“A HYDROPLANE, WHILE KNOWN TO BE FAST, HAD NEVER BEEN
RECKONED CAPABLE OF SHOWING THE REMARKABLE SPEED OF 70 MILES AN HOUR.”
— “THE SWING OF THE SPEED PENDULUM,” YACHTING, JANUARY 1918
FROMTHE 1918 FEATURE
“A little motor-gnome poked his head above
the polished rim of a priming cup and,
springing lithely upon the lever, sat straddle-
legged on the shiny brass arm. ¶ ‘Some speed!’
he confided to his mate, the boat-gnome.
¶ ‘Snappy work, old Top,’ he of the boat
replied. ¶ ‘We showed ’em what teamwork
could do,’ the first diminutive chap answered,
puffing out his ruddy cheeks, whereat both
laughed merrily for the sheer joy of putting
pep into the motor-yachting racing sport.”46YACHTINGFE BRUA RY2 01 8O
ne might think the grin-
inducing exhilaration from a
60-knot vessel is a relatively
recent experience, but Yacht-
ing’s January 1918 issue proves otherwise.
¶ In 1917, the hydroplane Whip-po-Will Jr.
(above), owned by American Power Boat
Association President Commodore Albert
N. Judson (left), hit 69.39 miles per hour,
or 60.3 knots. It was a record, during an
age when yacht racing was all the rage.
¶ Yachting argued that racing, the ultimate
test under the highest possible speed, was
an important means of standardizing the
marine engine. That said, Judson pre-
dicted that a 100 mph (roughly 87-knot)
speedboat would hit the water within a
few years. In reality, it took more than a
decade, achieved fi rst on March 20, 1931,
when legendary racer and boatbuilder
Gar Wood hit 102 mph in Miss America IX,
the winner of the 1930 Harmsworth Tro-
phy. ¶ It all goes to show that innovation
and ingenuity are age-old in this sport.VINTAGE
VELOCITIES
This commodore hit 60 knots in 1917.
By Kelley SanfordCURRENTS HERITAGE