You may remember the summer 2009 article in the ACBS Rudder by New England Chapter’s Mark Mason subtitled Mahogany Time Machines. You don’t have to stand on the dock with Mark for long to know that few people have his depth of understanding of all things Gold Cup. A lifetime of collecting, restoring, and recreating legendary raceboats has given him a unique insight into both the physics and the fun of that era. This story presents just a fragment of his knowledge as he tells about his drive to keep the glory days of Gold Cup powerboats alive. 

Palm Beach Days with Bill Bigelow driving, 1926.

Forty-five years ago—a decade before ACBS was founded—I made a pilgrimage to see, what was then, the most famous speedboat in America, the legendary John Hacker-designed El Legarto. Although built in 1922, El Legarto had won the Gold Cup and President’s Cup Championships three times in the 1930’s when she was considered by many to be an ancient “bucket crate.” Her owner, George Reis, won those races and ran her for five decades on Lake George, New York. Reis epitomized the gentleman’s racer, using El Legarto for fast runs across the lake for dinners and social functions, returning later in the moonlight to her hoist slip in the boathouse beneath his home in Bolton Landing. After his death, his ashes were spread on the Northwest Bay and El Legarto was donated to the Adirondack Museum, in the heart of the wilderness, an hour’s drive from Lake George. 

Mark aboard Baby Bootlegger in Manotick, Ontario, 1982.

I was mesmerized by what I saw on that 1960’s trip, spending hours studying her every detail. She was so delicate and finely sculpted, yet beneath her hatches lurked a behemoth 621 cubic inch Packard Gold Cup racing engine which had propelled her to speeds of over 72 miles per hours during most of her life. In the years ahead I spent countless evenings pouring over the photos I had taken that day. 

 Fade to twenty years later…it’s hard to fully realize how an afternoon can provide direction to one’s life, but looking back, that afternoon with El Legarto certainly seemed to have influenced mine. By 1985 I began operating New England Boat and Motor, Inc., in Laconia, New Hampshire, and I had owned four Gold Cup racers, Meteor V, Sister Syn, Baby Bootlegger and Imp. I had also created from scratch a reproduction of Miss Columbia and powered her with one of the last remaining Packard 621 Gold Cup engines. 

Then in 1997 I made another pilgrimage to see El Legarto. The curator at the Adirondack Museum invited me to archivally measure El Legarto and granted me permission for building rights, in exchange for donating my archival documentation drawings to the museum…

Read more in ACBS Rudder archives on MyACBS.org

2 Comments

  1. Mark is a Michigan native and one of the Michigan Chapter founding fathers. He has brought some of his fabulous boats to many of our events. We have always enjoyed his visits.

  2. Mark Mason is a gold standard Classic Boat owner, authority and leader from the earliest days of ACBS . Have not seen him in decades . Such people will always be the core of the Org. Volunteerism plus expertise at its best . Imagine, he acquired that fine old Packard engine ! America’s answer to Rolls and better .
    Tom Grady, Past Commodore Harbor Point y.C., West Alton . Curator of a 1965 CC Roamer Riviera 36′ . It owns me !

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.