824 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 27, 1911. 
New York A. C. Distance Race. 
The eighth sailing of the annual race of the 
New York Athletic Club to Block Island will 
be started at n o'clock in the morning of 
Saturday, June 24, from a line of? Whortleberry 
Island. This race is for decked or cabin yachts 
in cruising trim of less than 33 feet on the 
waterline. The finish will be at the West 
Harbor of Block Island, a distance of 100 
nautical miles. There are no crew or sail re¬ 
strictions. The time allowance is 10 minutes a 
foot over all length, and yawls and auxiliaries 
5 per cent, additional. Yachts must carry lead¬ 
line, compass, charts, fog signal, two anchors 
and cables, one life preserver on deck, the regu¬ 
lation lights and cabin fittings, tanks, etc. Five 
prizes are offered in the open event, lliere is 
also a prize to the handicap class in one division 
and a prize for the best time made over the 
course. Auxiliaries must report to the com¬ 
mittee before 9 o'clock on the morning of the 
race and have their engines sealed. Entries for 
this race, which have been a big feature of the 
racing season, will close with H. A. Jackson, Jr., 
chairman, 409 Pearl street; Charles S. King and 
Alfred B. Fry on June 20. 
Brooklyn Challenge Cup. 
The regatta committee of the New Rochelle 
Y. C. has announced the conditions governing 
the race for the Brooklyn challenge cup, which 
will be sailed on Saturday, July 1. This cup is 
held by the New Rochelle Y. C. The course is 
from Echo Bay to and around the Vineyard 
Sound lightship, thence to the finish line off the 
Brooklyn Y. C. house, Gravesend Bay, passing 
south of Block and Long islands. The distance 
is 280 miles. Entries close on June 20. This 
cup is for yachts of 31 rating and under. They 
must be of a seaworthy type, substantially built, 
strongly rigged and properly ballasted, with 
closed cabins and watertight cockpits, and must 
have headroom and cabin floor space varying 
according to the rating. Boats must be proper¬ 
ly equipped for cruising and each must have 
eight gallons of water for each man on board. 
The time allowance is figured according to the 
usual rule. The regatta committee is G. P. 
Granberry, 29 Broadway; M. S. Kaltenhorn and 
A. E. Eldredge. 
Motor Boating. 
Motor Boating Fixtures, 1911. 
MAY. 
28. N. Y. Motor Boat Club. 
30. Camden Motor Boat Club. 
30. Farragut Sportsmen’s Association. 
JUNE. 
3. Edgewood Y. C., Markham cup. 
10. Columbia Y. C. 
10. Delaware River Club, Torresdale, Pa. 
11. New York Motor Boat Club. 
17. Bermuda race, Motor Boat Club. 
18. New York Motor B. C., Tarrytown Light race. 
22. Portland P. B. A., cruise. 
24. Camden Motor Boat Club. 
24. New York Motor Boat Club, club. 
24. New York A. C., Block Island. 
Half Moon, a Bermuda Racer. 
Dr. G. W. Van Benschoten’s Bermuda racer 
Half Moon was launched last week from Nock’s 
yard at East Greenwich. The three sons of the 
owner christened the yacht with daffodils, roses, 
carnations and pansies, which were showered on 
her bow as she slid into the water. 
Half Moon is 45 feet 10 inches over all, 10 feet 
6 inches beam and 3 feet draft. The power plant 
comprises a four-cylinder, 24-horsepower Pearl 
engine. This craft represents the type of boat 
that has been brought out by the firm of Bowes 
& Watts, when they were in partnership, and is 
typical of many of the ocean cruisers that they 
have designed. The construction of the boat is 
unusually heavy; the planking, when finished, 
being ij^ inches thick, the frames of oak, 
inches square. She has an unusual number of 
clamps, bilge stringers, etc., and is very strongly 
built. No effort whatever was made to save 
weight. ... / 
The general exterior finish is mahogany, and 
the saloon and owner's quarters are finished in 
the same material. The owner’s stateroom is 
finished in white enamel with mahogany trim; 
the crew’s quarters, galley, engine room, etc., 
are in cypress, natural finish. 
The owner’s stateroom is aft and is 8 feet 4 
inches in length, the entire width of the boat. 
On the port side there is a double berth; on the 
starboard side a sofa; at the forward end there 
is a large-sized wardrobe and at the aft end a 
bureau and locker. Forward of the stateroom 
on the starboard side is the companionway and 
on the port side a large toilet room fitted with 
a yacht closet, lavatory, linen lockers, etc. Next 
forward is the main saloon, which is under the 
raised sheer. It is about nine feet in length and 
is the entire width of the boat. On the star¬ 
board side there is a locker and an extension 
transom, also a short transom across the for¬ 
ward end of the extension. 
To the port side of the bulkhead there is a 
door leading to the engine room. At the for¬ 
ward end of the port side there is a sideboard 
with locker above, fitted with leaded glass doors. 
There is also an extension transom this side. 
Forward of the saloon is the engine room 
and galley, about 11 feet 10 inches in length. 
The engine is situated well aft. On the star¬ 
board side is a seat with lockers under it and a 
pipe berth above. There is also a dresser with 
sink and locker above. At the forward end 
there is an ice box with dresser and dish lock¬ 
ers above. On the port side there is a work 
bench, a large provision locker, stove locker 
with stove and lockers under them, shelves, etc., 
and forward of the bulkhead there is a chain 
locker and water tanks. 
Only a Mile a Minute Claimed. 
