The history of motorboating
Autonomy, speed and freedom
Our universe, according to the Big Bang Theory, is the result of a gigantic explosion billions of years ago. On a smaller scale, the world of motorboating is the result of a smaller explosion midway through the 19th century.
However, before dreaming of cutting through the waves with beautiful hulls driven by powerful engines, we had to start off by learning how a boat could move forward by its own means. This “first step” is generally believed to have been taken on the Saône river, in 1783 in Lyon, where Claude de Jouffroy d’Abbans tests his Pyroscaphe, equipped with a steam engine driving two paddle wheels. The long history of steam boating is born. However, it will have little influence on the future development of recreational motorboating because, for decades, the regulations will require the constant presence of a costly licensed captain, even on board the most modest boats. So, we will need to wait for the invention of the internal combustion engine (or thermal engine) for “motor” yachting to take shape.
On a steamboat, the energy is transformed in a boiler positioned outside the engine, while the combustion engine does this directly, internally, through the detonation of a gas or the combustion of a mixture of air and fuel. More compact, it is also easier to operate and well suited to small boats.
Dreaming of independence in the 19th century: the first “motorboater”
In Paris, in 1863, Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir tests a gas engine on a propeller-drawn dinghy. He tries again in 1865 before taking the spotlight at the 1878 Exhibition at Trocadéro, with comical scenes where drivers sometimes struggle to stop the triumphant march of their temperamental machines in front of visitors who are astounded to see their exploits.
Kicking off a series of inventions and enhancements
The flexible uses and compact design of the new energy sources that can be closed off in tanks – gas and oil (the first naphtha well is drilled in the United States in 1859) – give the combustion engine a decisive advantage over steam.
This growing autonomy for travel on the water, on the roads and, far later on, in the air becomes the symbol of a new freedom. Modern man is gradually freed up from the constraints of oats and dung, coal and heaviness. Many small manufacturers, attracted by the promising possibilities, embark on this adventure. However, with the exception of the mechanics, which they are all focused on, their boats are all based on the same ancient principle set out by Archimedes, which continues to impose its law on all forms of boating.
A bit of theory is needed
… to better position the main technical challenges involved with the development of motorboats from the late 19th century.
Like all other boats, these are partially submerged when they float because “the upward buoyant force exerted on a body immersed in water is equal to the weight of the volume of water that it displaces”. The submerged section of the boat, known as the “hull”, is specifically in this case a “displacement hull”.
When it moves forward, this hull displaces a volume of water and generates a wave system that grows stronger with speed. However, this is limited by these waves generated from the stem and along the hull, with this limit equal to the square root of the waterline length. In theory, it is therefore possible to increase the speed by extending the waterline length, but, at the time, builders faced other barriers, including the length of wooden hulls, which cannot be extended indefinitely, not to mention the power of the engines and their weight.
Competition and the evolution of powerboating
However, this does not prevent the competitive spirit from reigning supreme over powerboating’s first steps. The races on the River Seine are a major success with the general public, always looking for new wonders, as with the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris. For groundbreaking championships, the boats are classed based on their length. The speeds increase: 10, 20, 30 kilometers per hour… On the banks, spectators are left breathless trying to follow them on their bicycles – another recent invention – and the first spluttering cars do hardly any better. As in the world of sailing at the time, racing is the main focus and recreational users or dayboaters are the exception.
In the first decade of the 20th century, auto manufacturers, involved in crazy races on dusty roads, start to see how they can capitalize on the new sport of powerboating. France’s first daily sports newspaper L’Auto-Vélo, created in 1900, before changing its name to L’Auto in 1903 (today known as L’Équipe), will play a key role by supporting the organization of a major annual event in Monaco from 1904 until 1914. This brings together all – or almost all of – the major European brands: Daimler, FIAT, Mercedes, Panhard, Peugeot, Renault… to mention just a few out of around two dozen. The longest of these displacement hull boats are over 15m and some reach 300hp.
