motor boats presented in the new york show

a few of the many new motor-boats for 1930 and a discussion of the modern marine trends

• With the passage of time, man, and especially the man of some discernment, has become more and more a piece of public property. Each new refinement of dress and diversion, each innovation to delight his eye or palate has made him more dependent upon agencies outside of himself for comfort, rest and relaxation. From an object of care and solicitude, he has been transformed into a target for super-service, fair game for the resistance-breaker.

The renaissance of motor boating in the past two years is the result of the discovery by this harassed biped that the water cure is a way of escape. He snatched at it for consolation as a drowning candidate snatches at a straw ballot. He found that casting off was release not only from moorings, but from high pressure social activities, high pressure work, high pressure salesmanship and—high pressure. He found in the splash of spray and the sun on a white beach Nepenthe and a recess from margin calls, solicitors, Prohibition talk, circulars and all the elaborate pageantry of flapdoodle that makes modern urban life liveable and damnable. With the first exultant bite of the propeller he was reincarnated as an entity. He was free.

America is going marine in 1930. Motor boating is undergoing at this minute a number of basic changes which will express themselves in the regattas, the family cruising, the motor boat commuting, the pleasure fishing, the picnics and what not of next summer. Outboard boats are giving way to small inboards of a better quality than we have ever known before. Sleek, mahogany high speed runabouts—the roadsters of the sea—are coming in for astonishing popularity. Many more men than ever before will commute to New York and other cities in their motor boats from their summer waterside homes 25 and 50 miles away. Family cruisers, on which several thousand American families will live during the warm spell, will not only have double cabins for the accommodation of more people and their greater privacy but they will have much higher speed due to twin screw installations.

• Just now there are about a million and a quarter motor boats of all types in the United States. There are 32,000 owned in New York waters and their value is about $200,000,000. The new apartment houses going up along the East River, the Riverside Drive development and the Municipal public park activities on Staten Island and elsewhere all contain provisions for motor boat landings, basins and, in some cases, service facilities for the gasoline mariners of the five boroughs. The complicated subject of service has been one of the deterrent factors in the growth of motor boating and it is so at the present moment. However, all over the United States thought is being expended upon the improvement of this condition and progress is reported.

Two of the largest builders of runabouts, Chris-Craft and Dodge, in addition to a notable expansion of their plants, are introducing new family cruiser models. The Chris-Craft twin-screw cruiser is a 48 footer with two Chris-Craft motors of 225 horsepower each and a speed of 32 miles an hour. In addition a beguiling flock of Chris-Craft runabouts and sedans are available for the enjoyment of our harbours, rivers and lakes this year.

• Designed by Walter Laveau and completely new in every particular from figure headed stems to transoms, the new Dodge fleet for 1930 includes a 16-foot runabout with a 40 horsepower Lycoming motor, speeds up to 25 miles an hour and seating capacity for five people, at $945; a 21-foot runabout, seating six, with a II5 horsepower Lycoming motor and a speed of 35 miles an hour, at $2100; a 28-foot runabout, the fastest boat in the new Dodge fleet, with a seating capacity for twelve, a 3oo horsepower Lycoming motor and a speed of 45 miles an hour, at $4500; a luxurious 28-foot sedan, seating twelve, a 3oo horsepower Lycoming motor and 38-mile-an-hourspeed, at $53oo; and the first standard cruising boat ever made by this company, a 45foot twin screw cruiser with double cabin, two Lycoming motors of 300 horsepower each, commodious sleeping accommodations for eight people and a speed of 35 miles an hour, at $27,500.

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An interesting new luxury craft is the Luders 45-foot commuter which is a development of the fast and popular Luders 43-foot cabin runabout. The new boat has been developed to meet particularly strenuous water conditions around New York.

One of the largest boats in the Show and another which shows unmistakably the trend toward twin screw cruising boats is the 55-foot double cabin mahogany cruiser displayed by the Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation, with two 170-horsepower Speedway engines and a cruising speed of 20 miles an hour.

Hacker's superb runabouts which have undergone considerable change this year, are exhibited in four styles. These are a 24-foot 35 miler, a 26-foot 40 miler, a 30-foot 40 miler and a 38foot twin screw 42 mile V-bottom, double cockpit commuter-cruiser.

The leader among the new Elco boats for this year is a stunning 50foot twin screw motor yacht with sumptuous living quarters for six people and a crew of two.

The fleet of livable cruisers introduced this year by the American Car and Foundry Company is impressive. This magnificent cluster of sea-going yachts includes a 30-foot double cabin cruiser, other family cruisers of 40, 47 and 58 feet and a 38-foot twin screw sport cruiser which is shown here.

And in this galaxy of new boats is Gar Wood with a long line of speedy and sumptuous runabouts. Among these are a 33-footer with seating capacity for twelve people and a speed of 50 miles attained with a 400 horsepower 12-cylinder Gar Wood engine; a Baby Gar runabout with a Chrysler motor and a beautiful limousine-runabout which makes 40 miles an hour with a Scripp engine.