1909 Monaco Regatta
Monte Carlo, Monaco, March 31-April 11, 1909

Orlando Summer

Fast Motorboats in Monaco Races Dixie and Standard Off for Monaco Entries for the Monaco Meeting The Monaco Motor-Boat Meeting [1] The Monaco Motor-Boat Meeting [2] The Monaco Motor-Boat Meeting [3] The Monaco Motor-Boat Meeting [4] The Monaco Motor-Boat Meeting [5] The Monaco Motor-Boat Meeting [6] The Monaco Motor-Boat Meeting [7] The Monaco Motor-Boat Meeting [8] Motor-Boat Races at Monaco The Winning Motor Boats at Monaco The Motor Boat Races at Monaco The Monaco Race Meeting Orlando Summer

Under the organization of the International Sporting Club of Monte Carlo the sixth annual Monaco meeting was held from March 31st to April 1lth inclusive. Being the first international races held under the rules recently promulgated by the International Motor Yacht racing Association, it may be desirable to place on record a brief resume of the origin and nature of these rules. On January 29, 1908, a meeting of the controlling politicians in Europe was held at the Royal Automobile Club, London, under the presidency of Lord Montagu, of Beaulieu, delegates being present from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Italy and Monaco, who resolved that an International Association should be formed with the objective of standardizing rules for international racing in European waters.

Effect was given to the resolution by a meeting held on June 6, 1908, at the Automobile Club de France, Paris, under the presidency of Count Recope, when the International Rules prepared in the interim were finally adopted. At the Paris meeting the following nations were represented and signified their adherence to the new Association: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Monaco; America,

Australia, Holland, Norway, Rumania, Spain and Switzerland subsequently signified their adherence to the Association. As a basis it was resolved to take the then existing Monaco Rules, submit them to a thorough revision, and bring them up to-date., the work in connection with this being carried out by President Count Recope of France, Vice-President Professor Busley of Germany, Vice-President Frank P. Armstrong of Great Britain, and myself as Honorary secretary. To commemorate what must for all times stand as the most important landmark in the history of the sport, the Automobile Club de France caused a handsome silver medal to be struck and presented to each of the founder members with his name engraved upon it. The official title is the Association International de Yachting Automobile.

Primarily, these rules ignore handicapping, and constitute a classification of two types of boats, viz: racers and racing cruisers, which types themselves are subdivided into series, in which the sole factors are length and power for racers, and length, weight and power for racing cruisers. To secure the sea- going efficiency of the latter a minimum weight, breadth, freeboard and seating accommodation are imposed. The maximum length decides the maximum bore of the cylinders allowed, and to permit of a fairly wide variation in power a scale of minimum weights is given corresponding to cylinders of smaller bore than the maximum permissible. The following is the classification:

RACERS

(Boats in this class must not exceed 15 meters in length.)

1st Series.--Racers having an engine of four cylinders with a bore of 155 m.m. each, or its equivalent of more or less cylinders according to a given scale.

2nd Series.--Racers with unlimited power.

RACING CRUISERS

1st Series.--Racing cruisers with one cylinder of 100 m.m. bore, or equivalent. Minimum weight loaded, 650 kilos.

2nd Series.--Racing cruisers not exceeding 6 1/2 meters with four cylinders from 80 to 90 m.m. bore each, or equivalent. Weights, 755 to 930 kilos.

3rd Series.--Racing cruisers from 6 1/2 to 8 meters with four cylinders from 100 to 106 m.m. bore each, or equivalent. Weight from 1.065 kilos to 1,314 kilos.

4th Series.--Racing cruisers from 8 to 12 meters (or 40 English feet), four cylinders of 120 to 130 m.m. bore each, or equivalent. Weights, 1,383 kilos to 1,844 kilos.

5th Series.--Racing cruisers from 12 to 18 meters (or 60 English feet), four cylinders of 140 to 155 m.m. bore each, or equivalent. Weights, 1,971 kilos to 2,842 kilos.

It will be observed that the 1st series comprises only tubby little boats of the harbor service class, while the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th actual racing cruiser series define maximum length, maximum piston area, and minimum weight, and the term "equivalent" covers smaller piston areas with the corresponding minimum weights. Whatever may be the merits of the this beneficent elasticity for the benefit of those with boats not built up to maximum length and maximum piston area, it is certain that those who want to win at Monaco should build up to the limit of any particular series.

