1906 Red Bank Regatta


Red Bank Carnival Races

Despite the fact that the power boat races in connection with the third annual carnival, held at Red Bank, N.J., on Thursday, August 9th, had been postponed for one week on account of the continued inclement weather conditions, the regatta was in every way a success.

Had the races taken place as originally planned, on Thursday, August 2nd, the regatta would in all probability have been one of the largest of the season, but the postponement and the unfavorable outlook on the morning of the races kept many of the entries away.

In all twenty boats showed up for the start and were divided by the Committee into four classes. Owing to the difficulty experienced by the Committee of previous races the management secured the services of Morgan Barney, of New York, to do the handicapping, with the result that but one kick was registered by a contesting boat, and as was afterward proven, had the owner started his craft he would, barring accident, have won in his class.

Carnival Day is a great day for Red Bank, but when the day dawned dark and cloudy the eighty members of the eleven different committees were filled with woe lest the weather again put all their preparations out of commission.

Owing to the vast discrepancy in size of the various contestants the handicapping was based partly on the rating of the boats as found by the American Power Boat Association's formulae and partly on the known past performances of the boats, which scheme worked beautifully with the exception of Class II for semi-auto boats, in which class Ir Win, a new craft with no previous races to her record, had no difficulty in running away from her competitors. Her owner had an idea that she could make about eleven miles an hour, whereas on the first round of the course she did better than fourteen miles per hour.

Nais, the limit boat in the semi-auto boat class, course 10 miles, was sent away at 10.52 followed by Ir Win at 10.54 and the scratch boats Lillie and Little Dixie at 11.00. Ir Win had no sooner started than it was apparent that barring a break-down she would distance the class. She got an ovation as she came by on the first time around, which was made in fine time for so small a boat. on the other three rounds she slowed down considerably and finished the course a winner in 44 min. 38 sec. Lillie finished second in 41 min. 26 sec. for the ten miles, only eleven seconds slower than the time of the winner of the auto-boat class. Nais won third place over Little Dixie by 1 min. 57 sec. Little Dixie was badly handicapped at the start but pluckily continued over the course.

The real interest of the day was centered in the class for speed boats, but unfortunately the real speeders failed to show up for the start. Two of the local flyers, Blue Streak and Dream, which have had several interesting brushes in the past, did not put in an appearance.

The only dissatisfaction of the day over handicaps or any other cause developed. The hull of the well-known Challenger, re-named Not Yet, was entered in this class and when the owners of Scout learned that his craft had been placed on scratch with the old Challenger he immediately withdrew. As Challenger now has a heavy 24-h.p. engine in place of her old 150-h.p. she is not very formidable.

Three Links was first off in this class followed two minutes later by Ludo and six minutes later by Not Yet. Scout, as stated above, withdrawing from the contest. After the class was well on their way Scout darted after them and overhauled Not Yet before the first turn was reached. As Not Yet dropped out on the second round on account of clutch trouble Scout would have probably won first place. Ludo finished at 12.13 winning over Three Links by 7 min. 15 sec.

Summary of Red Bank Races:

Class II -- Semi-Auto Boats: 10 miles

Boat

Owner

H. P.

L.O.A

Allows

Start

Finish

Time

Nais

R. B. Duane

5

21'0"

8.00

10.52.00

11.50.50

58.50

Ir Win

C. P. Irwin

7 ½

20'6"

6.00

10.54.00

11.38.38

44.38

Lillie

P. Riddle

10

24'4"

Scratch

11.00.00

11.41.26

41.26

Little Dixie

S. W. Granbery

10 ½

24'0"

Scratch

11.00.00

11.52.47

52.47

Class III -- Auto-Boats: 10 miles

Three Links

F. Doughty

9

28'0"

8.00

11.30.00

12.18.30

48.30

Ludo

W. G. McKenzie

15

25'6"

6.00

11.32.00

12.13.15

41.15

Scout

G. J. Gillig

25

32'0"

Scratch

11.38.00

Did not finish

 

Not Yet

B. D. McKenzie

24

39'11"

Scratch

11.38.00

Did not finish

 

(Excerpts transcribed from Power Boat News, Aug. 18, 1906, 441-442. )

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


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