Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-05-26
BOAT HAS EXPRESS SPEED.


New Craft to Beat All Records.
A craft with the speed Of an express
train has long been the dream of sew
eral motor-boat enthusiasts along the
upper Mississippi River and several de
signers have been working together
with the result that they have produced
boat with which they expect to shat
ter all the present records, says the
New York World.
Frank Titus of Fountain City, Wis,
formerly owned the fastest boat on the
river in the famous Bat, the small
craft which attained speed Of nearly
twenty miles all hour with a nine-horse
power engine and for three seasons held
the speed record on the upper river.
The Eat has been sold to a physician
at Cassville, Wis, and her engines viii
be used in another craft
Until the advent of the Chief of Rec
ord, formerly owned by A. Gardner Of
Winona, the Bat outclassed all boats
on the river, large and small, and could
leave the fastest steamboats, in the
stern waves.
Gardeners boat, 20 feet long, with
a nine-horse-power engine and 4-foot
beam, was, until the middle of the
season, the fastest boat in that terri
tory. At Wabasha on July 4, in the
motor-boat races, the Chief of Record
outran the Bat and other boats en-
tered and finished nearly a half-mile
in the lead in a six-mile course. The
Chief of Record attained speed of
twenty miles an hour and for the
horsepower Installed was considered
the fastest boat between st. Louis and
ST. Paul.
Late in July the Skip. owned by
Eugene p Gleason, of Lacrosse, was
launched at Red Wing and clearly out
classed other water racers. The Skip
is 80 feet long, with 4-foot beam and
is equipped with twelve-horse-power
motor in three cylinders. The Skip
has attained as high as twenty-five
and half miles an hour, but through
failure to provide a sufficient cooling
apparatus FOR the engine is unable to
maintain this pace indefinitely.
The Skip now holds tie Speed rec
ord on that Part Of the river with the
exception CT boat of the same de-
sign, which is 35 feet long and is
equipped with a sixteen-horse-power
three cylinder motor. The new boat,
however, has not entered into compe-
tition with the speed records, although
she is said to run nearly mile an
hour faster than the Skip.
A remarkable feature of motor boat
ing on the Mississippi is the speed at
tanned by boats with little horse pow
er. While the crafts on the Atlantic
coast and the lakes require from fifty
to seventy-five horse power before a
speed of twenty miles an hour can be
attained. none of the fastest boats on
the river has more than sixteen horse
power and few of them have over
ten. Many of the engines used in the
river craft are Of light design, and
while the horse power is small they
attain speed Ct from 500 to 1000 rev
olutons per minute.
Motor boating on the Mississippi
has taken remarkable advance in
popularity In the last season. Motor
boat clubs have been organized at all
Of the smaller towns along the river,
SIS well as at the cities. and there Is
now a movement on between the clubs
looking toward the organization Of a
Mississippi River motor-boat associa-
ton. to include all Of the smaller or
CARNATIONS
Where couple Of years ago there
were dozen launches in Lacrosse
waters there are now more than $50,
ranging from the sixteen-foot hunting
scow to the magnificent ffty-fcot cruis-
ers of the more wealthy boatmen-