Sport: Harmsworth Cup

Never in the history of motorboat races for the Harmsworth Cup (put up by the late Lord Northcliffe in 1903) has there been such hue & cry as there was last year about Garfield Arthur (“Gar”) Wood’s “Yankee trick.” Wood in his Miss America IX crossed the starting line ahead of the gun for the second heat, thus prompting his rival, Kaye Don, who had won the first heat with Miss England II, to do likewise. Miss America IX and Miss England II were disqualified. A slower boat than either, driven by Gar Wood’s brother George, circled the course and won the heat. Kaye Don’s boat capsized shortly after the false start and was not ready to start in the third heat. Gar Wood was bitterly criticized.

Before this year’s races, Gar Wood took, precautions to re-establish his prestige by hiring Steve Hannagan, able pressagent for the real estate ventures of Mr. Wood’s friend Carl Fisher. By last week people had largely forgotten about last year’s incident. More interesting was the fact that in the hull of Miss England III repowered for this year’s races, were two 2,200-h. p. Rolls-Royce motors of the lightweight supercharged type which the British Air Ministry developed for its Schneider Cup-winning planes and which Sir Malcolm Campbell had in his Blue Bird automobile when he set the land speed record last winter. Gar Wood, defending the trophy which the U. S. has held since 1907, had no government aid, no rich backer like Kaye Don’s oil tycoon, Lord Wakefield. In the hull of Miss America X was a power plant which he had designed himself—four 1,600 h. p. Packard motors mounted in tandem pairs.

First Race. To be as sure as they could of smooth water on the seven-mile oval course in Lake St. Clair, Mich., the committee named an unprecedented hour —6:30 a. m.—for the start. Rain that began before dawn caused a half-hour postponement. Thousands of boats had gathered in the dark, were anchored around the course. Along Grosse Point’s Lake Shore Drive waited 200,000 spectators. At 6:55 a. m. when the five-minute gun sounded an inshore breeze was kicking up whitecaps—hard as riffles of concrete to a boat traveling more than a mile a minute. Kaye Don got off first, 16 seconds after the gun, with Wood, carefully avoiding another “Yankee trick,” five seconds behind.

In the first lap, Miss England III, going 88.685 m. p. h., opened up over a mile lead. Miss America X, riding with her nose high in the rough water, gained half a mile in the second lap, then dropped back with her motors sputtering in the third. The fourth time around the course, Wood opened his throttles wide. Spectators in 30 airplanes over the race saw the two arrows of spray on the water come closer together. Then Wood shot ahead, in an uproar of cheers and boat whistles. Miss England III, her engines sputtering now, slowed down miserably to 49.661 m. p. h. in the fifth lap, crossed the finish two miles behind Miss America X, She had a broken throttle at the carburetor on her starboard motor, a break in the overflow pipe for water circulation that shot water into the boat instead of over the side, caused Kaye Don to wonder if he had sprung a leak.

Second Race, The water was smooth under a light haze. Apparently missing from Wood’s boat were the two small woolly bears which he usually ties to his steering wheel for luck. Miss England III roared over the starting line first; going to the first turn, two miles away, it looked like a close race. Coming out of the turn, Miss America X was far ahead. The throttle on Kaye Don’s starboard motor had broken again. He worked furiously to fix it while Miss England III slowed down and stopped. Gar Wood drove around the course alone, in average time of 69 m. p. h. Patrol boats towed Miss England III to shore.

Wood: “It was fine to win but we would have liked . . . a race. . . .” Don: “Personally I would like to come again but that would be up to Lord Wakefield.” Lord Wakefield: “Although we failed . . . we hope to be able to benefit from the lessons learned in this trial. . . .”