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BOLO BABE 1926 33’ Baby Gar Runabout 12 Cylinder Liberty Engine Hull # 2630
Speedboat racing was a popular spectator sport in the 1920’s with national media covering races across the country and abroad. By 1922 Garfield Wood had won the Gold Cup five times and brought home the Harmsworth Trophy from England. Capitalizing on his racing success, he hired designer Nap Lisee and teamed up with Chris Craft to develop a speedboat for wealthy sportsmen, which used the powerful Liberty aircraft engine. The result of this effort was the Baby Gar. In 1926, Charles M. Swift went to the New York Boat Show and placed his order for the “Boat of the Year,” a 1926 33’ Baby Gar. Howard Lyon was Gar Wood’s exclusive distributor at the time, with a New York showroom and an aggressive marketing style. He sold the Baby Gars to the rich and famous of the day: John Dodge, Caleb Bragg, William Randolph Hearst, and P.K Wrigley for a price of $12,000, or triple the price of a three-bedroom home. Swift fit the profile of the Baby Gar owner: he was an international industrialist, financier, attorney and entrepreneur operating out of Detroit and had developed the Manila streetcar system. He had recently sold his mansion in the tony Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe to his neighbor, Mrs. Anna Dodge, who bought the home for her son Horace, now heavily involved building the Dodge boats and Gold Cup racing. Swift retired and moved back to his native Vermont, where he purchased a 450 acre estate with a mile and a half of frontage on Lake Champlain and named it “Grosse Pointe”. Bolo Babe was delivered to Lake Champlain that spring, the name “Babe” reflecting her diminutive size next to Swift’s 95’ Cox & Stevens sea going yacht, Bolo. Quickly gaining notoriety as “the fastest boat on Champlain,” Bolo Babe competed in regattas at the Burlington Yacht Club, and lakeside towns of Westport and Essex. The races were regional, with classes for sail, outboard and power—the most hotly contested being the speedboat event. Often handicapped a few laps, Bolo Babe’s audiences grew, eager to see her race against the lake’s Liberty and Packard powered speedboats. Behind the scenes was Joe Valez, one of Gar Wood’s Liberty mechanics who in 1930 opened Valez Marine across the lake in Port Henry, NY. Over the years he and his son Louis maintained up to seven Baby Gars at their boatyard, keeping the big boats and racing engines running. Louis often rode as mechanic during races. Bolo Babe held her title through the 1950’s, first with the Liberty and later with an Allison aircraft engine that her owner Howard Miller installed to insure her standing on the lake. The 800 horsepower Allison, twice that of the Liberty would prove too much for the narrow hull and though she cornered extremely well, she capsized during a number of races. Though these races added to her intrepid reputation, Miller retired the boat in 1960, but kept her in storage, unwilling to part with her for another 45 years. Only 8 of the 67 Baby Gars built from 1922-1929 remain today.
BOLO BABE OWNERS 1926 - Charles M. Swift c. 1930’s - Enoch Chase, Ecole Champlain (girl’s camp) c. 1940 - George S. Swift, nephew of Charles M. Swift c. 1948 - Ralph Worthington c. 1950 - Howard Miller 2004 - John and Rebecca Allen
LIBERTY ENGINE 450 H. P. at 1950 R. P. M.
SPECIFICATIONS 12 Cylinder V-Type; 5” Bore, 7” Stroke 1650 Cubic Inches; Weight: 1350 lbs. 1.25 to 1 Overdrive Jesse Vincent and Elbert Hall designed the Liberty engine for the US Air force in 1917. After the war, these lightweight, powerful engines were plentiful and inexpensive. Gar Wood purchased 4,500 of these and launched the Detroit Marine-Aero Engine Company, converting aircraft engines for marine use. They became the first choice to power high speed boats in the 1920’s.
Bolo Babe is owned by John and Rebecca Allen, Gull Lake, MN and Naples, FL She was restored by Muller Boatworks, Sunapee, NH with engine restoration done by Bill Drake, Drake Engine, Rochester, NY
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