Detroiters sat on the cool verandas of their Yacht Club, trained their glasses on a line of snorting speed boats that came plunging down the Detroit River, swept around a wide turn and plunged back upstream on the other leg of an oval course. Toward evening it was announced that Rainbow IV, owned and driven by Harry B. Greening, of Hamilton, Ont., had the best times for three 30-mile heats. Greening was not presented with the American Power Boat Association’s Gold Challenge Cup, for which he had raced. A rival pilot protested that Rainbow IV was constructed contrary to the rules. Decision pended.
Baby Bootlegger, owned and driven by C. S. Bragg of the Columbia Yacht Club, N. Y., was second. Miss Columbia, built and launched last Spring by a committee of the Columbia Yacht Club, driven by Charles F. Chapman, hailed as “the fleetest boat of all time,” finished third.
In the annual Labor Day races, Commodore Gen. Wood, clamping down the gas-lever of Miss Detroit VII, won the 150-mile international sweepstakes by a two-second margin over Cigarette Jr., of New York. Edsel Ford’s boat, 999, burst into flames, sank beneath him.
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