Water motorsports at the 1908 Summer Olympics
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At the 1908 Summer Olympics, three motorboat racing events were contested. Various sources refer to the sport as "water motorsports",[1] "motor boats",[2] and "power boating".[3] These Games were the first and only so far to feature motorized sports, though it featured as a demonstration sport back in 1900.
All three events used the same distance, five laps around an 8 nautical mile course for a total of 40 nautical miles (70 km). In each of the events, multiple boats started but only one finished, due primarily to the gale that was blowing during the course of the competition. Events were held on 28 August and 29 August 1908.
Contents |
[edit] Medal summary
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Class A — Open |  France (FRA)Camille |
none | none |
| Class B — Under 60 feet |  Great Britain (GBR)Gyrinus |
none | none |
| Class C — 6.5–8 metres | Great Britain (GBR) Gyrinus |
none | none |
[edit] Medal table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Britain (GBR) |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | France (FRA) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[edit] Events
[edit] Class A — Open class
The open class was scheduled to take place on the first day of competition, 28 August. Two boats, Wolseley-Siddely and Dylan, began the race. Dylan abandoned the race partway through the first lap, with Wolseley-Siddely finishing the first before the weather became too severe to continue the race.
A second attempt to run the event took place the next day, after the other two races had been completed. Wolseley-Siddely again started, this time against Camille (the only French boat to take part in competition). Wolseley-Siddely ran aground on a mud spit, leaving Camille to finish alone for the gold medal.
[edit] Class B — Under 60 feet
The B class was held on 28 August, after the abortive first running of the open class. Again only two boats appeared at the starting line, Quicksilver and Gyrinus. Quicksilver became threatened by water coming in over the sides, abandoning the race. Gyrinus, a small boat with an extra crewman to bail water, was able to finish to make its crew the first Olympic champions in motorsports.
[edit] Class C — 6.5–8 metres
The first race of 29 August was the small class of boats. Gyrinus, which had won the B class the day before, appeared again. This time her competition was Sea Dog. Again, however, Gyrinus was the only boat to finish, as Sea Dog experienced engine problems and had to be towed off the course.
[edit] Crew lists
[edit] France
[edit] Camille
[edit] Great Britain
[edit] Dylan
- Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden
- A. G. Fentiman
[edit] Gyrinus
[edit] Quicksilver
- John Marshall Gorham[5]
[edit] Sea Dog
- Warwick Wright
- Thomas Weston
[edit] Wolseley-Siddely
- Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster
- George Clowes
- Joseph Frederick Laycock (first race only)
- G. H. Atkinson (second race only)
[edit] Notes
- ^ IOC medal database
- ^ Cook, p. 227
- ^ IOC list of past sports
- ^ De Wael claims three unknown crewman served with Thubron on Camille.
- ^ De Wael claims Gorham's wife was also aboard Quicksilver.
[edit] Sources
- Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
- De Wael, Herman (2001). Motorboating 1908. Herman's Full Olympians. Retrieved on 28 May 2006.
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