All boats taking part in the Monaco races must first be on exhibition, for which an entrance fee of 100 francs must be paid.

The exhibition this year was opened on March 31st by Prince Albert I of Monaco. Over 90 boats were on view calling for no special mention, considering the stage of excellence to which Monaco competitors have now attained. The hydroplanes, all French, were as ugly as ever, all taking the now familiar flat-bottomed step form, with from one to eight steps according to individual ideas. Of course, there was the inevitable freak, a weird contraption resembling a cross between a catamaran and an aeroplane, driven by a six-cylinder rotating engine operating two 2-bladed wooden aerial propellers, arranged one immediately in front of the other, and turning in contrary directions, torpedo-wise. The owner's hope was that his canvas air planes would lift his catamaran to the surface of the water, but the first and only trial of about 100 yards does not warrant the immortality of print.

All critical interest lay in sizing up the big international champions, and those who know their Monaco bay had an appreciative nod for the perfection of deep sea racer design exemplified in the English and French thoroughbreds, a smile for the German, and a tear for the American. A comparison will come in its proper place, but I must get rid of that smile which deprives Germany of my sympathy. If the Old Man will let the photo I am sending be published, it will be noted that alongside the German first-class racer Prinz Heindrich is a card bearing the notice, "Constructed in 17 days," and after a look at the style of construction I could have believed it to have been done in less. Apart from the very question- able taste shown in adopting an exalted name honored throughout the sporting world for the purpose of a glaring advertisement, whatever the public impression may have been, Monaco waters resent trifling, and when this 250-h.p. racer, with a double skin of only 7m.m. (.276 of an inch) total thickness, essayed a speed trial over them, they promptly opened up that smartly constructed hull and sent the Prinz Heindrich to a watery grave of about 100 fathoms in considerably less than 17 minutes.

Extraordinary attention was given to the -- for Monaco -- obsolete design of the American champions Dixie III and Standard, and it should be noted they were the only boats of the capsuloid torpedo-boat model, V sections forward developing into U sections aft, a type I thought forever relegated to limbo since the famous collapse of the English racers at Monaco two years ago.

The exhibition closed on April 1st, and the 2nd and 3rd were devoted to launching and tuning up trials. Immediately Dixie III and Standard were got afloat it was obvious that they had been built for waters the very antithesis of Monaco. Standard's high center of gravity, occasioned by her top-heavy engines, rendered her a danger even in the placid waters of the harbor, and aroused strong protests from the harbor master, who declared he would have no repetition of her Hudson River maneuvers within his precincts. The most extraordinary method to secure stability was then adopted on the advice of an American writer, acting no doubt with the best intentions, but with results that made the American boat a joke. First of all, ballast was taken out of her and a lead keel weighing about a ton added; that being unsatisfactory, the breadth was increased by means of "hips" extending from amidships aft, giving the water-line a triangular form. These hips were built out with sheet iron and ribs tacked to the hull proper, the space between the two being packed with cork-dust. When the boat was afloat its action, especially when the water got through the tin pans and soaked and swelled the cork-dust, beggers description, and was cruelly disappointing to the hard-working skipper and crew, who had done their utmost to get their craft into fighting trim under what they had fatuously believed to be expert advice.

Dixie's skipper, with a boat almost as tender, resolutely declined to be a party to any tinkering with her hull, and determined to stand or fall with the boat as it left American waters rather than appear as an American challenger and admit his mission futile by resorting to the expedient of experiments executed by Monegasque longshoremen.

Standard was thus unable to appear in a single race, and the greatest sympathy was felt for Mr. Price MacKinney by the Anglo-Saxon contingent.

The course at Monaco is practically rectangular, but the presence of an extra buoy at each end to influence a sweeping instead of an abrupt turning movement, gives it actually a polygon form, one lap being 6 1/4 kilometers. The first round is necessarily short, and the times over such are negligible for speed purposes. Another feature to be noted is, as it is not practicable to have the buoys arranged to give an accurate 6 1/4-kilometer lap, it is a certainty that any error will be decidedly on the safe side, as Monaco is a record-breaking place.

