1953 Gold Cup Remembered
By Fred Farley – Unlimited Hydroplane Historian
The 1953 APBA Gold Cup continued the victory string in the race of races by the Seattle-based SLO-MO-SHUN team, owned by Stanley S. Sayres.
With drivers Joe Taggart and Lou Fageol alternating in the cockpit of SLO-MO-SHUN IV, Sayres won his fourth straight Gold Cup in 1953–his third on the home waters of Lake Washington. These were the days when the race location was determined by the yacht club of the winning boat rather than by the city with the highest financial bid.
Representing the Seattle Yacht Club, Sayres had first won the Gold Cup in 1950 on the Detroit River with SLO-MO IV.
Designed by Ted Jones, “The Grand Old Lady” SLO-MO-SHUN IV was the first prop-riding Unlimited hydroplane to run successfully. It wasn’t long before most new boats were obvious copies of SLO-MO.
None of the boats that SLO-MO-SHUN IV challenged at the 1950 Gold Cup w! ere present in 1953. They had all been replaced by the new generation of SLO-MO-style Unlimited hydroplanes. These included: SLO-MO-SHUN V and GALE II, built in 1951; MISS GREAT LAKES II, built in 1952; SUCH CRUST III, SUCH CRUST V, and MISS U.S., built in 1953.
For the first time in Gold Cup history, all of the attending boats were three-point hydroplanes. The Dossin brothers’ MISS PEPSI, the reigning step hydro, had retired for the time being. And Horace Dodge, Jr.’s MY SWEETIE team was concentrating on East Coast competition in 1953.
All seven entrants in the 1953 Gold Cup used V-12 Allison aircraft engines. And one of these (SUCH CRUST III) was twin-Allison-powered. This was a trend that had started seven years earlier when Dan Arena installed an Allison in MISS GOLDEN GATE III at the 1946 Gold Cup.
Not until 1954 would the more-powerful–but more temperamental–Rolls-Royce Merlin make its presence felt in Unlimited racing.
For the first ! time ever, a 3.75-mile course was used for an Unlimited race at the 19 53 Gold Cup. Most Unlimited courses in the post-World War II era have been 2, 2.5, or 3 miles in length. The Seattle race committee had used a 3-mile oval in 1951 and ’52. The Lake Washington course stayed at 3.75 miles through 1956 before switching back to a 3-miler in 1957.
The 1953 season is unique in the annals of Unlimited racing. Five races counted for National High Points that year and five different boats won them. The winners included MISS GREAT LAKES II in the Detroit Memorial Regatta, SLO-MO-SHUN IV in the APBA Gold Cup, GALE II in the Silver Cup, SLO-MO-SHUN V in the President’s Cup, and SUCH CRUST V in the Imperial Gold Cup.
This compares favorably to the 2001 Unlimited season when five different boats won the first five races of a six-race campaign. Not until the last day of the season was there a repeat winner.
The Sayres team won its fifth and final Gold Cup in 1954 on Lake Washington when Fageol piloted SLO-MO-SHUN V to victory, power! ed by a Rolls-Royce Merlin.
The following account of the 1953 Gold Cup was written by the nonpareil Mel Crook. The former driver of the Unlimited hydroplane BETTY V in the 1930s and ’40s, Crook was the dean of boat racing journalists. His “More Power To You” column in YACHTING MAGAZINE was considered the “bible” of boat race reporting for three decades.
