The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-26
MOTOR BOAT CUP RACE HERE
BRITISH ALREADY TALKING or
SENDING A CHALLENGE.

Contest for h~ternssisusi Trophy Won ~
Dixie WIN Probably Ne Held on the
Sound Refusal OF Aufexsosns 60 allow
Late French Entries Causes Comment.
The British international cup for motor
boats win be raced for merit year In these
waters. This trophy has just besn won
by tho motor boat Dixie, owned by Oommo-
dore r. j. Schroeder Of tho Moor Boat Club
Of America. and although Il in q long time
before the next race will be- held the British
are already talking Of a challsnge and the
holders Of the CUP are planning to have q
course somewhere on the Sound. The
Motor Boat Club realizes that tho crowded
conditions Of h Hudson River would be
harmful to an international race and the
members are looking about to find q site
on the Sound where they osn have q club
house and where there will be a good oourse
over which motor boats can DO speeded.
The British international cup. as It In nov
called. was formerly known as the Harms
worth cup. Il was given by Lord North
cliffe when he was Sir Alfred Harmsworth
Inc IL has been raced for several times.
Once IL was won by the French or q techni-
cality, but was r~ecaptursd by the British
the next season.
This year the French have shown that
they ave the fastest motor boats. Their
boats made phenomenal time In the races
at Monaco, but they did not enter the races
for the cup in time. After the entries closed
the French wished to compete and the
matter was referred to the Motor Boa Club
Of America. That club declined to waive
the time limit for entries and consequently
the French could o take part in the race.
This action of the Motor Boat Club has been
the cause Of some severe criticism. and the
London Ydchtsmdn says:
The attempt of the American challenger
Dixie to capture the international cup is.
il 10 scarcely necessary to say. he event
of the year in power boat racing. Dixie
will make her appearance under a cloud.
We have some sympathy for the owners
OF the French boats which have been ruled
out OF the race. for IL was on
the Motor Yacht Club. as the trustees of
the international trophy. to do 80. The
committee did all that sportsmen could to
secure the admission of the French boats
after the official closing day for entries.
and only ~relinquished their efforts after
receiving the protest from the American
club. We wish this to be understood and
appreciated by our French friends. for we
find that, despite the explanation we gave a
fortnight ago. a number OF French motor
yachtsmen have the impression that the
VI. Y. c. committee alone was responsible
for the French entries being refused on a
technical point. and unfortunately the
French press has made much of this. IL
would be impossible to say whether the
feeling OF disa appointment or that of sur
prise was most felt by the committee and
ourselves, as negotiators for the French.
when the American refusal was received.
as We did not anticipate it. Had Dixie
been a trade owned boat, no exception
could have been taken to the protest, put
being owned privately it was naturally in
ferred that a trial against the French boats
would he welcomed as much by America
as by England.
But we have great sympathy with the
Motor Y. c. and the motor boating sports
men who have been debarred by America
from witnessing the finest power boat race
this country could have furnished. IL is
safe to assume that with his Majesty ar
irving at Cowes the day Of this race. the
presence Of the home feet at Spithead
and the Incompatible week following.
the opening Of the programme by a race
between the fieetest motor racers OF three
great Powers would have given that flip
to racing of which we stand in need.
But why has America protested against
Panhard- Teller and La Rapiere being al
lowed TO race because their entries were
received after the closing day? Dixie
was entered last year, but she did not turn
up. Since then Panbard-Tellier has done
well enough to satisfy those who have
had the opportunity Of studying both. that
she can make faster time than the American,
and az the Monte Carlo races an American
officer old us that upon his return he should
advise the American club that he was salts
fed the French flier could make rings around
the Dixie. 1t would seem that he has kept
his word. However, July ! arrived with
Dixie the sole foreign entran;. She was
shipped aboard the Minneapolis at New
York on July g. and it is but reasonable
TO infer that having five days in hand the
American club made themselves acquainted
with what their boat would have to face,
and were fully aware before they shipped
her that whatever English defender they
might meet Panhard- Teller would not be
present. We give our friends across the
Atlantic every credit for knowing a safe
business deal, and as a protest Of this nature
is purely business without which, 1t seems,
this sport cannot be conducted we can
only conclude that there Ia less speculation
in fitting with an untried English defender
than against an old French wsrhorse.T
The Yachting World in a very full de-
scription Of the race itself says;
Last Friday Mr.. S~chroeder's racing
20 footer Dixie. representing the Motor
de Walden's Daimler ii. by l minute Al 3-5
seconds in the race for the British inter-
national cup, running the distance OF thirty
five nautical miles in 1 hour Is minutes
~ seconds, tnat IL 10 say, AT a speed aVerag-
ing 27.8 knots throughout. The speed of
Daimler ii. was exactly half a knot less,
her total time being I hour II minutes 2 52-5
seconds.
so much. then. for the result; nut in the
analysis thereof one is fain to go delicately
lest one arouse the ready sneer of the super
fcially informed on the score of the i'll
workmanship that must ever be explain
ing away a defeat. That. OF course, is
the last foolish and undesirable thing to
do; but it il a very different IN now more
than ever essential thing to do to explain
why. That is the least tribute one can
pay to those who labored against insuper-
able odds to snatch victory. We Britishers
in the tattered roll OF the centuries have
become 40 dangerously used TO winning
on the forlorn hope that we have come
to trust il and our skill semper impdratus
against all natural laws OF cause and con-
sequence. II may be brave. but il is neither
war nor sport. In two words. it is the
most sordid folly.
"The story OF this hour and a quarter con-
test almost a foregone certainty from the
start il soon told. Dixie led over the line
at gunfre by ten seconds from Lord Howard
de Walden's other boat. Daimler which,
as events proved. might az well have been
at moorings with Daimler III. about twenty
lengths astern. For exoellently handled as
she was by that prince OF marine motorists