Lake Erie Racing (1910)


What Will Lake Erie Do the Coming Season
By C. B. McCuaig

Judged by the glamour it is casting before, the yachting season of 1910 will go down into history as the "Year of Big Sport" on Lake Erie. In the club-houses, aboard the boats, loafing along the waterfront, and, in fact, everywhere yachtsmen are likely to congregate, one hears the same note of optimism, of prophecy that can only be realized by a great and epoch-making season in the annals of aquatic sport. True, we have heard this kind of talk before; but this year it somehow has a truer ring, and it is backed by facts that are hard to get around.

"What are these sport-assuring facts?" you may ask. Well, listen.

Never before have so many events been scheduled to take place on Lake Erie as are billed for this season. Never before were there so many and such handsome prizes offered in all classes to encourage competition. The number of out-and-out yachtsmen, and of those who are more or less so, is greater than at any time since the Indians were chased off the lake; and they have better boats, better ideas and more money to back them up. Now to get down to facts.

As in other years, the meet of the Inter-Lake Yachting Association will be the big event for both sail and power boats. The announcement that it will again be held at Put-In-Bay has been pleasing to the ears of a vast majority of those who follow the sport on fresh water, for it is like getting back home again. Last year the meet was held at Toledo. Everyone had a very good time, but there was something lacking, and everyone inwardly longed to be at "the Bay" again. They missed its free-and-easy spirit and the recollections that have given it a charm all its own.

The events this year are to be more numerous and more hotly contested than ever. Practically all of the clubs of the lakes will have boats there, and a number of new cups will be offered for competition. A large entry list of both power and sail boats for all the events is assured.

Down at the lower end of Lake Erie the Buffalo Yacht Club is planning a regatta that will put all the "meets" the club has heretofore held in the shade. Formerly it has been found hard to induce the Canadian boats to come to Buffalo, on account of the difficulty in getting through the Welland Canal; but this season an array of cups will be put up that will surely do the trick. About twenty-five cups will be offered, ranging in value from $25 to $100 and the schedule of races will be the most complete the club has ever outlined. One of the features will be a scratch race for high-speed boats.

All the power-boat organizations at and near Buffalo are arranging for interesting races to be run on the Niagara River course. The Buffalo Launch Club and the Motor Boat Club of Buffalo will put up particularly attractive programmes. The races of the Launch Club will be held Saturday afternoons, beginning June 18 and ending September 5. As a special feature, there is talk of a match race between J. W. Whitlock’s Hoosier Boy, champion of the Great Lakes and Central West, and Dixie II, now owned by Fred H. Burnham, which has beaten everything on salt water. Nothing definitely concerning this race has been announced, but it is still a possibility.

(Excerpts transcribed from Yachting, June 1910, pp. 401, 402.)

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


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