Passion for racing and progress with hulls on both sides of the Atlantic
In yards that are capable of building – still in wood – both speedboats and prototypes of seaplanes, freeing hulls up from their friction with the water to increase their speed becomes an obsession, in both Europe and the United States. The Gold Cup – a new trophy also created in 1904 and designed by Tiffany’s in New York – reflects this same passion for racing and progress with hulls on both sides of the Atlantic.
“Planing” is the keyword in the new quest for speed, developing, empirically in most cases, the hydroplane hull. When it gains speed, its lines enable it to lift up onto the surface of the water to “plane” and deliver quicker performances. The limitations of Archimedes’ principle are now overcome with hulls that are shorter, wider and lighter. Sometimes, these new hulls also feature a step, an indentation of a few centimeters, which defines two different height plans to better accelerate when gliding over the water. In Monaco, in 1907, the French pilot Le Las reaches 62.67 km/h on his Ricochet, one of the first small stepped hydroplane hulls. In 1910, the Soulier-Volant, a hydroplane designed by Paul Bonnemaison, accelerates to over 70 km/h with a small aircraft engine from the Wright brothers. All powerboaters need now is increasingly light and more powerful machines. The aviation industry and the war of 1914 will produce them and it is only after the Armistice that powerboating will embark on its transition to the modern era.
1914-1940: Planing hulls and success of the outboard in a first wave of widespread adoption
While Europe is plunged into the disaster of the war, a handful of people on the other side of the Atlantic change the face of the powerboating world. In the United States, inventors who have arrived from Scandinavia, the Evinrude and Johnson families, launch the mass-produced outboard engine which will soon be accessible for (almost) everyone. From the 1910s, recreational motorboating therefore starts to open up to large numbers of people in a vast country that has outstanding water resources, including thousands of internal waterways and rivers. Going for a ride in an outboard motorboat becomes as normal in the United States as fishing with a line from a riverbank. These inventors also benefit from the development of mail-order selling, which eliminates distances, although a bit of patience is still needed. One fine day, the postmaster informs you that your small 3hp outboard engine, ordered by mail – from a catalogue – and paid for with a Western Union telegraph has finally arrived at the neighboring train station.
Other American pioneers also open up new horizons.
Christopher Smith, from the countryside and a bit of a poacher, builds hulls for rich waterfowl hunters. More urban, Garfield Wood, inventor of the hydraulic jack for unloading trucks, has built up a great fortune during the war of 1914.
At the Smiths, they work as part of a tribe in their modest yard. Unit by unit, Chris gradually develops his small planing hulls to satisfy clients who have grown tired of killing ducks and are more interested in competitions. With one victory after another, a reputation is built. For his part, Gar(field) Wood simply wants to become the world’s fastest man on water. Their successful sporting achievements bring them together for a few years before their separation in 1921.
Gar Wood is the person behind the unbeatable Miss America hydroplanes which the English come to challenge, unsuccessfully for more than a decade, in his home waters of Detroit. His secret: stacking up high-powered engines in simple, but very efficient hulls. In the United States, the country’s late entry into the war of 1914 resulted in the production of thousands of aircraft systems that had quickly become useless and were resold by the State based on their weight. Thanks to this cheap source of power, Gar Wood is the first to pass the milestone of 160 km/h on water, later reaching over 200 km/h in 1932 with Miss America X, an 11m, 6,400hp monster.
This America of excess is also what enables Chris Smith, from 1921, to become the world’s leading motorboat builder for several decades by creating the modern runabout.
Meanwhile in Europe
Inboard motor yachting still concerns only a (very) wealthy minority who are interested first and foremost in competitions. There are excellent boatyards, and good engines, but demand is too limited, which prevents this elitist market from moving on from unit-based small-scale production. Under the American influence, the hydroplane hull is now the dominant architecture, regardless of the length of the sport and tourism models, including the small outboard motorboats of three or four meters, which are far more affordable.
