OK, I knew my latest Boats.com column, “The Big Picture: 10 Most Influential People in High-Performance” might fire up a few folks. But what I didn’t expect were Sunday night emails on a column that posted Sunday morning.

You guys aren’t supposed to get online until you get into work Monday morning. So much for Internet usage pattern research.

Please keep the comments coming. I love them. Without discussion and debate, nothing happens. Nothing changes. Nothing grows.

Here’s what I want to make clear: Influence and power in and of themselves are not good or bad. They just—are. Whether or not John Carbonell of Super Boat International, for example, has had a positive or negative impact on the sport is debatable. But it would be hard to deny his impact.

Whether or not the pricing of Mercury Racing’s engines developed under Fred Kiekhaefer’s leadership there is high, to use another example, is debatable. But Kiekhaefer’s impact on the industry is not.

In other words, though my list is quite obviously subjective, something I pointed out in the introduction, it is without value- judgment. Every person on this list has supporters. Every person on this list has detractors.

And every person on this list has made and continues to make a significant impact. That, and only that, is the point.

Check it out if you haven’t already and let me know what you think. I’m counting on it. And to read a message board thread on SeriousOffshore.com, click here. (You will have to log in to view the thread or register if you have not before.)