New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-01-03
MINUTE"
BOAT COMING
Records Made by Blackton
Craft Promise Well for
the Future.

Motor boat enthusiasts have every
reason to feel proud of the results A.
tanned in 1914 in their fayorite sport
Both in cruising and racing the prog
ress made has been most satisfactory
and encouraging.
While the "mile-a-minute' boat has
not arrived yet. the development in
the past four years shows an increase
of speed Of 10 per cent, and, strange
to say, this has been accomplished
with a diminution OF power, the deyel-
opment in the types Of hulls having
been responsible IN a great measure
for the added speed. The records made
this year by the Blackton boats justi-
f. the prediction that sixty statute
miles an hour is far from being an
impossible speed on the water under
reasonable conditions.
A remarkable fact in this speed de-
yelopment is that all the fast races Of
three and four years ago were won by
big boats-forty feet long being the
average. Since then the winners have
grown smaller. until this year all the
record breakers, with one exception,
have been twenty-footers
Motor boat men everywhere took
their hats Off" to the Little Baby Speed
Demon IL, owned by Mrs. Paula II.
Blackton, when. driven by a lSO-horse-
power Sterling engine, with Bob
Edgren at the wheel, she dashed across
the finish line, on Lake George. the
winner of the gold challenge cup. hav-
ing sustained a speed of 50.49 miles an
hour over the full course of thirty
miles a performance that will be hard
20 equal, much less 10 excel. although
several men are building boats for 1915
which they expect will develop greater
speed.
On September 3. in winning the
Chamber of Commerce cup, over the
Buffalo course Of twenty-five miles,
c mmodOre J. Stuart Blackton's Baby
Reliance Y covered the distance at
i5i miles an hour, and on the two fol-
lowing days Mrs. Blackton's Baby
Speed Demon II covered the thirty and
thirty-tive-mile courses at speeds Of II
and 500 miles, respectively. For a sim
gle mile even better speed was made
by {. {. Smiths Baby Speed Demon l.
when she travelled at the rate of 54.5i
miles an hour
According to "Motor Boating" the
average in 1910 for the eight most i'm
Itl Ndllb races NA Allt gtoA No0 DAsv
miles an hour; in 1911, the speed went
a.. to BAL miles an hour as the aver
age, an increase of 83 per cent. In
the interval from 1911 TO 1912 the
gain was III per cent; the next year
15.2 per cent, and from 1913 TO the
present season just closed, l1.6 pei
cent. taking this seasons average al
between 40 and so miles an hour.
By reason of the bad weather en-
countered on the race days set for the
championship races on the Paclh,
coast, two fast new boats the Oregon
Kid and the Oregon Wolf-reputed ia
be ffty-mile-an-hour boats, had no OPP
portunity Of showing their top speed.
The outlook for 1915 for the great
fleet of cruising and racing power boats
is indeed encouraging. Many new boats
are being built to enter the yariou,
speed races, and with a live man like
Commodore ]. Stuart Blackton a.
executive officer OF the Motor Boat
Club Of America cooperating with the
American Power Boat Association
there should be big boom in the spor'
this year.