1909 Western Power Boat Association Regatta
Peoria, IL, August 17-19, 1909

A Great Regatta at Peoria
Championship Event of the Western Power Boat Association Won by Hoosier Boy
Scripps II and Independence II Put Out of the Race by Striking the Same Log
by R. H. Combs

Western P.B.A. Races at Peoria A Great Regatta at Peoria

When the free-for-all championship race started in the Peoria regatta of the Western Power Boat Association, on Wednesday, August 18^th, Independence II, Scripps II, Hoosier Boy, Lamb IV and Red Wing, five champions of their respective localities, lined up for the gun. Before the fleet of racers had gotten 7,000 feet from the starting point a floating obstruction put the flying leader, Independence II and Scripps II, which was within striking distance of her, out of the race and out of business for the day, leaving three boats to fight out the championship. Independence struck the object, which was a half-submerged log, first, and smashed her rudder. Scripps II was so close that she encountered the same log, and the three blades of her fast-turning wheel were stripped off. Barring this accident, which was unavoidable, the regatta was without a doubt one of the greatest racing events of the year; indeed, one of the most interesting and exciting in motorboat history.

There were two days of racing, Tuesday and Wednesday, August 17^th and 18^th. The program called for four races on the first day and three races on the second day. Naturally, the greater part of the interest in the meeting centered around the third race of Wednesday which, while it was known as the "free-for-all" was really emblematic of the Western championship for racing boats under 40 feet over all.

The first day of the regatta commenced bright and clear with the lower end of Peoria Lake fairly boiling from the propellers of hundreds of motorboats, ranging from a little home-built skiff with its 1-hp engine, to the fast Scripps II, the 40-foot, 100-hp Detroit flier.

Many of the racers were out running over the three-legged course, getting their bearings for the afternoon events, tuning up and trying out their engines, while hundreds of small pleasure craft, for which Peoria is famous, were getting around over the lower end of the lake, taking note of all that was in sight and incidentally getting in the way of the racing boats, seemingly as much as they could.

Shortly before noon, black clouds began to pile up in the northwest and when two or three spiteful puffs of wind sent the anchored fleet in the lake whirling around their buoys, it looked as if Peoria was to get the same class of weather as was imposed on Burlington during the Mississippi Valley regatta. However, at five minutes to two in the afternoon, when the preparatory gun was fired for the first race, which was the full-cabin cruiser class, the clouds had passed away and old Sol was shining on high.

The program called for the start for the full-cabin cruisers at two p.m. and at that time the seven cruisers which appeared from the event were lined up on the starting line ready for the gun. At 2:02:30 the bark of the cannon on Commodore Tom Webb’s houseboat, which was used as the judges’ boat, started the seven cruisers on their way around the course.

The event of the day was the third race, which was programmed as a 360foot speed class, of fifteen miles. While it had been arranged for the fourth race, which was for the 20-foot speed class at ten miles for the Kingman Plow Company’s purse of $100 and the $250 Hotel Lud Cup, it seemed that the showing made by the writer’s 20-footer M.V. at the Burlington regatta had scared off the owners of the 20-footers so that there was but one entry, which meant a walk-over for the M.V., and ruined what had been arranged as a feature event.

In the 36-foot class, which naturally became the feature of the day, six boats faced the starter, and as at the Burlington regatta, Lamb IV, of Clinton, Iowa, was the favorite and after the 15 miles called for by the program had been traversed she was the winner, having negotiated the distance in the slow time—for this boat—of 38 minutes and 17 seconds. It was evident from the start to those who had seen Lamb IV at her best at Burlington that her skipper was not going to show her up in this race, for, after the first half of the first lap Lamb IV loafed until, when within 500 yards of the finish, she opened up and spurted across the line. Red Wing, belonging to J. R. Trautner, of Red Wing, Minn., had traveled a long ways to win the event, but, like the other four starters in the race, she was doomed to disappointment. While the pretty little boat ran very evenly and consistently throughout the 15 miles, the best she could do was to finish 1 minute and 34 seconds behind Lamb IV. Blanche B, a 26-footer belonging to W. W. Beckwith, of Burlington Iowa, was third. At the Burlington regatta Mr. Beckwith entered Blanche B, but was so disappointed with the showing made that while the name of the boat remains the same the Blanche B shown at Peoria is a new hull with the same engines as were in the first Blanche B. The new hull was an improvement over the old one, as the position attained at the finish of the race with boats of higher class will indicate.