Racing opened on Sunday, April 4th, when the following event took place:

The tail end of a mistral having left a heavy swell outside, the foregoing was the only race pulled off to-day. The contest was without, particular interest, but formed an object lesson as to the speed which can be gotten out of a small boat in a fairly heavy swell, provided she is built on the right lines.

Second Day, Monday, April 5th

The contest between these service boats demonstrated what can be done with a single-cylinder engine of 100 m.m. bore and the performance of the first and second boats, particularly the first, shows to what length the French engine manufacturers have gone in the evolution of a very high mean-effective- pressure engine. The valves of the Sizaire-Naudin engine were of about 100% greater area than its competitors, and this particular make has practically reached finality of power in this size.

Having the entre' to the judges' box, shortly before 2 p.m. while chatting with my old, estimable friends, Messrs. Prade and Demanest (actual organizers and practically sole controlling officers of these races), I drew my friends' attention to the German racer Prinz Heindrich just coming out of harbor for a trial spin before the race fixed for 3 p.m., in which the international champions were to find themselves pitted against each other for the first time. Leaving volumes of black smoke from her exhaust behind her, the German challenger passed us going in the direction of Cap martin. When about two miles from there she stopped, and, watching her through the big tripod telescope, we were astonished to see her gradually settle down and finally disappear at 2:10 p.m., leaving her skipper and mechanic to keep themselves afloat until rescued. This being lunch time there were no boats and few people about, but after discharging a couple of rockets to draw the attention of the somnolent Italian torpedo boat supposed to be on patrol duty, the latter steamed in their direction and picked up the two men. Monaco now being almost a German colony, the blank astonishment with which the numerous protests by the designer and builder that he would construct again for next year in just the same fashion, further dismayed the German contingent, who had anticipated a better showing by their boat.

As the time for the start approached, the terraces and the Tir aux Pigeons became crowded with people, and in a brilliant sunshine and a sea free from swell but having that occasional heave on it denoting deep water and precipitous shores, out sallied the American, English, and French boats, including the hydroplane Alla-Va, the skippers having received permission to start outside the defined limits if they wished to avoid overcrowding. The start was the worst I have ever seen in first-class racing, with the possible exception of the British bungling when the British International Cup was won by Dixie two years ago on the Solent.

Alla-va, it is true, cut the line within a few seconds of gun-fire, but the rest were simply anywhere and anyhow. Panhard-Levassor was second across the line but was soon passed by Wolseley-Siddeley, followed at some distance by Dixie which, it was evident, was not being pushed. The two big boats soon outstripped the hydroplane, which abandoned the race on the second round, and Dixie became a negligible quantity when it was seen that Captain Pierce could not drive her in the heaving but very easy sea. The fleet English racer increased her lead over the French every round, being steered by her owner, the Duke of Westminster, Commodore of the Sussex Motor Y.C., and Robins of the Wolseley Company. The French boat in the absence of the redoubtable Tellier owing to illness, was steered by a sailor named Yvon, and although the latter's helmsmanship was conspicuously inferior to that always shown by Tellier, it had no material effect upon the result. Outclassed in speed, the French boat held pride of place as a boat, being steady s a rock and as pliant as a spring. Wolseley-Siddeley might have been sired by Panhard-Levassor out of Dixie, as the British designer and builder Saunders has adopted and improved upon the hitherto invincible French model by fining down the French lines a little until he had obtained the former's stability slightly sacrificed to embrace the latter's speed-giving slenderness. Finer than the French model and more stable than the American, It is certain that this year will not produce a better model than the Duke of Westminster's boat.

So obviously cranky was Dixie III that Pierce could only play for safety, and kept very wide of the English and French racers' wash without attempting to drive. Dixie's tenderness to the sea's heave was strikingly discernible from the elevation of the judges' enclosure, and in defense of her skipper I may make public the unanimous opinion of the experts there that had the Dixie been driven any faster she would have turned over.

This evening Prince Albert of Monaco held a reception and ball, to which the leading international sportsmen visiting the principality were invited. The famous old Palace of the Grimaldi was a blaze of light, in which flashed jewels and orders galore.

