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President's Cup Regatta on the Potomac cover title; Washington DC September 17-18 1926

1926ref. 45974Washington DC: Corinthian Yacht Club. Very Good-. First Edition. Soft Wrappers. Small 4to; Unpaginated pages; Original pictorial wrappers with a pictorial design in blue black and white -- representing a pair of racing power boats. This rare publication has a minor vertical crease and light cover wear and rubbing -- is the official program for the first running of what became a long series in powerboat racing: the President's Cup. The race was initially inspired by the Gold Cup -- first contested in 1904 often cited as the oldest trophy in motor sports. L. Gordon Hamersley won this inaugural 1926 race—conducted on the Georgetown Channel just off Hains Point. Hamersley drive his Cigarette IV— a 34 footer built of duraluminum and powered by a twelve cylinder Curtiss engine. Hamersley won all three heats with an average speed of 54.229 miles per hour; the program makes a point of touting that Helmsleyis boat was reported to have cost $60000. Among other famous names participating in this 1926 opening event were George Townsend in Greenwich Folly Horace Dodge Jr. in Miss Syndicate Bill Horn in Solar Plexus and Delphine Dodge Baker in Nuisance. A Committee consisting of members of the then-local Corinthian Yacht Club: Edward Balts Dr. Roy Sexton Conrad Smith and the chairman and lead instigator of the event W. A. "Bill Rogers"-- all officers of the Corinthian Yacht Club. The idea was simple: to stage a major power boat regatta with rules similar to those in effect for the Gold Cup. There is a photograph of the President's Cup on the back wrapper -- in the form of an advertisement for the DC firm of Pearson & Crain Jewelers on "F" Street. The 14k gold trophy had been designed by D.C. Crain. President Calvin Coolidge consented to present the handsome bowl -- on which the winner’s name was to be inscribed. There are photographs of this presentation from President Coolidge to Louis Gordon Hamersley 1892-1942 in October of 1926. One of the drivers scheduled to compete for the Cup was Delphine Dodge Baker in her boat "Nuisance." Delphine Didge won the 1927 President's Cup in her brother's boat -- "Miss Syndiate." Her widowed mother had recently sold her shares in the Dodge corporation for $73 million -- and built a DC estate "Marly" for Delphine Dodge and her latest husband as a wedding present -- Raymond T. Baker Director of the United States Mint from 1917 to 1922. The program appears to be quite rare now. Not in OCLC nor in the LC. Light cover wear and a minor crease. Photographs within of four major boats including Hamersley'w winning "Cigarette IV." There is a full-page chart of the course of the contest -- laid out in the Georgetown channel with one of the turns at the confluence of the Anacosta and the Potomac rivers -- along Hains Point where the newly laid out Golf Course and the ring road were already popular with residents of the Capitol City. . 1926. Corinthian Yacht Club unknown

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