MOTOR BOATS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 57, 30 November 1907, Page 10

MOTOR BOATS.

The second launch raco of tho soasori took place last' Saturday afternoon, and excited a | considerable amount of interest among- the launching fraternity, as well as the generalpublic; judging from tho crowd that gathered at the Glasgow Wharf to view the start. Tho liuihi 1 and tho Yacht Tender with .28 .minutes, start. were,; sent away at 3 o'clock sharp,' followed in' order by the .Excelsior lomin., Swan 9min., Albert smin., tfiid '-PuriH'.'ifliif Taniwaha which were scratch, getting away at 3.23 p.m. Ruihi led the fender until-well down to the Magazine buoj-j where-tho Tender through miscalculations ran out of fuel,"iind had, to".stop while the tankwas filled; This stoppage put her out/of the race, leaving six. boats to finish. Excelsior gradually drew up'with the Ruihi and Swan, and Alert reducedUho gap between the leaderK Mcariwhilo Tariiwalia and Puriri wero 'catching' up slowly, and on the .final run down from Kaiwarra to the Magazine buoy .they passed the Alert, and after rounding tlio'buoy Taniwaha camo up and passed tho Swan, but was unable to eatch the Excelsior, which, won by 32 seconds from Ruihi, with the Taniwaha, lmini SSscc. later, third. The Swan finished 22 seconds later, tlion camo I'nriri 28. seconds behind tho Swan. Tho surprise'of the day'was tho speed shown by Mr. Jackson's boat, tho Taniwaha, which took down tho colours of Puriri, tho champion'for tho last three years. Considering that it was really tho trial run of tho [ Taniwaha,she may bo expected to do better still later on. ' ' ' ■ "

As Mr. Jackson's boat is now champion of tlio harbour as regirds both speed and size, a few particulars about her aro of interest. Taniwaha was built somo three or :fo|ir. years ago by W; Bender, and was formerly fitted with a steam engine. Her dimensions .aro—Length .overall, 40ft.; beam, 10ft. Gin; ■ Sho lias a' spacious cabin, 24ft. long, and the full width of tho boat. The reversing gear takes up 9ft. of spaco, leaving 15ft. of clear spaco forward of tho engine. There is 6ft. din. of headroom in tho cabin, and bunks aro provided for six persons, but as regards room thcro is enough to stow, away a party- of twenty. _ Tho cabin is lined with stamped zinc, beautifully ehariiellcd;.in snowiwhito "paint, and with it's red velvot cushions it presents tho appearanco of a saloon of a small steamer. The nropolling machinory is a 16 h.p. two cylinder slow speed Gardner engine, fitted with a.solid propcllor and reversing clutch, an<L designed" to run at 475 revolutions a

minute. It is fitted with a low tension magneto, and no batteries whatever aro required to start, as the magneto.produces tho spark with ono turn of tho'■ starting liandlo; Mr; Jackson made tho. trip to Palliser Bay last Sunday, and was very well pleased! with the way things were running. Oil tho ire-, turn journey with alj sail set, and tho engino going tho boat simply flow along to tho great surpriso of all on hoard.

Mr. Botliamley's now launch, now being built by Bringins and Bailoy, is nearing completion, tho engine has'been installed' during tho week, and'it .is .hoped that tho : boat will be ready for her-trial run, by Wed-, nosday next.

Messrs. Hannan and Co.'s Swan spent..last Sunday fishing off Nahanga Bay and wero very successful, catching over 100 .fish.

The Puriri and ' Vida were out cruising last Sunday .and. after going out 1 as far as tho Heads they "anchored in. . Lowry 'Bay,, where tho kettles were, put, on - to. boil for. lunch. It was a very-muggy day, and a cup of tea was very refreshing indeed.

Messrs. Beck -and Co:'s lona was put-in the water last Saturday, after, having been hauled'.out for three, months. Sli'e ;h'as. .been thoroughly renovated all over,'and.the engine has been moved further forward and enclosed

in a small houso which will keep it absolutely dry in rough' weather. Her owners have dono away with the low tension ignition, and replaced it with high tension which will give them a much. greater''range of speed than hitherto. ,

Messrs. Pownall ( and Co.'s Truscott.launch. Caronia was.flitting all,over tho, harbour on Sunday, and judging' from tho large , party, that tfirere ab.oard,her. crow ,wero. evidently -treating all their-friends .while-the 'weather was fine. v. ; ' --:.f:/ • ■ C-:dii-.