The most picturesque start so far, when twenty odd boats crossed the line within a few seconds of gun-fire. Again a delectable prize fell to an English boat and the victory was, among sportsmen generally, one of the most popular of the whole meeting, as Gyrinus was raced by her amateur owners, Mr. Bernard Redwood and Captain Field-Richards.

With this solitary exception there was not a single winner without paid hands aboard, and the success of the two amateurs evoked a significant enthusiasm. From the way in which she rapidly secured the lead and then just kept ahead of the Swiss boat Fleur-d'Eau it was clear that Gyrinus was not being driven at full speed.

Of the dozen starters, half a dozen in this class were hydroplanes. The couple of hydroplanes present in this morning's race cut no figure and we were now to see, for the first time, a contest between boats and hydroplanes having weights and powers practically alike, and to which I shall refer later. From the start and the manner in which the German owned boat Liselotte slipped away from the rest, it became evident that the hydroplanes had no show against the boats over a distance, France had some right to claim a share in this victory, for while the engine was a German Mercedes, the hull was built by Tellier nearly five years ago for the Belgian sportsman, Baron de Caters, who raced her into renown under the well-remembered name of Seasick. Liselotte ran with faultless precision from start to finish. The second, third and fourth boats were hydroplanes, it is true, nut they were only placed by virtue of their ability to make spasmodic squirts which jerked them fitfully ahead of the more steadily running boats. Duc had been credited with a speed of 73 kilometers, or over 39 knots, per hour on the Seine.

While there may be some argument in favor of hydroplanes competing on even terms with racers, this race, ostensibly for racing cruisers, was won by a hydroplane, not one of which had the slightest claim to cruiser classification, but of this anon. The principal item of excitement in this afternoon's racing was the running over the course by an Austrian steam yacht of ugly model, which made such a terrific quarter wave as to swamp and spoil one of the hydroplanes from an excellent chance of winning. By a courteous act on the part of the Italian Navy acting with the French, the course was patrolled daily by a French and Italian torpedo boat alternately. The big yacht's owner is an honorary member of the committee, which perhaps accounts for the fact that the naval patrolling craft and the police boats permitted him to run over the course without obstruction; but when on the third occasion his boat was swung past the Tir aux Pigeons for the admiring plaudits of the crowd, yacht and owner were received with a storm of vituperation that must have startled and been a sufficient lesson for those responsible for a breach of sporting etiquette.

Fourth Day, Wednesday, April 7th

The honors of the race this morning for the big 12-18-meter cruisers fell entirely to France. Last tear the French Brasier engine firm ran a boat called Grand Trefle in the racer class which, although heavily powered, achieved no success. This year the same boat made its appearance under the name of Chanticler as a racing cruiser, the old engines having been replaced by a set of engines to bring her within this class, the result being highly satisfactory, as the boat obviously now travels at its best speed of about 23 knots with an action that can only be described as perfect. The name, filched from Rosalind's title piece intended to be played by the late Coquelin aine', is a most happy selection, as in this boat, in my opinion, the French have every right to crow that they own the finest genuine racing cruiser in existence.

This eliminating race to select the French team foe the international Grand Prix was the first practical test of the staying powers of the modern hydroplane over the course of 100 kilometers, and two only managed to stay at average speeds which tells its own tale. As the sea was now practically calm, Captain Pierce laid Dixie alongside the French champion for a short run on the straight, and although the American boat held her own it was noticeable that she could not have turned a buoy at that speed, and Panhard-Levassor was certainly not being pressed, as the time shows. Dixie's good showing on a straight run revived the interest in the American challengers, which had pardonably flagged from the

moment that one of them was put in the hands of the tinkerers. The Panhard boat won these trials without the least falter from start to finish.

Fifth Day, Thursday, April 8th

Until this year's introduction of the International Grand Prix, the Championship of the Sea has been looked upon as the severest test and most important race in the world. For the first time racers were debarred and the contest devoted to racing cruisers only. This is as it should be, as a 200-kilometer race should produce a sea-going boat rather than an out-and-out racer, and this has certainly been effected, as under the new International Rules it is provided that weight that has hitherto been acceptable in the form of ballast at Monaco must now be actually be built into the hull. Despite entries from every nation present with the exception of America, the unwritten rule that the Championship of the Sea should be held by a French boat has not been broken, and only five boats finished, of which four were French.

