1948 Silver Cup
Detroit River, Detroit MI, September 4-6, 1948

Italian Boat Sinks During Cup Tune-Up Miss Canada III Wins Silver Cup in Detroit Speed-Boat Regatta Miss Canada III Wins Silver Cup Torque Talk

Out in Detroit on the fourth and sixth of September the second phase of the Detroit International Regatta Association's elaborate program took place, when the remnants of the disabled Gold Cup fleet competed for the beautiful O. J. Mulford Memorial Silver Cup. The Miss Canada III, driven by Harold Wilson and owned by Ernest Wilson of Ingersoll, Ontario, finally managed to complete a full race and, after having a full scale brush with Stanley Dollar's Skip Along from San Francisco, came out as winner.

It is indeed too had that the havoc created by the Gold Cup Race on August 28 reduced the possible starting fleet to a mere handful of those craft originally brought to Detroit to race for the Silver Cup as well as the historic Gold Cup. Statements of all kinds have been made by all concerned with the running of the Gold Cup Race, and also by many who have had no connection with the regatta or any regatta of like kind and quality, and to our way of analysis the net result has been far from good. The adverse publicity both in the press and on the air has given the feature power boat event in the United States a black eye, one which will not be erased by the judicious use of a succulent beefsteak. The fact that the coast to coast radio hookup was forced to change over to something more interesting because the announcer was unable to give an exciting description of one boat tooling around the turbulent Detroit River course did little to convince the millions of listeners that the Gold Cup Race is the zenith of power boat competition, nor did the thousands of words spoken and printed add new enthusiasts to the racing fraternity.

Familiarity of the governing officials with the rules for the Gold Cup class as they appear in the current rule hook, especially with Section 7 of Article XV on page 174 which reads "No postponements from the advertised time of the start of the race shall be allowed for any cause, except in the interests of the safety of the public or the contestants," would have done much for racing as a whole and for the owners of the majority of Gold Cup boats in particular.

(Reprinted from The Rudder, October [?] 1948, p.52)

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