About The Boats
What are Tetherboats?
Model Tether Boat Racing in Detroit circa 1930’s
Around 1925, *H.C. Field, a minister, was sent from the U.K. to open a parish in Winsor, Ontario. Upon his arrival (the trip took 30 days) he was informed by a telegram that the parish and the church was cancelled and would not be opening. He was left on his own.
Pastor Field was a resourceful man and a talented machinist. He was able in short order to find gainful employment with the new Chrysler Corporation located in Windsor, Ont. When he was not using his skills at Chrysler he was working on his hobby.
Before he left the U.K. he was actively participating in model tether boat racing at a pond in England’s Victoria Park, the epicenter of the sport at the time.
Now in America and missing his boat building and competition days, he set about forming a small group of capable, like minded, co-workers and introduced them to model tether boat building and racing. To be a member and a competitor you needed to be able to build a gasoline or steam engine along with a wooden boat of your own design.
The group was formed and began racing their home built model speed boats on the pond at Detroit’s Water Works Park located on Jefferson Ave, a stone's throw from the Detroit River.
In the early *1930’s the group organized as “The Detroit Model Power Boat Club’. Formal rules were adopted, the hobby soon spread and additional clubs formed in other cities, New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Toronto.
Not surprisingly as with any motorized sport, the clubs decided to have a race to see just whose boat could go the fastest around the circular course.
Over the July 4, 1939 weekend, the Detroit Model Power Boat Club hosted the ‘Annual International Model Power Boat Regatta’ at Water Works Park. From many clubs around the country, the model boatman traveled to enter the race. Over half of a hundred gas or steam powered boats were registered at this America’s biggest model power boat racing event.
Water Works Park had as its principle feature, a shallow Children’s’ Wading Pool that the model boat club would use. The pond was ideal for the1939 Regatta. As expected, the boat race attracted a crowd of spectators.
The gatherings included persons who had no interest in the races, aside from the sheer pleasure of seeing the boats run the circle course. They came early and stayed late watching the races while enjoying a poolside picnic.
The audience along with the boat builders themselves were kept informed of the contestants, speeds and general race information by a public address system. Speakers were mounted on a “sound truck'' loaned to the Club courtesy of the American Automobile Association (AAA).
*Boats were run one at a time for speed, according to their racing class.
There were four classifications of racing boats- A, B, C, and D. The boats in class A, B and C had a home-built power source: gas or steam.
Class D used store-bought motors. Class A and B were the most popular.
*Size Requirements;
Class A used 30cc (cubic centimeter) motors and the boat itself could not exceed 16lbs.
Class B used 20cc motors and the boat itself could not exceed 12 lbs.
Class C used 10cc motors and the boat itself could not exceed 8 lbs.
*The course was a 105-foot diameter circle with a center pole anchored at a maximum of 36 inches above the water level. The bridle had to withstand a 250-pound pull test before it was permitted to compete. Once the boat was fired up and running wide open, it was hand-launched with the help of a person manning the center pole. This official held the running line off the water temporarily until the boat reached top speed and full centrifugal force. The boat had to make four laps in order to be timed, four laps of the 52 1⁄2 radius circle was timed by three judges using stop watches. The final time was the average time of the three watches used. Calculations were made to determine miles per hour. Competition would get stiff among the proud owners of their custom scratch-built boats and hand-built steam or gas engines.
By 1940, the annual racing event was held at “The Model Boat Basin” on Belle Isle, Detroit’s beautiful recreation park. A newly constructed pond built specifically for model sail and tether boat racing
This hobby of tether boat racing grew in Detroit and southeast Michigan because the craftsmanship and talent necessary to build the boats and engines was in Detroit. The Detroit automobile industry had for years been attracting and training machinists, tool makers and pattern makers- the perfect combination necessary for this sophisticated hobby to thrive.
Also at this time in the southeast corner of Michigan, three important boat manufacturers were creating and building important mahogany speedboats:
The Chris Craft Company in Algonac, Michigan,
John L Hacker in St. Clair, Michigan and
Gregory Boat Company on the Detroit River who built the famous Bell Isle Bear Cat boat.
Concurrently, full size speed boat racing was in full swing on the Detroit River. Arthur ‘Gar’ Wood brought the Gold Cup trophy back to Detroit in 1917 winning five straight races 1917-1921.
Building, designing and engineering tether boats was one thing. Racing them created a whole new exciting dimension, and truly a new spectator sport.
About The Collector - Kent
Robert Graham was the man that ignited my passion to research the history of tether boat racing. Mr. Graham was a letter carrier in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. In addition to his position with the post office he had a keen eye and interest in photography. His photography skills helped him land free-lance photography assignments with Model Craftsman Magazine, a popular hobby/craft publication throughout the 1930s and 40s.
He covered exclusively the tether boat races around the country; New York, Chicago, Toronto, and Detroit. The publisher would give Mr. Graham $10 and train fare to the city of interest. He spoke fondly of one of his many visits to Detroit especially the visit in 1939 when he and some of the contestants from Chicago found accommodations over the 4th of July weekend in a barn located In Grosse Point, Michigan. He was tickled that he saved the $1.75 on a hotel bill and did not mind the accommodations in the barn at all.
I met Mr. Graham at his New Jersey home of 60 years in 1990. My wife and I enjoyed his stories about the race regattas, the racers/builders and, all the hoopla surrounding the annual events. Listening to Mr. Graham was a heartwarming experience. I stayed in touch with Robert Graham for several years after my visit. His son contacted me in 2006 informing me that Mr. Graham had passed away. Before he passed, he expressed that he would like me to have his collection of boats, films and negatives of his tether boat racing files. I am very grateful to his family for allowing me the purchase opportunity.
I believe model tetherboats to be a unique form of industrial folk art, beautiful, functional objects shaped from available raw materials. There appears to be little written history about tetherboats and their builders. I know for a fact that the kind of talent and ingenuity that made them, helped put Detroit on the manufacturing map.
I have been collecting these boats and related memorabilia for over 30 years, searching for and talking to the original owners and makers of the boats and/or relatives. This is how I have researched, learned and compiled the history of tether boat racing.
