1927 President's Cup Regatta
Potomac River, Washington DC, September 16-17, 1927

President's Cup and Dodge Memorial Trophy

Washington Regatta Winds up the Racing Season
An Unusually Strenuous Summer for the Speed Boats is
Brought to a Close with a Big National Regatta
Miss Syndicate Takes President's Cup
By Herbert L. Stone
Photographs by M. Rosenfeld [NOTE: Photos not yet available —LF]

In a season that was filled with more speed boat racing of national importance than any previous year, and that kept the racing men on the jump, it was fitting that the wind-up should be held at the national capital, over the historic Potomac River course of the Corinthian Yacht Club, with the chief event the race for the cup sponsored by the President of the United States.

Six big national or international events during the short racing season was a pretty ambitious program, and yet it was carried out with success and was productive of more interesting sport than we've ever before crowded into one summer. This was due not so much to new boats of unlimited power as it was to the boats of smaller size, such as the 151-class and the 1½-litre boats, to the presence of foreign fliers from Great Britain and Germany, and to the wonderful popularity of the outboard classes for racing purposes and the phenomenal speed they have developed. For the real fun of racing and its attendant thrills, the outboard boats, at close to 30 miles per, with a big field of starters insuring the hottest of competition, provide more real excitement and enjoyment than anything of their inches yet produced.

The outboards were out in force at Washington, as they have been in every other regatta, and new records in competition were made during the two days of racing, September 16th and 17th. So rapidly have records fallen and been made in these classes that one is left breathless in trying to follow the speeds as they have crept up from 25 to over 30 miles per hour. In the Class B outboards, Julius T. Herbst's Kayo II, racing for the Hall-Scott Trophy, hung up a new competitive record of 26.368 m.p.h., while in the C Class, with engines of greater volume, E. Pickard, Jr.'s Zero made 30.827 miles, over one 2-mile mile heat. As many as 16 boats started in some of the outboard events at the Washington regatta.

An unusually attractive program had been arranged by Vice Commodore W.A. Rogers and his committee from the Corinthian Yacht Club. For the President's Cup, won last year by L. Gordon Hamersley, in Cigarette, five boats showed up, but Cigarette was not on hand and she let the cup go by default. George Townsend's sterling racer Greenwich Folly took the lead at the start of the first heat and none of her competitors could pass her on the six laps of 2½ miles each. Sister Syn, a Dodge boat, pressed her, but could not get by, and Townsend won the heat in what proved to be the best time of the three, her average being 52.352 m.p.h. The next day two more heats were run and Horace E. Dodge's Miss Syndicate came through in both. In the last heat she was driven by Mrs. D. D. Cromwell, who kept ahead of the Folly by good driving. In the second heat Greenwich Folly was over the line too soon (it looked from the judges' boat as if she had been pulled over by Sister Syn) and she could never make up the time she lost in returning. The summary follows.

In the three heats for the Dodge Memorial Trophy Miss Syndicate again showed great speed and consistency, beating Greenwich Folly and Sister Syn in straight heats. Shadowvite came out for the last heat, but she turned too close to a mark buoy and was disqualified for fouling it.

Miss Okeechobee, owned by W. J. Conners. and driven by F. G. Erickson, won the race for the Secretary of the Navy Cup, and she also beat Roy Keys' Curtiss-Wilgold in the Free-for-All, in the fastest time of the whole regatta.

The stock runabout classes did not fill particularly well, but two Chris-Craft, one driven by Bernard Smith, ran almost a dead heat, the one driven by A. Seagren winning by only one-tenth of a second, the phenomenal speed (for the power) of 34.544 being attained.

Baby Ruth, owned by O. Y. Schnering, won in the limited class of 151 hydroplanes, while Adolph Gobel's New Yorker beat Miss Spitfire V in the unlimited class. The summaries follow:

(Reprinted from Yachting, November 1927, pp.41-42, 104)

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