Description

BABY BOOTLEGGER RACE BOAT

FULLY BUILT AND READY TO DISPLAY, QUALITY YACHT MODEL

Dimension approx.: 35.5″ L x 8.25″ W x 9″ H
The model is already built, NOT a model ship kit

Baby Bootlegger: The Mahogany Bullet That Ruled America’s Early Speedboat Era

In the roaring summers of the 1920s, when America was intoxicated with speed — on roads, in the air, and across the water — one wooden racing boat emerged as the purest expression of that obsession. She was called Baby Bootlegger, a long, lean mahogany projectile whose beauty was matched only by her ferocity on the racecourse.

Her story began in early 1924, when Wall Street banker and speed enthusiast Caleb Bragg commissioned a new Gold Cup contender. Bragg was already a legend in the world of fast machines — he had raced cars, airplanes, and boats — and he wanted something revolutionary. To create it, he turned to naval architect George S. Crouch, a designer with a gift for blending elegance and engineering. Crouch’s plans were brought to life at Henry Nevins’ famed City Island shipyard, where some of the finest wooden vessels in America were built.

The result was breathtaking. Baby Bootlegger stretched 29 feet 10½ inches, but was only 5 feet 10 inches wide, giving her the proportions of a dart. Her hull was double‑planked in flawless mahogany, shaped into a long, sweeping curve that allowed her to rise and skim across the water — an early, brilliant expression of hydroplane thinking. Crouch placed the engine amidships, a decision that gave the boat perfect balance at high speed and a stability that her rivals envied.

At her heart was a monster: a 1,000‑cubic‑inch Lycoming V‑12, a powerplant more at home in an aircraft than a boat. Later restorations would use a Hispano‑Suiza V‑8 producing 220–300 horsepower, but the effect was the same — a deep, throaty roar and a top speed well over 50 mph, astonishing for the era. In Gold Cup heats, she averaged 47 mph, a pace that left competitors thrashing in her wake.

Bragg raced her in the 1924 and 1925 APBA Gold Cup, the most prestigious trophy in American powerboat racing. She won both years. In 1925, she didn’t just win — she dominated, finishing 1 minute and 16 seconds ahead of the next boat, an eternity in racing terms. Her dual‑cockpit layout could seat four, but she was happiest with two aboard: a driver and a riding mechanic, crouched low behind her curved deck as she sliced through the chop.

And then, as quickly as she had risen, she vanished.

After Bragg’s racing days ended, Baby Bootlegger drifted into obscurity. She wound up in a Miami junkyard, hidden under a canvas sheet, her mahogany dulled and her engine silent. For decades she sat forgotten — a relic of a vanished age.

Her resurrection came in 1982, when vintage boat enthusiast Mark Mason discovered her and recognized what she was. Mason restored her with reverence, bringing back her original lines, her varnished glow, and her racing spirit. When she returned to the water, she stunned crowds just as she had in the 1920s. Mason’s work helped ignite a renaissance in antique speedboat restoration, and he later founded The New England Boat and Motor Company, dedicated to preserving boats like hers.

Today, Baby Bootlegger is more than a racing boat — she is a legend. Her design influenced generations of naval architects, her stepped‑hull concepts and balanced powertrain becoming hallmarks of modern performance craft. Her original blueprints have been digitized, allowing modern builders to recreate her — though doing so can cost over a million dollars.

Nearly a century after her Gold Cup triumphs, she remains one of the most admired wooden speedboats ever built: a symbol of craftsmanship, innovation, and the intoxicating pursuit of speed.

She was fast. She was beautiful. And for two glorious summers, she was unbeatable.