Comfort in Motorboats

A Guess on Where the Development of Boat Luxury Will End

GEORGE W. SUTTON, Jr.

JUST how comfortable can you be on a motorboat?"

Those who get their ideas of motorboats from watching some Sunday fishing party of shirt - sleeved, derby-hatted men disembark at a coal dock from a dirty, unkempt, wheezy open launch will undoubtedly reply, "You cannot be comfortable at all."

Others will say—"It depends entirely on how much money you wish to spend."

And both classes will be absolutely wrong.

Comfort in motorboats is not a result of cash outlay. Some of the most uncomfortable boats I ever saw cost thousands of dollars, while some, costing only a few hundred, have been models of luxurious ease. It is all a matter of skill on the part of the designer and honest effort on the part of the builder.

One day, about six years ago, I went up to Morris Heights to see a new cruiser, Lounger IV, which the Seabury Company was putting in commission for the late Mr. James Hammond, the eccentric typewriter manufacturer. Mr. Hammond was only too glad to show off his yacht.

In the owner's private stateroom I noticed a long lever and inquired about it.

"That's a clever thing," said Mr. Hammond. "I invented it myself. You see, in cold weather I lie down in my bed this way (and he illustrated) near this radiator. See that port hole up there, about six feet above the bed? Well, if the room gets too warm during the night or I want to look out at the weather, I pull this lever and there you are."

He pulled the lever and there he was—still in bed but six feet higher up, with his face on a level with the port hole.

Just outside his room there was a small door. He opened it. There was revealed a tiny room—full of water!

"This," said the typewriter man, "is my fish well. I catch lots of fish, put them in here and they live happily ever after—until I eat them."

Out on deck, there was a sunken well about two feet deep and twelve or fifteen feet square. There were two deep grooves in its flooring. I pondered over it until Mr. Hammond explained. It was his seagoing garage. He could roll his car aboard, into the well and the grooves would hold the wheels so that no rough sea could dislodge the car. The whole boat was full of such vagaries.

By most of the few people who were privileged to see his motor yacht, Mr. Hammond was considered rather demented—a sort of motorboat Jules Verne. To-day his strange ideas are back numbers. The fish well was not new even then. I have never again seen the selfraising bunk or deck garage, but one look at any of the modern creations of the motorboat builder would cause Mr. Hammond, if he were alive, to start inventing all over again. The practical comforts of the average motorboat of to-day make the barge on which Antony and Cleopatra started all the gossip on the Nile look like a poor homely hulk.

Look at the boats shown in the photographs. It is a long cry from the smally, unsafe naphtha launch of only a few years ago to these beautiful motor craft, yet they are only four of thousands now navigating the waters of our rivers and harbors—and lots more coming.

The newest and most spectacular of these boats is the 48-foot sedan, Numero, just launched by the Great Lakes Boat Building Corporation out in Milwaukee. She represents a brand new development in boat building—a brand new combination of great speed and great comfort. You will notice she has a small, rather odd looking cabin. That cabin, inside, is fitted up as tastefully as a lady's boudoir. It accommodates ten people easily and all controls are carried into this cabin so the owner may run the boat and still enjoy the party. Imported gray broadcloth lines the limousine top while the sides are done in silk velour. She has silk curtains and a dome light. Her interior resembles a costly limousine and yet she makes better than 40 miles per hour. Up to the present, Numero represents the most ideal wedding of comfort and high speed yet evolved in motorboats. She is for C. C. Pape of St. Louis. The Great Lakes Company has several interesting boats almost ready (like the rest of us) to take to water, including a beautiful new cruiser for Harry Stutz, the automobile man.

Another company which has shown great progress in the design of motorboats of comfort and speed is the Albany Boat Corporation. Vincent Astor, James K. Hackett, Allan Bakewell, W. E. Ogilvie, Burns Lyman Smith of Syracuse, and a lot of other sturdy citizens, are owners of Albany craft, and George F. Johnson, the shoe man, who owns a model city and has employees enough to form an army, is having one of the Albany cruisers built for his winter home down in Daytona.

Ararnis, the floating palace, three pictures of which are on the first page of this article, was built for Arthur H. Marks, of the New York Yacht Club, vice-president of the Goodrich Tire Company. She is the largest motor yacht in the world. She was built by Robert Jacob at City Island from designs by A. Loring Swasey, of Boston. No detail of luxury, comfort or efficiency has been neglected. Some of her features are: a costly built-in organ, fireplaces, electric light, steam heatr artificial refrigerating plant and plush and silk furniture and decorations galore. On the practical side, she is equipped with full wireless apparatus, two Craig-Diesel motors of 350 hp. each, and a galley which almost could feed the entire Bolshevik army. She is 157 feet long, 23 feet beam, draws 7 feet 6 inches and makes 13 knots. She is of steel construction and registers 225 tons. All the woodwork is mahogany. Economy was featured when her engines were installed, for they burn cheap crude oil—40 gallons of it per hour. She carries 6,000 gallons in her fuel tanks. A glance down her corridors reminds you of a huge, beautifully appointed hotel. She carries a crew of nine officers and men.

