Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Motorboat, Outboard |
Date |
1928-1928 |
Artist |
Old Town Canoe Company |
Maker |
Old Town Canoe Company, Old Town, Maine |
Material |
Wood/Canvas |
Used |
Lake Champlain |
Description |
Wood-Canvas Step Plane Model Outboard Hydroplane. Built by the Old Town Canoe Company, Old Town, Maine, 1928 L: 13' 11"B: 4' Serial # 98474 14-foot. Built May-June, 1928. For Adirondackers who couldn't afford to race a boat like Skeeter or El Lagarto there was outboard racing. Races for stock boats like this one were held as part of regattas throughout the region and provided excitement between the heats of the Lake George Gold Cup races of the 1930s. Though not as big or as fast as the Gold Cup boats, outboard craft were exciting enough for many. An advertisement contemporary with this boat claimed, "THE OUTBOARD HYDROPLANE IS THE FASTEST DETACHABLE MOTOR CRAFT EVER BUILT. If you want all the thrill of flying without the expense or danger, this boat will give it to you." The design of outboard hulls mirrored advances in inboard racing hulls. "Steps" on hull bottoms were in use by 1906; they break the suction of the water on the boat and help it plane. A fin, or skeg, on the bottom just forward of the single step helps with steering. This is Old Town's version of Penn Yan's Baby Buzz model, which set the world's outboard speed record of 15 m.p.h. in 1925. According to the build sheet from Old Town, this boat was shipped from the factory on July 13, 1928 to Dr. Earl E. Van Derwicher in Willsboro, Essex Co., NY. It is a Grade aa, made with western cedar with open mahogany gunwales. Norman J. Martin bought it second-hand, and in 1933 took it for a spin off his camp on Lake Champlain. A sudden gust of wind tipped the boat on its stern and nearly sent Martin to the bottom. The experience so unsettled him that he never used the boat again. "It went so fast it was scary," Martin remembered. The motor used with the boat was a 1928 stock model Johnson K-40 twin cylinder outboard, which developed 7.15 horsepower at 3500 rpm. It sold for $165 when new and weighed 61 pounds. (floorboards b-c and d-e are in boat) |
Collection |
BBB220 |
Catalog Number |
1988.114.0001A |
Other number |
cat. no. 178 |
Imagefile |
076\1988.114.0001a.jpg |
Species |
Motorboat, Outboard |
Owned by |
Norman Martin |