Tho Neola is to have her hew engine fitted next week, and is oxpected to be ready for tho water to-day fortnight. Speculation is very rifo as to whether this 'speedy littlo boat will be. ablo to beat Mr. Jackson's boat or not. Personally I would bo inclined to back-the., larger boat, but one can never tell as a very slight difference in speed will soon put two. boats.apart.

The following clipping from the "Rudder" shows that the Yankeo is not to bo beaten oven when his engine does breakdown. This event took . place at the Power Boat Races of the Toledo Yacht Club on LakeErica, United States of America:—"Classes A ,aud .13 raced over a larger-, course, than the*!,sinillcr boats, the '.total'/.'distanco cf wliicli is 1734 nautical miles/ Nomad, t/f Toledo, tho favourite in Class B, ;,was sent away at 12 noon, followed 16 minutes later by Clymere, of Detroit,.' .and .-i3 : hours 30 minutes later by Wistaria, tho Cleveland entry. As the . unfortunate writer was a member of tho crew of tho Nomad which craft by tho way did not finish tho race,, but for a time had the prize won, a few details from her log may be of interest. Nomad was built on tho lakes' from designs of Fred S. Nock, of East Grconwich, R. 1., and engined by the Rathbun-Lacy Company with. ono of their two-cylinder .outfits. This craft', which' had the lowest rating'.'in h'or, class, is a fine boat, and as the 'superin-teriderit-of the factory j- and -the-president-of tho company were scheduled to run tho cngino, it was with mingled feelings of' extremo joy, and sorrow for tho balance of the contestants, that tho writer accoptcd a berth on tho good ship for tho race.

"Tho fates wore against us from the start. We had a restaurant keeper for a cook/ three men from the engine,-factory to keep tho engine going, a fino barkeeper and a Jonah from salt water to observe 'how wo navigato on. tho lakes.' Our compass was tho size of a watch-cnarm, and about as useful; our dil-s.tovo began back-firing on tho forward burner as soon as wo tried to cook; wo broko down; wo drifted; we languaged; wjetiffloatcd over.'iiiitn.TCanada,;;and then we thought of tho grand scheme. The engine wo had ' was the identical rig which was in tho winning craft last year and has run hundreds of miles sinco, but for somo reason slio got red-hot in tho forward main bearing, and after a night of privation, peril and mutiny we got within somo 10 miles of tho starting lino by daybreak". One of tho crow knew of an island where coin of tho realm might-be, exchanged for breakfast and (jther-things, so wo limped over to tho island, had a- sleep, also a few lemonades, and after a good rest decorated tho ship with the Dags and;, bunting .wb were,, going to fly had wo won. About two hours before wo were iduo to finish tho race wo ran off into tbo lake for a short! distanco and : tlien dashed up.the channel to tho finish line in fino style. " As. wb approached tho'lino we could see tho committee all alert, with gun, watches, flag, etc., all ready to record the finish of tho winner. Having safely crossed the lino wo retired to tho club dock and received the congratulations of the populace the cheers of the multitude and rosponded to invitations in a manner becoming real lako heroes; The only person who- seemed t-o think our finishing at so early an hour, at all strange was Mr. Barthel,' the" liandicapper, who woro a decidcdly sad oxpression. His intimation .that perhaps wo had by error sliced off a corner of tho course was met with deep oaths of honest denial and righteous indignation on tho part of our gallant crew, who bore their honours as modestly as possible. Only after wo had worn out our welcome and been escorted to the official - Press tent ■ containing; the' customary drugs many, many times, did wo reveal to tho owner of tho Clymono that he lia.d wpn the ltudder Cup, and that instead of "having completed the' course ill wonderful tisno' wo had only been flopping around' tho lake''a' few"miles.from the starting'lino,'applying ice 'arid' salt -to ,a contrary . ga'soleho engine." '