TBT – I have always been a huge fan of boat racing and boat racing history since I can remember. As we head into a new 2015 racing season, we must never forget the great moments from many decades back that helped to shape the sport of boat racing as we know it today. One of those great moments came during the 1915 Gold Cup on Manhasset Bay in upper New York. This 100 year old single event is considered to be one of the top 10 Gold Cup moments of all-time by the hydroplane historians which brings us to today’s throwback, the 1915 Miss Detroit, a single stepped hull designed and built by Christopher Columbus Smith, namesake of the famous ChrisCraft boating company. The hull had a 250hp Sterling engine in her and carried the driver and riding mechanic as did many boats during that era. Smith proudly had his hull entered to run in the 1915 summer classic, the greatest boat racing event of its kind, however about the time the boats are being called to the water, nearing the start time of racing, the driver for the Miss Detroit is nowhere to be found and presumed to have had second thoughts. Desperate to keep his Motor City entry in the race, a frantic Smith calls out to the crowd asking if anyone could drive his boat. Stepping up and out of the crowd was an anxious young man named Johnny Milot from Algonac, Michigan claiming he could drive the craft. Smith was out of time and more so out of options so he reluctantly agrees. Milot jumps straight into the driver’s seat next to the riding mechanic Jack Beebe without time for any racing protection and heads out onto the course. Not having a clue as to where to go, Milot followed the other boats around the buoy markers until he was comfortable enough to actually race. All indications point to the water being extremely rough that day which took its toll on all participants. Milot took such a pounding that he became seasick and was replaced mid-race by Beebe, the riding mechanic. Miraculously when it was all said and done, the dynamic duo somehow managed to cross the finish line in 1st place winning the 1915 Gold Cup at a whopping average speed of 37.6mph. This victory would bring the coveted cup to Detroit for the very first time. It was that year, 1916 that Garfield “Gar” Wood became involved in the sport. Seeing the potential of the said hull, Wood purchased the Miss Detroit from Smith and started racing. Wood gained world class fame by winning the prestigious Gold Cup five straight back to back times from 1917 to 1921, four of those wins coming in the following Miss Detroit hulls, the II, III and the IV. Wood was also the first to try aircraft power in a race boat. A decade later, The Miss America IX hull that broke the 100mph speed barrier in 1931 in which Wood piloted came from plans that were drawn up nearly 60 years earlier in 1872 by English designer Reverend C.S. Ramus who envisioned rocket propulsion in his skimmer craft. Along with the vintage plans, Gar used his massive Packard V12s instead and would go 102.256mph shattering the speed record of 98.74 set the year before. The Miss Detroit I and the other great Miss Detroit step hulls became an indelible part of boat racing history and to this day are considered to be one of the first great American dynasties of the sport. In 2013, I had the pleasure of watching the Miss Detroit III replica perform at Mahogany Merlot on beautiful Lake Chelan in Washington State. The Curtiss-Smith V-12 in the III replica is the very same aircraft engine that was in the 1917 Gold Cup winner, said to be the only fully restored and running engine of its kind in existence. When the III fired up and pulled out of the pit area in Chelan, the uniquely distinctive low growl of the 12-cylinder rolled across the lake and echoed back off the hill sides with a sound that I will never forget. Oh how it must have felt for Johnny Milot, Jack Beebe, the great Gar Wood and the other drivers of that time to sit behind these massive fire breathing, smoke belching power plants, defying all odds to simply race for the glory of one’s hometown. This was truly a magnificent time in the adolescent years of competitive boat racing.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 04:57:27 +0000
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