1906 Hudson River Water Carnival
Hudson River, New York, September 10-15, 1906

Motor Boats Divide Prizes
Dixie, Skedaddle and Sparrow Win Chief Cups -- Standard's Fast Miles

Real Motor Boat Records Possible at Last to Secure Authentic Standards for America Motor Boats to Race for Records and Cups More Boats in Long Run Fast Motor Boat Afire at End of Run Motor Boats in Six Races Two Drown in Hudson Dixie Leads Motor Boats Motor Boats Divide Prizes Motor Boat Races on the Hudson The Carnival Motor Boat Ratings Needs Radical Change Motor Boat Club of America Week The Reliability Trials Long-Distance Race to Poughkeepsie and Return Carnival of the M.B.C. of America The National Carnival Editorials

Motor boat racing on the Hudson River under the auspices of the Motor Boat Club of America came to a close yesterday after a week's programme of events. The chief winners yesterday were Dixie. Skedaddle and Sparrow, all of which have taken prominent places in preceding events. The Dixie beat J. H. Hoadley's Den by nearly 40 minutes over a 30 3/4 nautical mile course in the race for boats of 39.57 feet and under. The Dixie's time was 1:19:57, maintaining an excellent average for the same course throughout the week. H. R. Sutphen's fifty horse power cruising boat Elco made a splendid showing in the high-speed class for boats of forty feet and over. The 190 horse power Skedaddle was the Elco's only opponent, the latter being built especially for racing, yet on elapsed time the Skedaddle was less than twenty minutes ahead of Elco for the full course, and on time allowance she only crawled through a winner by 35 seconds.

C. J. Swain's Sparrow won the race for boats of 33 feet and under, making better time by six seconds than the Skedaddle. The Sparrow has been the biggest prize winner of the week, her victory yesterday giving her possession of the Inter-State Cup for the coming year, while she previously won the long distance and the reliability races. The Skedaddle wins the National Trophy and the Dixie takes for the second time the International Cup. Last year when the Dixie won the boat was owned and steered by E. R. Thomas, but she is now owned by E. J. Schroeder. Only one boat started in the cruising class events, the Sheboygan and Tuna, and by running over the course they got the respective points.

The Standard made three trials with and against the tide in an effort to beat her mile record earlier in the week but failed by fractions of a second. Her times with the tide were 2:10 2-5, 2:10 1-5, 2:11 3-5. The times against the tide were 2:33 1-5, 2:34 3-5, 2:34 3-5. Her average of all the trials gave a record of a little less than 25 1-5 knots per hour.

In the evening the clubhouse at the foot of West 112th Street was elaborately decorated, and the festivities closed with a display of fireworks that drew a large crowd to the Riverside Park embankment, overlooking the river.

The summaries:

(Transcribed from the New York Times, Sep. 16, 1906, p. 10. )

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

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