A Little Motorboat History...
Gottlieb Daimler started it all, back in 1886. He and Wilhelm Maybach put a 1.1hp petrol engine in a boat on the River Neckar.
The German inventor soon moved on to the cars for which we now remember him, but other pioneers, particularly in France, Britain and the US, were quick to follow his lead. Fear of petrol's combustible qualities in the early days led to the development of paraffin or kerosene engines, even though many of these needed petrol to get them going, but progress was extraordinarily rapid.
In 1902 the 38ft (11.6m) Abiel Abbot Low, built as a demonstrator by the New York Kerosene Engine Co, crossed the Atlantic, taking 36 days to reach Falmouth. The following year saw the inaugural British International (later known as the Harmsworth) Trophy meeting in Cork, won by the 40ft (12m), 70hp Napier at 19 knots. And across the Atlantic the first of the famous Gold Cup competitions was run in June 1904.
Whether the motor is put into the boat to make it go fast, or just make it get from A to B while work is being done, the motorboat just makes life a whole lot simpler.
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