Vagabondia is a good example of luxury in motor-boating, and is one of the finest of the new house-boats built by the Gas Engine & Power Company and Charles L. Seabury and Company, Cons. It was built for W. T. Mellon, of Pittsburgh, for Florida cruising. She is completely luxurious from stem to rudder, and has almost every convenience the mind can conceive for the comfort of the owner and his guests. She has very shallow draft to navigate the Florida rivers, is 130 feet long and 23 feet 6 inches beam. Her propellers revolve ip tunnels at the stern to negotiate the shallows and she has two 200 hp. Winton motors.

A smoking and music room with piano, phonograph and a glass-enclosed bridge are a couple of the luxuries of Zumbrota, the new Seabury boat shown on the first page of this article. She is a large boat—95 feet long— completely equipped and yet she draws only 3 feet 10 inches in order to float up the rivers and bayous of the Southland. Comfort has been carried out to an amazing extent in Zumbrota. She has hot water heating with radiator in all cabins, electric lights and fans, big dining room beautifully finished, mahogany and white enameled guest rooms, large bath rooms, refrigerators, galley and closets, and two Speedway motors of 150 hp. each. She makes 14 1/2 knots.

Of course, all the boats mentioned in this article, with the exception of Numero, were built for the sole purpose of cruising. And when a man cruises, his boat becomes his home, to be furnished and maintained, exactly as he furnishes and maintains his residence, according to his taste and his means. In many cases this is according to his wife's taste and his means. Many times this is true of the boat and the wife dictates the scheme of decoration and furnishing, just as she does that of the home. On the other hand, we all know plenty of men whose wives have no love for the water and do not sympathize with the pastime which claims so much of their husbands' time. These men fit out their boats as they happen to wish, keep them in neatness or in what at home would be called masculine disorder, entertain whom they please, when they please, dress as whim or fancy suggests and seem to enjoy it—the rascals.

Between the dingy fishing boat, with its derby hatted crew, and the sumptuous motor houseboat there is a wide variety of other types for other purposes, in which luxury can and often does run riot.

The motor ferry is an instance of this. Sometimes it is a high speed cruiser and sometimes a big fast runabout—a roadster of the sea. When it is a cruiser there is no limit to the comforts and conveniences which can be installed. Such boats as Whippet, with 600 hp. motors and 28 miles an hour speed; Conejo, with 32 miles an hour; Miss Liberty, Fie Fang II and a score of others, are stunning examples of the ultra-luxurious ferry. They are built for the rich man who has a summer home 20 or 30 miles from the city and likes to commute in this delightful manner, with more speed than he could accomplish by train. These boats are also useful for any number of other purposes and by the end of 1920 it is anticipated that their number will have increased greatly.

Then there is the open runabout, built like a high grade piano, of mahogany and teak, with shining brass or nickel fittings, comfortable wicker chairs, soft cushions and yet capable of a surprising turn of speed. In 4 cylinder units they make up to 32 and 35 miles an hour, in 6 and 8 cylinder units 37 miles an hour. They operate like motor cars, with the identical system of controls, which waft one over the shimmering seas at speeds variously estimated from 40 to 50 miles an hour; estimated thus because the sensation is one of traveling much faster than they really go. We have in mind, for instance, the latest product of the John L. Hacker Boat Company. We have heard it said that these runabouts give a sensation as nearly as possible akin to flying. They bank beautifully on the turns and at high speeds they do not ride with the bow high in the air. They run on an even keel, are not fussy at high speed and what water they throw is rolled downward and doesn't send spray over the passengers.

Comfort in motorboats is just like comfort in anything else. It depends on the ability to make the most of the space afforded.

In the salon of the Fall River Boat (the place where people sit backed up against the walls in red-plush chairs listening to the orchestra play "The Red Mill" selections "by request"), here there is certainly plenty of room. The designer and furnisher had everything at their disposal as far as space went. And yet you would not chose the salon of a Fall River boat as a place in which to lounge away a boating vacation.

On the other hand, there are tiny boats which, viewed from the dock, do not seem capable of furnishing a comfortable yawning space, much less opportunity for a luxurious loll, and yet on closer inspection they are found to be all, and even more than, one could ask.

There are thousands of such boats as these upon our waterways and thousands more coming, each one with some new improvement, some new comfort, some new feature to add still more enjoyment to one of the greatest and most healthful sports in the world. American motorboats are keeping pace with motoring and aviation in the matters of comfort and luxuries.