Fast Old Lady

On the shores of Seattle's Lake Washington last week a man selling opera glasses yelled: "It's up to the old lady, folks! Come and get 'em so you can see her run." The old lady is a fin-tailed, mahogany-plywood motorboat called Slo-Mo-Shun IV, slightly faster than her younger sister, Slo-Mo-Shun V, and holder of the world straightaway speed record of 178.497 m.p.h. With Slo-Mo V disabled by a pre-race accident last week, Slo-Mo IV had to hold off five Detroit challengers for speedboating's most prized trophy, the Gold Cup, won last year and in 1950 by the old lady, in 1951 by the young lady.

Both boats are the belles of Seattle and are owned by Car Dealer Stanley Sayres, 57. Five years ago, he sat down with a boatbuilder and a designer to work out a radical craft that would ride as much on air as on water, yet be controllable. The result was Slo-Mo IV, which the Detroiters have now grudgingly copied; but, as this week's race proved, they have not yet caught up with Stan Sayres. Throwing up a saucy rooster tail of white spray as she churned round & round the 3 1/4-mile course, Slo-Mo IV rubbed the Detroit boats in her wake. Behind on only one lap of the three-heat, go-mile race, she racked up speed records for a single lap and a full heat. First owner ever to win four Gold Cups in a row, Stanley Sayres said happily: "The old family runabout did it again."

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