Some major automotive manufacturers try making the leap to hypothetical series, such as Peugeot Maritime or Delage Maritime. However, the potential promises of profits lie elsewhere, in the colonial expansion, which also attracts aircraft manufacturers such as Farman, Voisin, Blériot or Baron de Lambert to hydroplanes, which are ideal for traveling up the Niger or Congo to the plantations… On the eve of the Second World War, some yards also receive unusual orders, paid for in cash by the Chinese, Japanese or Italian governments, for hastily finished speedboats. A small racer able to skim the waves at over 100 km/h and loaded with 500kg of explosives makes a simple and inexpensive torpedo for attacking enemy fleets.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, from yachting to boating, the holiday spirit replaces the pioneer spirit...
At the end of the 1940s, with the exception of industrial firms like Chris-Craft in the United States, the building of motorboats is still handled almost exclusively by often family-owned yards, using timber and employing two to a dozen staff. The hulls of the boats are almost always hydroplanes with very simple lines, because they are counting above all on the power of the engines to achieve the performances they want. A relatively new material starts to generate interest: polyester resin-coated fiberglass.
In 1958, an electrical engineer develops a molding process to produce unsinkable plastic hulls, the legendary Boston Whalers.
In the same year, the “sailor” Richard Bertram discovers, by chance, the existence of a revolutionary small hull that cuts through waves in an unusual way, especially in heavy seas (see Event B article).
France, at the start of the Glorious Thirty
In the early 1950s, France is home to just 2.5 million cars and a few thousand television sets. The Tour de France, broadcast by the only national channel, is followed by crowds of onlookers stood in front of the windows of electrical appliance stores, with children in front and adults behind.
The Renault 4 CV, with a canoe strapped to the roof, represents an ideal beginning for popular leisure activities in the dreams of a consumer society that is only just starting to emerge. The pace of change accelerates and, in 1959, there are already one million television sets. Rocca is a hit on the game show “La Tête et les Jambes”, presented by Pierre Bellemare. At the wheel of one of his small speedboats, he has to “achieve a time” on the River Seine and fish out a candidate who gave the wrong answer to some questions, and he succeeds at the peak audience time. This show on its own will have a considerable impact on so many different people, leading to the emergence of the desire to go motorboating for pleasure or for sport. Some will even decide to make a career out of this and open a motorboat dealership.
We also remember the Paris Six Hours event which, every autumn, sees the banks of the Seine invaded by crowds of spectators at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, unable to actually say who is leading the race or trailing behind in all the confusion on the river, which is like a bubbling cauldron. Many of them are people enjoying a Sunday stroll, who will soon want to get behind the controls of a small outboard themselves.
And yet, at the end of the 1950s, less than 20% of French households have a car. So, what about buying a motorboat. In 1960, the most luxurious French runabout, the Liuzzi Star 6, costs 3,900,000 old French francs. For comparison, a brand-new Citroën DS car costs just 930,000.
Evolution of recreational motorboating in France
Until the arrival of fiberglass hulls that are well suited to series, French production of motorboats – inboards and outboards – is as varied in terms of design and performance levels as it is modest in terms of its numbers and dimensions. In the 1950s, around 10 yards share the bulk of a market still dominated by units under five meters, predominantly with outboard engines, able to be transported on the roof of a car or in a trailer. They take to the water on rivers or lakes, and very rarely at coastal ports.
Before becoming recognized brands, the small yards from the 1950s are above all the reflection of the strong personalities of their creators, often pilots who are passionate about competitions or fans of progress. They include the Roccas, the Seylers or Claude Kirié, Frantz Liuzzi, Gonzague Olivier, Henri Jeanneau and Guy Couach…
The next decade, from 1960 to 1970, at the height of the “economic miracle”, a period when everything seems possible, will be marked by a decisive shift in French motorboating, moving towards its development and maturity, with the transition from wood to polyester through to the emergence of types of boats designed specifically to be used in new ways.