1908 Harmsworth Trophy
Nine Motor Boats Ready to Defend the Trophy
In selecting their boats with which to defend the British International trophy for motorboats in the contest to be held on Saturday, Aug. 1, the Regatta Committee of the Motor Boat Club of America will have a choice of nine craft, seven of which have been built this season. These seven are:
Ailsa Craig, designed by A. E. Luders, built by the Electric Launch Company of Bayonne, and fitted with a 100 horse power Craig engine.
Chip III, built primarily to defend the American Power Boat Association's Gold Cup, equipped with twin screws and two Leighton engines, and entered by Hawkins and Wainwright of the Chippewa Bay Yacht Club.
Autowin II, built by Swasey, Raymond & Page for Edwin S. Webster of Houston and driven by two eight-cylinder Antoinette motors of 200 horse power each.
Dixie II, designed by Clinton Crane, built at City Island by Frank Wood for ex-Commodore Schroeder of the Motor Boat Club of America, and propelled by a 200 horse power Crane-Whitman motor.
Simples XIII, built at the Simplex Automobile Company's work in this city for W. C. Whitehead of New York, and driven by a four-cylinder 100 horse power Simplex motor
Gray, a little motor boat built by the Atkin-Wheeler Company of Haledise, L.I., and equipped with a four-cylinder two-cycle Gray motor, and said to be rated at forty horse power.
Sea Otter, said to be "something like a hydroplane," but of the general form of a motorboat, entered by W. J. Snadecki of Bridgeport, Conn.
These boats have been formally entered. In addition, entries have been received of these two boats:
Dixie, winner of the trophy last year, owned by ex-Commodore Schroeder, built by the Smith & Mabley Manufacturing Company three years ago, and driven by a Simplex motor of 132 horse power.
Den, a fast boat, although ten feet short of the maximum length, designed by C. F. Herreshoff for commodore J. H. Hoadley of the Motor Boat Club of america, and equipped with an eighty horse power American and British Manufacturing Company motor. Den is a year old and has made some fast time notwithstanding her small size.
The trial races to choose three defenders from these nine candidates will be held in Huntington Bay by the Motorboat Club on Friday and Saturday, July 10 and 11. There will be one race on Friday at 2:30 P.M. and two on Saturday at 10:30 A.M. and 2:30 P.M. respectively. the course will be three times around a triangle, the apex of which--and the starting point--will be about a mile from the inner end of the bay, opposite the Chateaux des Beaux Arts. The second angle will be the "Lumb Buoy" off Eaton's Neck, and the third nearly two miles to the westward of that buoy. In order to comply with the conditions of the race, that no angle of less that 120 degrees shall be turned, the points of the triangle are cut off by short legs a quarter of a mile in length. The angle at the starting point will be turned only twice, the start and the finish being made on the straight line of the first and third principal legs respectively. This course measures thirty nautical miles. It is all in water of not less than twenty feet in depth, and excepting as to the second leg, it is fully protected from any sea excepting such as would be caused by a northerly blow. This course will also be used in the race for the trophy on Aug. 1.
The three defenders chosen in the trials will have as competitors in the contest for the trophy two English boats-- Wolseley-Siddeley, the twin-screw, 400 horse power craft owned by the Duke of Westminster that has attracted a great deal of notice in the races at Monte Carlo and elsewhere during the past three months, and Daimler III, owned by Lord Howard de Walden. These boats will be brought to this country by the Atlantic Transport liner Minneapolis, and will arrive on July 25. They will be taken to Jacobs's yard at City Island for such refittings as may be necessary, and will not be seen in Huntington Bay until a day or two before the race.
(Transcribed from the New York Times, July 5, 1908.)
[Thanks to Greg Calkins for help in preparing this page. —LF]
Hydroplane
History Home Page
This
page was last revised Thursday, April 01, 2010
.
Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. Email us at wildturnip@gmail.com
© Leslie Field, 2001
