordered them ¿ we are looking at maybe six weeks until they are here.

"I think for us it is probably going to be the next level. We have an aging fleet ¿ they are still competitive pieces of equipment. It's just a matter of those guys getting out there ¿ coming to the meetings and competing."

This past weekend there were just four craft on the water racing yet the sport used to be far more popular with an average of 15 to 16 boats on race days.

"The biggest race we had was something like 40 boats ¿ I don't think we will ever see that again but in the races leading up to it we would get a minimum of 20 boats.

"We are having issues in bringing the sport back. Since 2003 and 2004 there has been a serious decline. A lot of people have aged out of the sport and there hasn't been an emphasis on bringing young people into the sport."

Which is why included in the new batch of ThunderCats are four of the smaller versions as a way to give youngsters a cheaper way in.

But he said teenagers were also discouraged by restrictives on engine capacity.

"Our law is you cannot operate anything greater than six hp unless you are over 16. We have had this issue for about 30 years in our legislation ¿ they won't bend to let the over 12s use the higher horse power. It's been a long, hard battle.

"Every time we get close to it with Marine and Ports there's a couple of people on the Marine and Safety Board who don't want it. Yet I know kids nine or ten years old who can operate their dad's 200 hp.

"I just don't think it's very fair ¿ you are stopping the evolution of the next generation. Yet you can put a kid who is nine years old on an 85 cc bike or stick him in an 80 cc go-kart. Or get a 14-year-old to ride a 125. Yet we can't get these kids until they are over 15. Everywhere else in the world they do it ¿ it's just here."

l The next race is next Sunday at Ferry Reach.