MOTOR BOAT RACE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10061, 1 February 1909, Page 4

MOTOR BOAT RACE.

(Per Pbess Association.) Auckland, January 31. What is considered locally to 'be the longest motor boat Tace yet held in Australasia was contested yesterday and today between Mr H. M. Adams' Eliza- and llr J. Reid's Seabird'. The course was from Auckland to Russell and back, a distance of 240 knots. The boats left Auckland at 7 a.m. yesterday morning in calm weather. Outside the barbor a lump}" sea was met, the wind being east north-east. The Eliza, which led throughout. passed the half-way mark at Russell at 10.50 yesterday evening, taking exactly 15 hours (an average of 8 knots) to do tho 120 knots. The wind held in the same quarter, and the sea increased greatly on the run home, the boats taking a lot of water aboard and the crews being drenched. Auckland harbor was reached at 2.45 this afternoon by the Eliza. The whole journey occupied the time of 30 hours 55 minutes, the average running time being approximately 8 knots. The Seabird rounded the mark at Russell 48 minutes after the Eliza. Captain M'Leod,, of the Company's Clansman, who navigated the Eliza, said that at one time he felt like storing and running for shelter. He considered the boat a wonder to get- through on the return journey, the sea being so nasty. The Eliza is fitted with a locally-designed and manufactured engine. The race arose out of the Rudder Cup contest (105 knots), in which the Seabird made the fastest time, tho Eliza being one of the defeated competitors.