SPEED BOATS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 August 1929, Page 2

SPEED BOATS

SIR H. SEAGRAYE’S DASH.

FASTEST SPEED YET IN BRITAIN,

LONDON,, June 29.

He has turned at Hammersmith. He is approaching the Dend. Oh, Heavens, he is here! A voice boomed . • these messages through a loud speaker at Duke’s Meadows, evening- to spectators... on • thenar iyeraide, tyrt Sir Henry Segra\e/ motorboat, Miss England, skimming the water at nearly 80 miles an hour, took the voice by surprise. Hence the exclamation mark. • . He also took the crowd by-surprise. Hammersmith was a mile away.

'Scarcely.had the drone of his engine died down after starting, at Hammersmith when it rose again at-Chiswick. All eyes at Chiswick were turned to the belnd in the river about a quarter of a mile down stream. ..

FLASH i PAST / CROWD. Suddenly Miss. England; appeared round the bend, a beautiful . object, sending up cascades of water, gleaming in the golden sunshine of a summer evening. Scarcely - had ,it ibeen sighted when it flashed or bounded by.

The great crowd caught a fleeting glimpse* of a figure in White, hanging on to a steering .wheel which he thmed this way and- that to. keep the sensitive craft under control.', In a seoopd he was out of sight ; again, leaving ; a straight trail of cream-; fqam. chiselled in the surface, of the river., 1 ' ‘ ;■ ‘o 1 - ■< The Duke of York ; was among' the spectators of' this- novel "spectacle; < Also, among: the crowd was...Mr Gar-. Wood, the champion'\American 'diver who was Sir /IJenry Segrave’s ' rival at the worlds motor-boat jng championship.'- • It was estimated that Sir, Henry Segrave reached a maximum .speed of 89 miles an hour, which is by far-the fastest ever attained i,n Great Britain.'* When he' finihsed -hifc last round the' crowd, which sands, dembnstrat.iqiv^ accepted in . a. speed of “It is' thri]lin^^S|^fty^si^;^|l^kd; after.his^ri^j^^fe^^k^f^gf^^ Mr Ralph)' won the second.'-^tie of • •York’s Mr, F. T., Bela, - was o third The s'• points, and Great 6.) *’ lessi the' U.§: boat ge|£‘i ntytrpublf jn the ■ last Jj| r certain for it %n . Britain;’, first three places in rnational 'trophy . presented by siiy Leicester rHaraswcirth, Bart., and,his son, Mr.-H. 0. Harm 8 * worth. This, was won by Mr J. W. Shilan, in Non Sequitur,. at' the; very High * speed for.t outboard, motor-boats of 37.49 miles an hour. ' f •