Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
DUBUQUE REGATTA
DUBUQUE REGATTA. Sport. During the weekend of July 4-5-6, 1911 the Dubuque Regatta sponsored by the Western Power Boat Association featured seven hundred entries of the fastest power boats in the nation.
In February, 1911 negotiations were made with the English Duke of Winchester, owner of the "Pioneer," the power boat that attained a speed of 46 miles an hour on the Hudson River in 1910. The boat in 1911 held the world's record for speed and was built by Fauber, the French inventor of the hydroplane. Mr. Carl Fisher of Indianapolis contracted with the Seabury company for a boat guaranteed to make 35 miles an hour. The builders agreed to forfeit $10,000 for each half mile the boat fell short of this mark. The boat was to cost $22,000 and be 32 feet and 11 inches in length. News suggested that builders were finishing a "demon" that at 40-feet in length would generate 280 horse-power and reach 50 miles per hour. (Note: in 1978 the world's record speed on water was 317.6 mph)
A short black and white film was made of the event by the Champion Company.