1907 APBA Gold Cup
St. Lawrence River, August 14-15, 1907

The Gold Cup Motor Boat Races at Chippewa Bay

Gold Challenge Cup Gold Cup Races at Chippewa Bay Gold Cup Motorboat Races at Chippewa Bay The Gold Cup Race: Chip II Again Successfully Defends the Trophy

The long looked for American Power Boat Association races were held at Chippewa Bay on August 14th and 15th.

Last year's champion, Chip II, duplicated her record and won all three races which did not cause much comment as her victory had been taken as a foregone conclusion

The race on Wednesday morning was run in a gale and the heavy seas filled the Vingt-Trois, compelling her to slow down thus eliminating any chance she had.

Awards were made on the basis of one point for starting and one point for every beaten boat. Vingt-Trois, considered a starter in all races.

As there were no protests Chip II was declared the winner and the much coveted Gold Challenge Cup went to the Chippewa Yacht Club for the fourth successive time.

The high winds died away about noon on Wednesday and as a result a large fleet of small boats were out on that afternoon and Thursday morning.

Two boats which had been expected to enter failed to do so. Guess II was not ready and So Long II did not get weighed in time. The Race Committee consisted of R. H. Eggleston of New York, representing the Thousand Islands Yacht Club, Anson B. Cole, Secretary of the American Power Boat Association and S. Gilbert Averell of the Chippewa Yacht Club.

The results were satisfactory to all but the inexperienced who looked for the impossible in the way of a bows-apart finish after a race over a thirty-mile course. However, the results show that the new rules do not equalize speed much better than the old ones did and that they are not good for boats in classes so far apart as Chip II and Pirate. A different handicapping system is necessary.

The one surprise of the contest was the showing made by the second boat, Delawana, owned by Walter Irwin, son of May Irwin, the actress, who has a cottage on one of the islands in the St. Lawrence. This boat was built at Clayton last year and no one expected her to be so near the victor at the finish or to be such a consistent performer.

The cup offered for the best average time was won by Commodore F. G. Bourne's Stranger. In the last race she went at the rate of twenty-seven and one-half miles per hour over the entire course. Stranger is a new craft and she is one of the most graceful motor boats ever built. There is hardly any commotion in her wake and when rounding a buoy she does not throw water.

The starts were good with the exception that in the first race Chip lost a minute and a quarter because of engine trouble. After crossing the finish line Delawana became unmanageable and quickly drifted toward the rocks but was saved by a launch.

It was regretted that clubs from distant points did not enter boats in this contest. Evidently they have concluded after several unsuccessful attempts in former years, that the wresting of victory from the Thousand Islands collection of flyers is a hopeless task--for them at least. It is invading the enemy's country worth a vengeance to try conclusions with the craft of these waters, for this portion of the St. Lawrence is truly the home of the motor-boat.

(Transcribed from Yachting, Oct. 1907, pp. 218-219.)

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

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