Mosquito from Clinton, Iowa


Mosquito, A 22-Foot Champion

On of the real sensations of the racing season of 1909 was the appearance of Mosquito, a 22-footer constructed according to ideas of their own by C. W. Myers and E. W. Granger, of Clinton, Ia. When Mosquito limped up to the Burlington landing on July 4th, crippled by a defective coil and a broken reverse gear, she came unheralded and unknown. To be sure, rumors had drifted down the Mississippi to the effect that there was a fast 22-footer at Clinton, but these were vague and seemingly unfounded, and the curious ones who braved the rain the next day to take a peek at the racing craft moored alongside shook their heads when they saw the little three-cylinder motor in Mosquito, and opinions as to the relative merits of this and other entries were not encouraging to Messrs. Granger and Myers.

But when the 22-foot race was called on July 6th, Mosquito was imbued with new life through a coil procured through the true sportsman’s spirit of Mr. Beckwith, of Burlington, the owner of Blanche B., who removed the coil from his automobile for the occasion. A length of shaft had been inserted in place of the broken gear, and when the starting gun was fired this little boat leaped ahead of the bunch and into the limelight of the boating world at the rate of a little over 21 miles an hour, finishing the 10 miles in 29 minutes 12¾ seconds, winning the 22-foot championship of the M.V.P.B.A.

As the next best time in this race was 43 minutes 36¼ seconds, it was predicted by many that Mosquito would do better if occasion demanded.

Mosquito has eight handsome silver cups besides pennants and other trophies to her credit for the season of 1909. Six of these are first prizes, and two of the six are for 26-foot classes where she won against 26-footers having more than double her power. The two second prize cups were won in free-for-all and handicap races, this little boat never having been beaten by any craft of her length. Her record for 10 miles is 26 minutes 49½ seconds, or 22.3 miles an hour, which was made at the Clinton Boat Club Championship race August 30th; but over a short course she has done even better. In a trial run over a measured one and one-third miles she negotiated the distance in 3 minutes 30 seconds, against a one-mile current, making 22.8 miles an hour upstream.

Mosquito is not an extremely light racer. She has a rather heavy oak frame, is planked with 5/8-inch cypress, and has been used as a runabout in all kinds of weather. She is 22 feet over all, 3½ feet beam, and is powered with a sock model Gray motor having three cylinders, 4¾-inch bore, 4-inch stroke, rated at 18 hp., which turns a 15x28 Bryant & Berry propeller 1,000 r.p.m. The motor weighs 325 pounds and the reverse gear 54 pounds. The weight of the entire outfit is about 1,000 pounds without fuel or crew. This boat gets over the water with remarkable smoothness, throwing almost no wave and leaving a smooth wake.

Granger & Myers have recently sold Mosquito to M. J. Cousins, of New Orleans, who believes that his new boat has not yet reached her best and expects to be heard from in racing events in this vicinity.

(Transcribed from MotorBoat, Mar. 10, 1910, p. 54.)

[Thanks to Greg Calkins for help in preparing this page --LF]


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