1939: Motor-Boat Racing

A total of 43 new world speed records in 1939 highlighted one of motor-boat racing's most spectacular and successful years. Of these records, 21 were made by inboard boats and 22 by outboards. For the third successive year, Sir Malcolm Campbell of England set a new world record for unlimited boats. On Aug. 19, at Lake Coniston, England, he drove his Bluebird II to a speed of 141.74 m.p.h. for the measured mile to break his 1938 record of 130 m.p.h. In the unlimited outboard class, on May 20, Jean Dupuy of France set a new world speed mark of 79.04 m.p.h. on the Seine.

The Gold Cup, America's leading motor boating trophy, was returned to the east this year for the first time since 1936, when Z. G. Simmons, Jr. of Greenwich, Conn., in the competitions held Sept. 3-4 at Detroit drove his 12-litre hydroplane, My Sin, to a 90-mile total record average of 66.240 m.p.h. In the President's Cup Regatta, held Sept. 24, at Washington, Canada won its first major trophy on the continent. In this competition Harold Wilson of Ingersoll, Ont., piloting his father's Miss Canada III, established a total 45-mile record average of 63,644 m.p.h. In the most popular inboard racing class, that of the 225-cubic inch hydroplanes, George Schrafft of Newton, Mass., retained his title as the leading class point winner for 1939 and also became the national champion by winning the John Charles Thomas Trophy competition.

The most popular and attractive regatta of the season was once again the National Sweepstakes held Aug. 19-20 at Red Bank, N. J. In addition to producing a new record of 291 starters, this regatta saw six new speed marks established. The featured race for the National Sweepstakes trophy was won by S. M. Auerbach of Atlantic City whose 4-litre racer Emancipator VII was piloted by T. Pezillo.

In outboard racing Clinton R. Ferguson of Waban, Mass., an amateur, dethroned the professional Fred Jacoby, Jr. or North Bergen, N. J., as the national high point outboard champion for 1939, scoring 22,078 points to win the Townsend Gold Medal. Fred Jacoby placed second with 18,371 points. As an amateur Ferguson automatically captured the Round Hill Trophy awarded to the country's leading amateur outboard driver. The outboard racing season was climaxed by the National Championships held in September, at Fort Worth, Texas, at which Ferguson won the Class A and F amateur titles, and Paul Wearly of Muncie, Ind., captured the Class A and B titles among the professionals. In the eleventh Albany to New York marathon race on May 14, Clayton Bishop of Onset, Mass., repeated his 1936 victory to become the first double-winner of the event since the beginning of the competition.

During the year a number of technical changes were made in the rules for outboard racing, inboard runabout, and Gold Cup classes. New starting procedure, changes in hull weights and class limits and clarification of disputed rules were among the alterations now being tabulated by the boat racing commissions and contest boards. A tremendous increase in regatta activity was noted during the year. Nearly 37,000 motor-boats — cruisers, utilities, auxiliaries, and runabouts — were added in the first ten months to our waterways. See also YACHTING.

1938: Motor-Boat Racing

An avalanche of 28 new speed records, which practically duplicated the number of marks established the previous year, saved motor-boat racing from an otherwise uneventful and inglorious tenure during 1938. Sir Malcolm Campbell, the British thunderbolt who has turned to the water for new accomplishments, again raised the international unlimited one-mile standard, and competition and other trial efforts in America contributed to the general advance of motor-boat speeds.

Sir Malcolm, with a redesigned 'Bluebird,' named after his famous racing cars, was timed at 130.93 miles an hour for two runs up and down a one-mile course on Lake Halwil, Switzerland, on September 19. This surpassed his previous record, made in 1937, of 129.5 m.p.h.

A foreigner, Count Theo Rossi, of Italy, wrote most of the chapters into the history of speedboating in America during the year. This happy-go-lucky sportsman captured the Gold Cup, the country's foremost competitive nautical prize, at Detroit on Labor Day and then added the President's Cup at Washington, D. C., later in September in a spirited handicap event that forced the Italian to create both lap and heat records to win.

Count Rossi's opposition in the Gold-Cup classic was brief, but brisk, and he broke the class-lap speed at 72.707 miles an hour, a new high for a Gold Cup record or for international 12-litre boats in competition. He drove his Alagi at 70.866 m.p.h. for one lap on the choppy Potomac river and finished the 15 miles at an average speed of 69.675 miles an hour, both figures being new President's Cup records.

While Rossi was winning the Gold Cup in America, S. Mortimer Auerbach, of Atlantic City, N. J., transported his 4-litre racer, Emancipator VII, to England to take the famed Duke of York Trophy in a revival of this event against British and Canadian opposition. George Schrafft, a Harvard student, was crowned the national champion in the 225 cubic inch class, now the country's most popular inboard hydroplanes. John M. L. Rutherford, of Palm Beach, Fla., triumphed in the National Sweepstakes at Red Bank, N. J., Sam Crooks, of Rumson, N. J., won the Interstate Trophy, emblematic of the national 135-class championships, and Al Strum, St. Petersburg, Fla., veteran, became the first title winner in the new 91 cubic inch division. Arthur Bobrick's 12-litre El Torbellino proved to be the inboard champ of the Pacific Coast.

Outboard racing held its own with Fred Jacoby Jr., North Bergen, N. J., scenic artist, winning national high-point scoring honors in the professional column. Arthur Wullschleger, Cornell collegian, was the ranking amateur scorer and also the national intercollegiate champion. Ted Roberts, New York boat dealer, won the annual race from Albany to New York on the Hudson river, and Clinton Ferguson, Waban, Mass., schoolboy, drove an outboard at better than a mile-a-minute for the first time in competition at Red Bank, N. J., to highlight other outstanding feats in this field.