1907 Seattle Independence Day Regatta
Lake Washington, Seattle, Washington, July 4, 1907


Motor Boats in Speed Contests
Field Day for Meteor
Swift Little Target Wins Ten-Mile Handicap race, but Breaks Down and Causes
Postponement of Big Race With Comet

Motor Boats to Speed on Lake
Motor Boats in Speed Contests
Speed Boats Race on Lake
Motor Boat Club of Seattle
Comet Wins the Motor Boat Race

The annual races under the auspices of the Motor Club of Seattle, took place yesterday afternoon on Lake Washington off Leschi park, in the presence of a big crowd. The largest fleet in the history of the club was out, but as luck had it the boat race of the day was pulled off after the sightseers had gone home to dinner. It was a corking good finish, the Meteor, owned by Commodore Clarence H. Jones, overhauling the Papoose within 100 yards of the finish and winning the five-mile consolation race when it seemed almost an impossibility.

It came pretty near a field day for the Meteor, which also swept the boards in the forty-foot class for the 1907 pennant, ten miles, , and took second in the speed boat handicap race, the Target being first. The Target is owned by Schurtzer Bros., and is about a mile an hour faster than the Meteor. In the speed race the Meteor had a handicap of about twelve minutes and was sailing along beautifully two miles in the lead when something went wrong with the engine. It took the commodore fifteen minutes to fix things, and then he went whizzing along as if nothing had interfered with the race, but the Target got across the line first in 34 minutes and 21 seconds. No sooner had the Target won the race than she had a mishap. In the meantime the Naida, owned by the Bigelow Bros., also had a mishap and it took some time to get the engine working. Pretty soon she came plowing across the line.

The free-for-all, in which the Comet, holder of the Furth perpetual challenge cup, and owned by the Washington Motor Boat Company, was to meet the Target, was postponed until next Saturday, because the Target broke a journal.

Commodore Jones and Secretary Plimpton planned to have the race pulled off early in the afternoon, and made great preparations for a judges' float that would not move around the lake. They got a big scow and had it anchored off the pavilion, just south of the park. The crowd would prefer to have the races farther north, but this is impossible, as it would interfere with the big steamers. Early in the afternoon, a wind came up and the float took a journey over to East Seattle. By the time it was captured and towed back it was 3 o'clock. After that the races were put through so fast that the spectators could not keep track of what was going on.

In the eighteen-foot class and under the Pax, owned by F. F. Evans, won in 24 minutes and 45 seconds. This distance was one mile and return. The Ion, W. M. Price, was second as she really finished.

In the twenty-one-foot class, distance one mile and return, the Marjorie, owned by L. L. Capps, won in 21 minutes and 51 seconds. Beth, Mrs. C. B. Bussel, was second; Mosquito third, and Marguerite fourth.

The thirty-foot class, five miles, was won by the Sheffield, H. A. Froehlichs, time 38 minutes 36 seconds, by half a length over the Papoose, C. W. Colby. It was a very close and pretty race.

In the forty-foot class, ten miles, the Meteor, C. H. Jones, won in 49 minutes, with the Peerless, C. S. Plimpton, second and Fox, Teachout Fox, third.

The Moore challenge cup will not be raced for until Labor Day.

(Transcribed from the Seattle Post Intelligencer, July 7, 1907, p. 10.)


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