1910 Portland MBC Independence Day Regatta
Craft Race Today
Speedy Motor-Boats Entered for Contests at Vancouver
New Ones May Surprise
Astoria Has Seven Entries and Seattle One—Sailing Races to Give Variety
Crowd of 10,000 Persons is Expected
Portland lovers of outdoor sport will have something to occupy their time today, for the Pacific Coast championship motor boat races will be held this afternoon at Vancouver, and many of the local followers of aquatic sports will journey to the neighboring city to view the contests for handsome trophies.
Lovers of speed will find plenty to interest them. Several of the craft entered in the races are capable of reeling off better than 30 miles an hour.
The races will be held over a course of five miles up and five miles down, which will enable the spectators to get a good view of the racing craft. Two of the four contests will be 15 miles in length and two of 30 miles, or one and a half and three times around the course, respectfully.
Fast Craft Entered
The races are being held by the Portland Motor Boat Club and the Vancouver Yacht Club. Committees of both have been working hard in an endeavor to make them a success, to that end they have had built a monster grand stand near the ferry landing on the Washington shore and have arranged for a military band of 36 pieces to dispense music all afternoon. The regatta committee has not been idle and has obtained the entries of several fast out-of-town motor boats. One of these is from Seattle and seven have come from the Astoria Motor Boat Club. The Astoria boats left the city by the sea on Saturday night and they will cruise up the river to the regatta arriving early today.
The keenest race is expected in the free-for-all event, in which the Pacer II, Wolff II, Seattle Spirit and Oregon will be the chief contenders for the $500 gold trophy cup donated by the citizens of Vancouver. In this race the Wolff II will have to defend its honors against the most formidable array against which it ever raced. The Wolff II won the Pacific Coast Championship last year at the Seattle fair. The Seattle Spirit, the Pacer II and the new Oregon, built by Otto Ranft, and Al Klingbill, well-known local water sportsmen, are 32-foot craft and will be entered in both the race and the free-for-all, while the Wolff II, which is a 40-foot boat, will run in the free-for-all only.
Special interest is being displayed in the new Oregon. It is a strictly Oregon-built boat. Not only the hull, but the engine, was built in Portland. At recent trials this boat made remarkably fast time, and is expected to make a good try for honors in the two races in which it is entered.
New Wheels Put In
The Pacer II, which is really the Pacer of last year except that it has a new hull, has been equipped with a new racing wheel. John Wolff’s champion has also been equipped with a new racing wheel.
The Groeger brothers have entered a new boat in the races. This is the 24-foot Spear. This boat is on the order of a hydro-plane craft and makes little disturbance in the water while running. It glides over the water instead of going through it, apparently. The Spear will contest against the Potato Bug and the Happy Heinie. Captain Spencer will introduce a new 28-foot boat, the name of which he has refused to divulge.
Seven motor boats from Astoria are entered. They are the Duke, Nip, Tyee, Nora, Hartman, Skinch II and the Lippert II. These boats will fly the pennants of the Astoria Motor Boat Club, a new organization.
The races will begin at 1 o’clock. The first event will probably be a sailboat race between craft of the Oregon Yacht Club and the Vancouver Yacht Club. Three sailing races are included in the order of events. Members of the Oregon Yacht Club, which will participate in the races, left Portland on Saturday and Sunday for the regatta, and spent the night on the island enroute. A dinghy race will be one of the sailing contests.
Following these races the motor boats will race. The events will be hurries through. Excursions by both the street cars and boats will continue all day to Vancouver. It is expected that more than 10,000 persons will see the races.
(Transcribed from the Morning Oregonian, July 4, 1910, p. 7.)
[Thanks to Greg Calkins for help in preparing this page — LF]