In this race one of the surprises of the regatta was uncorked by the redoubtable Ed. Corsepius, of Fort Madison, Iowa, the owner of Minnie C II, the champion of the Mississippi Valley in 1908, and the owner of the much touted Minnie C III which was designed and built by Mr. Corsepius as the champion of the same waters for 1909, but which has never been gotten into the water. The surprise was furnished in the form of a 22-foot boat called by Mr. Corsepius Mascot. At the start Mascot was practically left at the post, with Mr. Corsepius himself as the jockey. If there had been any book-making on the race, what happened as soon as Mr. Corsepius woke up to the fact that they were off would have caused every slate to have been rubbed out and the bookies would have thrown their chalk away. Mr. Corsepius pulled open his throttle and the little Mascot took a jump after the bunch like a bulldog after a tramp, mowing them down one after another until she was closely following Lamb IV and Red Wing, the flying leaders. Here the dinky little rudder on Mascot, which was about the size of a postage stamp, got Corsepius into trouble and allowed him to get on to one of Lamb IV’s rollers sideways, sending solid water by the barrelful up into the air, only to come down all over Mascot and her pilot, engineer and roaring engines. For a second it looked as if Mascot had run into a stone wall, she stopped so suddenly; but almost immediately she was going again and went tearing through the bunch, only to again come to grief on the bow wave of Lamb IV. This experience seemed to have completely satisfied Corsepius, for after that he was content to cruise along with the bunch he had fallen in with; but from the showing that he had made with these champion 36-footers at the start it was conceded that Corsepius had up his sleeve another world beater of her class, and much speculation was indulged in the remainder of the day as to what his showing would be for the 26-footers on Wednesday when he would be thrown in with that champion 26-footer Teaser.

While considerable interest was manifested in the races and the great crowds along the shore cheered until they were hoarse, the interest seemed to be all centered in the third event of the second day when the championship was to be decided. Scripps II, of Detroit, which made a hurry-up trip from Detroit to Peoria in an express car, was the prime favorite of the day for championship honors, in spite of the fact the Lamb IV was fresh from her string of victories at Burlington, and Hoosier Boy, the Ohio River champion, was laying at anchor awaiting a chance to rob Lamb and Scripps of their honors. Along towards evening, before the real fireworks began, a large bomb was exploded among the ranks of the power boatmen with the announcement that the great St., Louis flier, Independence II, was within a few miles of Peoria in tow of a 60-foot cruiser.

The day’s speculations as to the possible winner of the championship were renewed now, and along towards midnight groups of motorboatmen, traveling men, newspaper men, and the "common people," around hotel corridors and on the streets could find nothing of any more interest to discuss than the probable result of the big race of Wednesday.

Wednesday morning early, when Independence was taken out over the course and her mammoth engines began their roar, it seemed that the crowds who the day before had favored Scripps as the winner flocked over to the St. Louis boat.

Wednesday morning, shortly before old Sol had climbed back on high to grace the Peoria weather for the second day of the regatta, Scripps, Independence, Red Wing, Hoosier Boy and Lamb IV were running back and forth on the lower end of the lake and around over the race course tuning up and testing out their power plants. It was evident from the expressions on the faces of the respective owners, pilots and engineers of the big racing craft, that the feature event of the regatta was to be one which would live long in the history of motorboating.

