1947 Cincinnati Yacht Club Free For All
Youngsters Are To Vie In Regatta Sunday
A 10-year-old boy and three women will be among the scores of contestants in the 27th annual regatta of the Ohio Valley Motor Boat Racing Association's 25-event program tomorrow on the Ohio River.
The boy, Lou Durbin of Long Beach, Calif., is the youngest speedboat driver in the country. He's been a pilot since he was 8 years old. The youngster will enter his The Mean It'l Kid in the midget hydroplane race.
All of the feminine pilots also have entered their crafts in the same event. The women include Ethel Altman of New Kensington, Pa., and her two cousins, Alice and Janette Wiseman of Cleveland.
Miss Altman, who's been at the wheel for the last two years, has taken her dad's place as a driver. She has won several first places since she's been racing.
The Wiseman girls are in their first year of racing.
Another youngster, 13-year-old Jack Schmittel of Brecksvllle, Ohio, has entered the Class M Hydroplane events. A driver of a year, Schmittel has proven highly competitive.
W. R. Ballinger, commodore of the OVMBRA, expects the greatest race crowd in the Queen City's history to line both banks of the river for the speed tests. The drivers will Compete in front of the Cincinnati Yacht Club, foot of Donham Street, East End.
The racers will compete for more than $2,700 in cash prizes and also for door prizes, including a new car and an outboard motor.
Guy Lombardo, band-leading speed driver, will not compete but, he wired G. W. Winter, general chairman of the race committee that he will serve as a Judge, if possible.
The U. S. Coast Guard will have command of the course during the regatta, and movements and location of visiting yachts and other craft will be subject to its orders.
(Reprinted from The Cincinnati Enquirer, September 6, 1947)