A splendid start was made, and excepting always Chanticler, there was a tight struggle between the boats which were placed. The Italian boat Spar gallinari and the French boat Tele-Mors were both 21-knotters, and the Italian had a good chance for second place when her clutch gear smashed and left the boat helpless on the thirty-second and last lap, only a few hundred yards from home. The third and fourth boats being both good for 18 knots, a ding-dong tussle for the whole of the distance was likewise seen between them. There was nothing to choose between the two pairs, and the fact that they fought it out in such a fashion for such a distance gives some indication of the interest which this race provided.

Sixth Day, Friday, April 9th

With a sea like oil and a dazzling sunshine, Monte Carlo welcomed the thousands who flocked into the little principality to witness to-day's great contest for the Coupe des Nations. Although Monday's race demonstrated the fastest boat, that great uncertainty which accompanies motoring in all its forms, together with the knowledge that Dixie would do all that her crew could make her, aroused an interest of an exceptional nature. As the time approached, the terraces beneath the great Casino which overlooks the Tir aux Pigeons became literally black and white with humanity, and when the reigning Prince and his suite came into the judges' enclosure, that hitherto holy of holies became blocked with everybody who fancied himself or herself somebody.

With the German challenger at the bottom of the sea, and the German Liselotte capable of no more than 24 knots on the straight, Italy, represented by the little Nibbio, which blushed for her temerity, curtsied and retired after a good swishing from the skirts of the grand dames, and the hydroplanes unable to stay the distance, it was apparent on form and capability the race would be a procession in the order of England, France and America.

No better start could be seen than that which took place within a very few seconds of gun-fire at 3 p.m., and for the first time here commendable helmsmanship was a striking feature in an English international racer. Pierce lay outside with Dixie, with Panhard-Levassor nursing the inside berth and practically abeam, when from the rear, up dashed Wolseley-Siddeley at full tilt into the inside birth and helm slightly aport shot ahead of the French and American champions until, when leading by about a length, she was smartly straightened out for the run to the Cap Martin end of the course; a neatly executed maneuver which, while the English boat herself offered no obstruction to the straight course of the French and American racers, placed her fully half a dozen lengths ahead before her rivals had negotiated a starboard quarter wave she had thrown across their path. Although it checked her speed, the French boat slipped through the wave without appearing to feel it, but not so Dixie, as when she crossed it, necessarily at tangent, she was within an ace of turning over. Before Pierce had straightened Dixie up, Panhard was three or four lengths ahead of him, and the English boat quite a dozen. The anticipated procession then commenced, and, all boats being driven for all they were worth, the French boat outstripped the American almost as much as she herself was left by the English boat. The Panhard people having copied the Wolseley in a perfectly silenced, water-impermeated exhaust, the perfect action of Dixie's engines could be heard by reason of her open exhausts. Losing a little on the straight and much when rounding the buoy Dixie seemed quite out of it, when, to the utter consternation of the French contingent, Panhard dropped her bow a little and showed signs of not feeling well, and it soon became apparent that something was wrong with her machinery on the third round. Being 71 seconds ahead of Dixie on the second round, this dropped to 30 seconds on the fourth round, and 19 seconds on the sixth, and when Dixie passed Panhard on the seventh round a perfect roar of cheers greeted the American boat, which was accompanied by a howl of derision for the French boat by the mercurial Monegasque gamins crowding the rocks at the foot of the Tir aux Pigeons.

With an appreciative respect for his own boat's weak point, Pierce kept well outside the Frenchman's wash, which, of course, gave him a longer journey, and I noticed that, having the race easily in hand, the English boat showed a sportsmanlike consideration for the American's gallant struggle to beat the Frenchman by passing well outside Dixie when lapping her in order to save her from a wash that could easily have turned her over. Not that there was any wash to speak of, simply that Dixie was a millpond boat. Slower and slower went Panhard when, to everyone's astonishment, after the twelfth round Dixie dashed into the harbor at full speed and gave up the race, owing, it transpired, to the circulating pump becoming smashed and the engine getting overheated. Pride of even second place was to be denied to the erstwhile invincible French boat, as she stopped on the thirteenth round and signaled for urgent assistance. Wolseley-Siddeley, running with chronometric precision, finished in faultless style amid the cheers of over 10,000 spectators on the terraces, the victory being highly popular, owing to the Duke being esteemed beyond the many who have made previous efforts to wrest premier honors from the French.