When, at 2 p.m., the judges called to the line the race for the 32-foot class, Teaser, the well-known Quincy flier, Blanche B, of Burlington, and Mascot, the 22-foot wonder boat from Ft. Madison, appeared. Teaser was off in front, half a length ahead of Mascot, but Corsepius took his boat wide to avoid the bow wave of Teaser and it seemed that unequal running of Mascot’s engine prevented Corsepius closing up Teaser’s lead. At the end of the first lap Mascot was still close on Teaser’s heels, being only 14 seconds behind in rounding the judges’ boat, and before they had run the first leg of the second lap Mascot took command. At the end of the second lap Mascot had 41 seconds lead of Teaser and at the finish was the winner by 2 minutes and 5 seconds, Blanhce B having chucked it up and quit just before the finish of the second lap. The time for the race of 15 miles, 39 minutes and 15 seconds, was considerably slower than the time previously made by Teaser, at Burlington, when she won easily, and it was thought by many that Mascot had captured the race on a fluke. But for a 22-foot boat it was evident that Corsepius had really brought out another world-beater of that class.

The next race on the program was for 26-footers and under, but since the boats entered in this race had been running in the race just previous it was decided by the judges to call out the boats for the free-for-all championship.

At the crack of the cannon Independence II, of St. Louis, and Scripps II, of Detroit, jumped to the front and within five seconds it was evident that they had the speed of the party. For a half mile the two boats held close together but the wise ones, who had seen Independence run before, saw that Ed. Koenig, her owner, who was at the wheel, was not doing his best. Half way to the first stake Independence began to go a little faster and to pull away from Scripps, Scripps running inside the course evidently trying to escape the tremendous bow wave of Independence, while Independence was running somewhat wide of the course, seemingly to get leeway enough on the buoy to come around, as, with her tremendous power she could not take the buoy as close as the Scripps.. Just as it seemed that these two boats were almost within turning range of the first buoy, a great splash of spray and water went up from Scripps and she was seen to turn sideways and remain motionless. An instant before this Independence had swerved suddenly to the starboard, and it looked--with pair of strong glasses from the starting point—as if she was going out into the fringe of brush which borders Peoria Lake in the vicinity of the first buoy, Hoosier Boy and Lamb IV, fighting it out between themselves after the flying leaders, were then seen to go around the buoy with Hoosier Boy having some lead over Lamb IV. Red Wing, quite a distance back, also continued around the course, while the two big racers which had gone out with a burst of speed that made it appear likely that all western records were to be smashed, lay motionless near the buoy while several cruisers and police boats rushed to their assistance. Hoosier Boy continued in the lead over Lamb IV, increasing it throughout the 20 miles. Red Wing continued to lose throughout the first and second laps until at the end, on the third lap, Red Wing failed to show up and it was found that she too had become disabled, Hoosier Boy finishing the race 3 minutes and 9 seconds ahead of Lamb IV.

The third race of the day, which was really to have been the second, was for 26-footers and under. In this race Mascot, Teaser and Blanche B again met with the same result that the three boats had attained in the 22-foot class earlier in the day, only of course in the shorter distance to be run Mascot’s margin over Teaser being greater than it was in the 15-mile race earlier in the day showed why Mascot had not taken command on the first lap and, as had been surmised, it was found that the wonderful speed of this little flier had been held down in the first lap of the earlier race by engine trouble.

Barring the accident which marred the feature event of the regatta, the races were a complete success in the way of entertaining the enormous crowds of people who lined the shore of the lake in front of the city on both days. For the evening features of the regatta days, elaborate firework displays were given on barges anchored in the lake, while illuminated parades of decorated motorboats with Roman candles presented a picture never to be forgotten by those present. Hotel accommodations, in spite of the large crowds which filled the city, were ample to take care of the visitors, and the Illinois Valley Yacht Club, under whose auspices the regatta was held, were a very satisfied bunch at the close of the program. So were all the rest of us.

SUMMARIES

First day, first race

Full Cabin Cruisers. 5 Miles. Start 2:02:30

Second race

Half-Cabin Cruisers. 5 Miles. Start 2:52:28

Third race

36-Foot Class. 15 Miles. Start 3:48:10

Second day, First race

32-footers and under. 15 Miles. Start 2:26:10

Second race

40-footers and under. Free-for-all Championship. 20 miles. Start 3:49:30

Third race

26-footers and under. 10 miles. Start 4:49:57

(Transcribed from MotorBoat, Sep. 10, 1909, pp. 40-43)

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

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