Show Boats

Biggest was a 56-ft., 26-ton yacht priced at $36,000. Smallest was a child's six-foot playboat. Fastest was a Century hydroplane guaranteed to go 65 m. p. h. To see these and one hundred other craft, worth $2,000,000 and drydocked temporarily in Manhattan's Grand Central Palace, the biggest crowd (20,000) in its history attended the premiere of the annual Motor Boat Show last week.

Like those of the Automobile Show, which precedes it every year, Motor Boat Show pressagents labor under the delusion that their exhibits are recommended largely by novelty. Consequently, last week, they made it their business to pretend that streamlining and comfortable living quarters, principal selling points of motor boats for years, had just been discovered this winter. Actually the main novelties of the show were, as usual, gadgets. Samples:

P: Cellophane sails, by Dupont.

P: An 18-lb. electric outboard motor ($35.50, 3 m. p. h.), guaranteed silent.

P: An anchor-weighing contraption ($500) wherewith, by stepping on a pedal, a yachtsman starts a motor to raise his anchor.

P:. A practical "pedalboat" ($175), built like a catamaran. Reclining in two deck chairs, passengers can pedal up to 10 m. p. h. while they fish, hunt, acquire sunburn.

One exciting feature of the Motor Boat Show was, as usual, missed by everyone who bought tickets last week: the arrival of the boats. Most alarming voyage to this year's show was that of the Wheeler Shipyard's 56-ft. Playmate. Lost in the fog for four hours during its water passage from the Wheeler Yards in Brooklyn to its docks in Manhattan, the Playmate was finally hoisted out of the water onto a 30-ton truck. The job took 40 minutes, cost $1,200. Last year, after measuring an elevated railway crossing and deciding it was just big enough for one of its boats to get under, Wheeler Co. was disappointed to find that a two-inch snow fall had made it impassable. Last week, the Playmate encountered no mishaps on land, reached the back door of Grand Central Palace 35 minutes after leaving the water one mile away.

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