Running with admirable steadiness and regularity, although at a speed over 10 knots less than the winner, the German 8-meter cruiser Liselotte had the honor of securing second place.

Making my way to the harbor I was in time to see Panhard-levassor being towed in in a sinking condition, owing to one of the crank-pin bushes having overheated and at last seizing, with the result that the connecting rod broke in such a fashion as to spring the engine from its bearers and at the same time making a rent in the hull through which the water entered rapidly. She was brought alongside the slip to be hauled up into the exhibition grounds to prevent her from foundering. Before she could get on the trolley cradle which had been run practically underneath her, she was awash, and sank alongside the slip after being hauled with her bow ashore. Were of not for the fact that there are no sailors in this part of the world, I would say that everything possible was done to make sure she did sink in order to provide a job for the longshore loafers and the big floating crane which had to be requisitioned to pick her up; and had Tellier himself been there she would have been high and dry in the exhibition grounds in less time than she took to settle down.

I give this little sidelight for the benefit of Americans who wish to provide against all contingencies at Monaco. Seventh Day, Saturday, April 10th

Although two events were pulled off to-day, as they were racing cruiser handicaps, they simply formed a breather between the stirring events of yesterday and the grand finale of to-morrow, when the thoroughbreds make their last appearance. The first event started at 10 o'clock, a 50kilometer handicap for racing cruisers for a prize of 4,000 francs, ranging from 1,500 francs for the first boat to 200 francs for the sixth. Handicaps based on the best performance of each boat over any round in any previous race, all boats given their allowance at the start. This handicap was won in the following order: (1) Cyclamen (French), (2) Excelsior-Aster, (3) Nautilus-Anzani, (4) Odette, (5) Alex-Mercedes, (6) Lorraine V.

In the afternoon a 50-kilometer consolation handicap was pulled off for all cruisers not having won 500 francs during the meeting. Handicapping as in the foregoing instance, prize 2,500 francs, ranging from 1,000 to 300 francs, the boats arriving in the following order: (1) E.L.B. (French), (2) Lanturlu-Aster, (3) Lorraine VI, (4) Moho.

Eighth Day, Sunday, April 11th

The Monaco meeting is always wound up by a short speed test for both classes over a nautical mile from a standing start and a flying kilometer, the total value of the prizes amounting to 16,000 francs.

According to their classes the boats run off in heats and the two winning boats from each heat meet in the final of their class.

Naturally the principal interest is centered in the winners of the racer heats. Wolseley-Siddeley being the only boat left in her class, owing to the extraordinary fact that the American, French and German big racers were hors-de-combat, she had a walk-over in her heat, and was pitted in the final against two hydroplanes of the first series racers, so we had an interesting bout between an unlimited powered racing boat of some 800-h.p. and two smaller hydroplanes in which the engine power was limited to four cylinders of no more than 155 m.m. bore each. In the nautical mile the quickly accelerated hydroplanes jumped ahead of the big English boat, and the judges must have had some difficulty in selecting a winner.

The flying kilometer was also won by a hydroplane, so that the speed records set up by the English boat over long distances were broken by the French hydroplanes over a short course.

In the cruiser speed tests a hydroplane was again a winner, after which half-a-dozen rockets which burst in the sky over the casino announced to the holiday-making crowds that the Monaco meeting for 1909 was ended.

A great meeting like this has an educational value. From the owners' point of view, reliability and suitability are principal factors. It must be at once admitted that the engines recently running or attempting to run at Monaco were, with a few striking exceptions by well known firms, a conglomeration of gas-fitters' and plumbers' refuse, which it would be ridiculous to define as engines. In their anxiety to secure maximum power out of minimum weight, the French makers have gone beyond the limit of mechanics. Not since these meetings were inaugurated have I seen such a pitiable collapse of engines. A couple of years ago there were over 80% of finishes; this year in several races only 25% finished, and certain prizes went abegging through lack of boats that could stay such a short distance as 50 kilometers. The only way to oust these so-called marine engines is to impose a penalty if a boat fails to do 75% of the distance. Anyhow, it is certain that something should be done in the interests of the sport and of legitimate engine manufacturers, for it must be frankly admitted that the word "unreliable" has been resurrected into a prominence calculated to injuriously affect both sport and industry.

