1950 Harmsworth Trophy
Detroit River, Detroit MI, September 1-2, 1950
U.S. Yachtsmen's Group Accepts Wilson's
Harmsworth Challenge
by Clarence E. Lovejoy
|
Boat racing, with either power or sail, instead of just lazily cruising on summer vacations or yachting week-ends, held the interest yesterday of many of the thousands attending the National Motor Boat Show at Grand Central Palace.
Leonard H. Thompson, Jr. of Detroit, assistant to J. Lee Barrett, secretary of the Yachtsmen's Association of America, divulged that another Harmsworth race is a certainty for 1950.
A challenge to the United States, which has held the famous British International trophy since Gar Wood won it two decades ago and which was defended last summer in Detroit by R. Stanley Dollar Jr. of San Francisco, has been accepted by the Y.A.A. from Ernest A. Wilson of Ingersoll, ON, representing the Dominion of Canada. It was his boat, Miss Canada IV, piloted by his son, Harold Wilson, which was the unsuccessful challenger last July.
Harmsworth Trustees Queried
Wilson's challenge was received before the stipulated date of Jan. 1, but final acceptance was not accomplished until cables could be exchanged with the Harmsworth estate trustees in England because of some unusual requests.
Wilson asked that the 1950 event be not held until after Aug. 1 and this was agreed upon. Other rules amended during Barrett's recent visit in England will permit shortening the course to five nautical miles, running the race counter-clockwise, as all other United States speed-boat events are conducted, and permitting only one occupant in a boat instead of the former requirement of a driver and mechanic.
Additional challenges may be accepted until May 1 and these may emanate from England, where Don Campbell, son of the late Sir Malcolm Campbell, is reported as trying to make a Harmsworth boat ready and from Italy, where Achille Castoldi hopes to have a craft in shape.
There is a possibility that the 1950 Harmsworth race may be held in California because of the prerogative of Dollar, whose own winning boat of last summer, Skip-A-Long, was later sunk in the deep water of Lake Tahoe, CA, in an accident.
Race May Be Run in Detroit
If he does not prepare a substitute boat or if he does not decide to drive one of the several other craft offered to him, including Henry J. Kaiser's Aluminum First, it is wholly possible that Dollar will consent to having the 1950 at Detroit.
The tentative dates of September 1 and 2 have been selected for the Harmsworth, with the third contest if necessary, on Labor Day, September 4.
(Reprinted from the New York Times January 11, 1950)
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