Lot Essay
Dixie II (1907 record-breaking displacement raceboat)
During the winter of 1907, Edward F.Schroeder, commodore of the Motor Boat Club of America, required a raceboat capable of 35 mph to enable him to defend his hold on the British International or Harmsworth Trophy. He commissioned Clinton H.Cane, naval architect of his existing boat the Simplex-engined Dixie (so called because her original owner, Sam Thomas, hailed from Kentucky) to design him a faster boat.
Crane decided to team up with his younger brother Harry, engine designer for the Crane-Whitman Company of Bayonne, New Jersey. Whilst Harry was developing a 220 hp engine that would weigh not more than 2,200 Ib, Clinton went model testing at the Government Model Basin in Washington. They made a pact. If one would risk the cost of the hull, then the other would risk the cost of the engine. Built at B.F. Wood's yard, City Island, the 40ft planked mahogany hull of Dixie II, fitted with the 220 Ib V-8 Crane-Whitman engine, soon clocked a successful 37 mph on the Hudson, so satisfying her buyer's demands.
In August 1907, in the face of competition from two of Great Britain's wealthiest aristocrats, Dixie II with Schroeder's driver, Captain Barclay Pearce at the helm, successfully defended the Harmworth Trophy in races in Huntingdon Harbour, New York, averaging 32.15 mph. She did not win without drama. Halfway through the race, her engineer, Albert Rappuhn, was overcome by intense heat and fumes thrown back by the engine muffler. Before he collapsed, Ruppuhn threw the engine on full power, hoping to get to the finish alive. Dixie shot forward, Captain Pearce trying to splash water over Rappuhn with one hand whilst he steered with the other. As Dixie II roared over the line, Pearce had to jump forward and turn the engine off himself to stop the boat from heading directly for a crowd of spectators lining the shore. Two days after the race, Dixie II became the fastest vessel afloat when that month, she won the American Power Boat Association's Gold Cup, and in October, she is reported to have made a new world's record of 37.113 mph. In 1908 she won virtually every race she entered, but being too lightly built, for 1909 she was replaced by a sturdier and more powerful Dixie III.
During the winter of 1907, Edward F.Schroeder, commodore of the Motor Boat Club of America, required a raceboat capable of 35 mph to enable him to defend his hold on the British International or Harmsworth Trophy. He commissioned Clinton H.Cane, naval architect of his existing boat the Simplex-engined Dixie (so called because her original owner, Sam Thomas, hailed from Kentucky) to design him a faster boat.
Crane decided to team up with his younger brother Harry, engine designer for the Crane-Whitman Company of Bayonne, New Jersey. Whilst Harry was developing a 220 hp engine that would weigh not more than 2,200 Ib, Clinton went model testing at the Government Model Basin in Washington. They made a pact. If one would risk the cost of the hull, then the other would risk the cost of the engine. Built at B.F. Wood's yard, City Island, the 40ft planked mahogany hull of Dixie II, fitted with the 220 Ib V-8 Crane-Whitman engine, soon clocked a successful 37 mph on the Hudson, so satisfying her buyer's demands.
In August 1907, in the face of competition from two of Great Britain's wealthiest aristocrats, Dixie II with Schroeder's driver, Captain Barclay Pearce at the helm, successfully defended the Harmworth Trophy in races in Huntingdon Harbour, New York, averaging 32.15 mph. She did not win without drama. Halfway through the race, her engineer, Albert Rappuhn, was overcome by intense heat and fumes thrown back by the engine muffler. Before he collapsed, Ruppuhn threw the engine on full power, hoping to get to the finish alive. Dixie shot forward, Captain Pearce trying to splash water over Rappuhn with one hand whilst he steered with the other. As Dixie II roared over the line, Pearce had to jump forward and turn the engine off himself to stop the boat from heading directly for a crowd of spectators lining the shore. Two days after the race, Dixie II became the fastest vessel afloat when that month, she won the American Power Boat Association's Gold Cup, and in October, she is reported to have made a new world's record of 37.113 mph. In 1908 she won virtually every race she entered, but being too lightly built, for 1909 she was replaced by a sturdier and more powerful Dixie III.