1908 Buffalo Launch Club Regatta
At Buffalo August 15th
BUFFALO, N.Y.--The races held under the auspices of the Buffalo Launch Club on August 15th were handicapped according to the best previous performance of the boats. Class A was for 15-milers; Class B for those of less speed, and the finishes of both events were very close. In Class A Bug won from Nibs by only 23 seconds, and H.S. was only one second behind Nibs. Major II made a strong fight for second place, but she strained her steering gear in turning one of the stake boats and lost enough time to allow Nibs to pass her. H.S. made a wonderful start, approaching the line at a 26-mile clip and crossed barely one second after the gun. Disappointment was felt on account of the failure of Courier to appear in the race. Her owner refused to enter her against H.C., although Courier beat H.S. by 18 seconds in a ten-mile race on August 1, having at that time a 10-second handicap. In the August 15 race H.S. was to have been given nine seconds over Courier.
The race was three times around a five-mile double triangle course which includes twelve sharp turns. The trophy for this event is a silver cup presented last year by E. R. Thomas, which must be won by the same captain three times before leaving the custody of the club. Snip, owned by H. D. Elliott, was last year's winner. Bug, this year's winner, although an untried boat, owned by F. A. Ballou, made a remarkably even run, covering the three laps without varying one second.
In Class B, in which there were nine entries, the boats finished in a bunch with the exception of Sevona, which was disqualified. The number of entries showed a good fleet of racing boats, and the Buffalo launch Club has at this time a fleet of twelve boats which are capable of better than 20 miles an hour. In Class B Dawn, owned by C. S. Alt, was the winner; Buddie, Wm. Kline, owner, second; Nancy B, R. F. Slaght, owner, third, and Grace, owner H. Higginbottom, fourth.
(Transcribed from MotorBoat, Aug. 25, 1908, p. 13)
[Thanks to Greg Calkins for help in preparing this page — LF]