A novel hydroplane has been built at 
Rochester, which is to revolutionize motor boat 
designing, if the dreams of the owner material¬ 
ize. This boat, which is so light that it weighs 
little more than a canoe is to be driven by an 
aeronautical wheel, and Joseph T. Seeley 
modestly states that all the figuring he has done 
shows that it should make 100 miles an hour. 
There are things that interfere with speed, and 
making due allowances for slip, etc., Mr. 
Seeley expects 60 miles an hour, or a mile a 
minute. 
This boat has been built by Mr. Seeley from 
designs by Morris M. Whitaker, and according 
to the Rochester Herald, the boat was built 
primarily for the purpose of contesting in the 
Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association 
races at Dubuque, Iowa, the winner of which 
will be selected as the American International 
cup defender. It is modeled somewhat after 
the most successful of the many types used in 
France and is entirely new to this side of the 
Atlantic. 
In no invention or contrivance of recent years 
is the age of speed and progress typified to a 
greater extent than in the hydroplane. At first 
designed as a plaything for daring sportsmen, 
it is fast developing into one of the marvels of 
the age and bids fair to have a place in the 
making of history as important as the aeroplane. 
The exhilaration which comes from the swift 
skim of the hydroplane over the surface of lakes 
and rivers is said to rival the delight of an 
aviator in the darting swoops of his unstable 
air craft. 
Briefly described, Elbridge I. is a boat 19 feet 
11 inches long, with a beam of 66 inches, in 
which is installed a six-cylinder engine of tre¬ 
mendous power. Connected by a chain to the 
shaft is a gearing upon which a 6-foot pro¬ 
peller—of the regulation type used for air-craft 
—revolves at an estimated speed of 1,800 revo¬ 
lutions a minute. The hull is a thin shell of 
light cypress and without the engine weighs 
little more than a birch canoe. 
With a propeller of io-foot pitch, the theo¬ 
retical speed of the Seeley craft is 100 miles an 
hour, so that allowance for an impossible 
amount of slippage places its actual speed at 
little less than a mile a minute, six miles an 
hour faster than the greatest speed as yet at¬ 
tained by a power boat. 
The remarkable rapidity with which the boat 
is able to annihilate distance is due chiefly to 
the fact that it draws but a few inches of water, 
skimming lightly over the surface in much the 
same manner as a flat stone “skipped” from the 
hand of a small boy. The air propeller is 
thought to develop a much greater thrust than 
those operated in the water and consequently 
to be capable of exerting a proportionately 
greater force of propulsion. 
The Elbridge boat will be entered in the M. 
V. P. B. A. regatta at Dubuque on July 7, 8 
and 9, and will be shipped West in charge of 
Mr. Seeley within the next few weeks. Con¬ 
siderable atention is being given to the claims 
of the local craft by promoters of the affair, 
as it looms up as a leading contender for the 
honor of becoming America’s cup defender. 
La Belle a Handsome Craft. 
The cruising motor boat La Belle, built for 
Commodore Alexander Winton, of the Inter¬ 
lake Yacht Racing Association, was launched 
from the yard of John Dialogue & Son, at 
Camden, on Wednesday afternoon. She will fly 
the commodore’s flag of the Lakewood Y. C., 
of Cleveland, as Mr. Winton is also commodore 
of that club, as well as of the association. La 
Belle is one of the largest gasolene boats yet 
built. She was designed by Cox & Stevens, of 
this city. Mr. Winton christened the yacht, 
which is now almost ready for commission. 
The builders have promised the vessel by June 
1, and as soon as she is turned over she will 
proceed to Cleveland by way of the St. 
Lawrence River, a voyage of about 3,000 miles. 
The yacht is built of steel and has the appear¬ 
ance of a steamer with a clipper bow, overhang¬ 
ing stern, continuous deck house, pole masts 
and stack. The principal dimensions are 140 
feet over all, 118 feet on the waterline, 19 feet 
beam and 7 feet 6 inches draft. 
The deck house, rails and skylights are of 
teak. At the forward end of this deck house is 
a large dining saloon with butler's pantry ad¬ 
joining. Further aft is a room 28 feet long 
which is divided by portieres and makes a draw¬ 
ing room and smoking room. In the after part 
is a shelter seat with plate glass windows. The 
interior of the dining room is natural teak and 
the rest of the deck house paneled ma¬ 
hogany. Below there is the space for the 
officers and crew forward of the engine space, 
and aft there are three staterooms the full width 
of the yacht, two single staterooms and three 
bath rooms. These are finished in Colonial 
style with mahogany furnishings and the in¬ 
terior finish in white enamel. 
La Belle is driven by three specially designed 
six-cylinder motors of 175-horsepower each. 
They were designed and built by Mr. Winton in 
the plant of the Winton Motor Car Company 
at Cleveland. The dimensions of the cylinders 
are 9x12^ inches, and except for size, they are 
very much like the motor used in the Winton 
Six automobile. The cylinders weigh about 
1,000 pounds each and each motor weighs about 
8 J 4 tons. They are equipped with a self-starting 
device, using air. The motor compartment is 
separated from the rest of the yacht by water¬ 
tight bulkheads. The tank capacity is 3.500 
gallons. The yacht is lighted by electricity, 
which is furninshed by an independent gasolene 
motor. 
Power Boat Race to Block Island. 
The annual race for motor boats arranged by 
the New York Athletic Club from Whortleberry 
Island to Block Island will be started at 5 
o’clock on the afternoon of Saturday, June 24. 
This is the first of the long distance cruising 
races for boats between 25 and 40 feet over all 
length. The conditions require that the greatest 
waterline beam shall be not less than one-fifth 
of the waterline length. The first prize is a 
Thomas Fleming Day cup, which has to be won 
twice by the same owner to become his prop- 