Hydroplanes afforded an interesting study, and it may be taken definitely that, so far as speed is concerned, they have come to stay; but it is certain that the design at present in vogue, the stepped box form with one or multiple planes, is a conspicuous failure on salt water. The awful slamming which these boats give themselves on any water not as flat as a billiard table, would shake the breath out of the crew were they not provided with spring seats which cause the unhappy sitters to dance an involuntary jig like a couple of nautical marionettes. But no such cushioning can be given to the machinery, and not even stream engines could endure the bumping to which these modern hydroplane engines are subjected.

Whatever may be suitable for fresh water, I am satisfied that what is now known as the French model of hydroplane will never do for sea work, and for such the present hydroplane patents about which there has been much threatened litigation in Europe, are not worth the paper they are written on. A seagoing hydroplane must plane easily, whereas the French model gives an action like running up an incline for a short distance only to drop with a bump at the highest point, continuing the cycle so long as the equipment will stand it.

While it may or may not be permissible to admit hydroplanes into the racer classes, it is altogether unfair to admit them among the racing cruisers so long as the present design reveals their entire unsuitability for genuine cruising. Considering the extreme care which was bestowed upon the new rules to ensure staunchly built seagoing boats as racing cruisers, it is a pity that the bottom has been knocked out of them by admitting a type of design with which no yachtsman would dare to venture on any cruise, and unless these hydroplanes have a special

classification there must be a large falling off in this entry of genuine cruisers for the next Monaco meeting. Hydroplanes are sprinters pure and simple, and cannot logically be co-opted into the boat (carrot) classes which alone are legislated for the A.I.Y.A. Rules, and under which the Monaco meeting is assumed to be conducted; and I will go so far as to say that what France has lost by boats this year she will attempt to regain by hydroplanes next, unless in the interim she yields to that outside pressure which is accumulating. To avoid an injustice it is to be hoped that no owner of a racing cruiser will enter his boat for the next Monaco meeting until he is satisfied she will not be up against a sprinting hydroplane absolutely alien to the class.

In what way can America profit from the cruel lessons administered to Dixie and Standard? The American experience has previously been the lot of England, Italy and France herself, and there is no doubt that Monaco has evolved an entirely new design, but no means local, but a wholesome seagoing model which is a combination of the highest speed consistent with seagoing stability on a restricted length.

At Monaco the French and English have acquired a six-years' lead in the evolution of the high-speed seagoing racer, and proved that round sections, such as favored by Dixie and Standard, are unsuitable. The American designers have attempted to show that the results of these costly lessons have been incorrectly interpreted in the European model, and failed. With flat sections, designed to overcome that drag, so feared by the American designers, an increased breadth can be adopted which not only provides the requisite stability but affords room for twin screws. It is certain that the necessary effective or propeller drive cannot be gotten out of one screw, as the power cannot be put on a single line of shafting; and further, it is apparent in the narrow round sections of the American boats insufficient allowance has been made for the heeling effect of the gyroscopic forces set up by a single set of engines, which action is balanced by the use of twin-screw engines rotating counterwise. It is equally certain that America will not take this year's defeat at the world's center of international power boat racing as her dismissal from the first-class arena, and I am in a position to say that an independent party of American sportsmen at Monte Carlo resolved not to take that debacle as final and took preliminary steps for the building of a new challenger for next year's meeting.

Each year sees greater crowds and better boats at the incomparable Riviera meeting, and so long as 100,000 francs in prizes is combined with geographical inducement, this meeting will endure while first-class international racing lasts.

Of prize money 80% goes to the owner, 10% to the builder, and 10% to the engine maker, and the nationality of the engines decides the nationality of the boat.

(Transcribed from The Rudder, May 1909, pp. 497-504)

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

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