Notes: 
I received a letter from Ken Wright of Dayton, OH. He has an intense interest in what we are doing with the V & H Division, but he does not know how to go about becoming an official member. For Ken and anyone else like him, here is a review of the procedure for membership. Contact the APBA office at 586-773-9700 and ask the office staff to mail you an application
form for the Vintage & Historic Racing Membership. The Owner/Driver category costs $120 which includes all the boats you may wish to register at no additional fee. The form has room on it to list four registered hulls. If you have more equipment in your collection, attach an additional sheet covering the extra equipment. The cost of an Official membership or a No Equip-
ment membership is $40. If you presently have one of these memberships with APBA, upon renewal transfer to the V & H Division. At this time, all classes of boats in the Vintage & Historic Division will be listed as one category, but we will
be tracking the hull types.
 As published in the 1994 January Propeller, the purpose of the V & H Division shall be: a) to provide a means through which individuals sharing a common interest in vintage and historic boating can meet, share experiences and information, exchange ideas and generate enthusiasm for all aspects of vintage & historic boat preservation. Our goal is to hold regattas for restored
vintage racing craft each year throughout the country, in order to promote the preservation of the APBA's racing history.

 The first sanctioned regatta of the season be put on by The Antique Thunderboat Museum and the Brickyard on July  22-24  in Kingston, NY. This will take place in conjunction  with the  First Annual New York State Governor's Cup Boat Race. For more information contact Dave Simoniette at the Thunderboat Museum, 200 North St., Kingston, NY 12401.
 On June 3, the Unlimited Hall of Fame, after a ten year hiatus, inducted six new members: Jim McCormick, Roy Duby, Dan & Gene Arena, Danny Foster and George Simon. Congratulations!

 John Freeman of Alexandria Bay, NY has joined the V & H Division. He registered four boats. His collection consists of two Unlimited hydros, the 1948 Tommy Ann built by Gold Cup winner Joe Taggart, and a 1931 multi-step Zitoplane IV built by Sol Zito. Also in his collection is an F-Service Runabout and a 7 Litre Hydro.

Famous Raceboats and Names of the Past:
This article was submitted and written by Capt. Jack Binley on his Gold Cup racer, the Rainbow IV.
 Harry B. Greening (1880-1960) of Hamilton, Ontario, commodore of the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club, was considered the Gar Wood of Canada. Owner of a series of boats that he called Rainbow, Rainbow IV was his most noteworthy and spectacular. Rainbow IV was designed by George Grouch & Commodore Greening and was built by Ditchburn Boats of Gravenhurst, Ontario, in 1924. Rainbow IV was powered by a 200 HP Gold Cup Packard engine, and in true Greening tradition she set several firsts in the boating world. Commodore Greening was an amateur boat builder, but constantly defied the professionals and often proved their theories to be wrong,
 In 1923, Greening built Rainbow III and entered her in the Gold Cup race that year. This craft had an outboard rudder and propeller aft of the transom. In the opinion of the professionals, this would cut down on the speed. But in the 1923 Gold Cup, Rainbow III was the fastest boat, winning two heats and losing the third one only because of an accident.
 In 1924, Commodore Greening returned with Rainbow IV. In order to race the boat it was necessary to convince the APBA to change their rules and to allow clinker built construction. This change in APBA rules would allow Greening
to build Rainbow IV with a stepped or shingled hull design. Again the naval architects discouraged Greening in his quest for greater speed. Greening thought that if the planking was run diagonally from the keel across the bottom, instead of longitudinally, the one inch steps would make the boat plane. This design, which incorporated eleven steps, would reduce the Rainbow IV's wetted surface to about one ninth of her total length. This was to be the first of its kind - a multi-stepped hydroplane.
 Looking ahead to the 1924 Detroit Gold Cup, Commodore Greening invited the APBA Rules Committee to come to Hamilton, Ontario, at his expense, and observe the boat to make sure it was acceptable. The APBA sent a measurer, however, at their own expense. The measurer inspected Rainbow IV and presented his findings to the Rules Committee. In turn, they declared Rainbow IV eligible as a clinker built boat.
 On August 30, 1924, Rainbow IV, driven by Commodore Greening, easily won the Detroit Gold Cup race. Averaging 46 mph, and in excess of 60 mph in the straight-aways, she easily out distanced Baby Bootlegger and Miss Columbia, driven by Caleb Bragg and Charles F. Chapman, respectively. However, the victory was shortlived. Howard C. Ross of Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich., and owner of Lady Shores, (which burned and did not finish the race) protested the clinker hull design of Rainbow IV.
 After much deliberation, Frederick Still, president of APBA, announced that Rainbow IV was disqualified and that the second place boat, Baby Bootlegger, would be declared the winner of the 1924 Gold Cup. The reason given for the disqualification was that Rainbow IV was seen by some as being a hydroplane rather than a displacement hull. The craft's bottom was of lapstrake construction which was technically permitted by the APBA rules, however, the APBA decided that the strakes had been installed for the express purpose of achieving a hydroplane effect. In other words, Greening had followed the letter of the rules but not the spirit of them.  Discouraged but not beaten, Commodore Greening returned to Canada and went on to set many more endurance records.

Vintage Hot Boat Of The Month:
Gale V was owned by Joe Schoenith and driven by his son, the late Lee Schoenith. This past national champion Unlimited hydroplane sported the racing number U-55. The famous Gale colors were always chartreuse and mahogany. This hull, powered with an Allison aircraft engine, won the 1955 Gold Cup in Seattle, WA, defeating the dominate Slo-mo-shun's of Stan Sayers, thus bringing the golden award back to Detroit.
©1994 Tom D'Eath