Speedboats careening about on Lake Tahoe were common throughout the 20th Century, but when casual motorboat racing began in the mid 19-teens this spurred the organization of more formal and official powerboat regattas, beginning an era of competition on Lake Tahoe that has since gone down in history.

Speedboat racing began in earnest in 1925 with the formation of the Tahoe Power Boat Club (later to become the Tahoe Yacht Club). Gentlemen racers, in their quest to capture the coveted title of Lake Champion, built exotic hulls whose sole function was speed. As technology advanced, boats became faster and records were clipped off, creating new champions or in some cases, returning the glory to a former champion.

One such lake champion is Baby Skipalong, a raceboat which was recently restored and will be one of the marque class entries in the 2008 Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance.

One of Tahoe’s true marine treasures, Baby Skipalong, a one-of-a-kind competitive boat designed in 1924 by naval architect F.K. Lord, was built by the Nevins boat yard of New York. Commissioned by George Townsend of New York’s Indian Harbor Yacht Club, the boat, originally named Miss Motometer, was built in hopes to carry Townsend’s club to international fame in the 1925 Gold Cup Regatta, a thrilling annual speedboat regatta held on the East coast. Those who won the coveted Gold Cup title earned a prestigious place in marine racing annals as the fastest boats in history.

Unfortunately, the boat capsized while out for a test run the day before the esteemed event, and Miss Motometer would not go on to compete that year. After going back into the shop for some final modifications, Townsend readied the boat for the 1926 Gold Cup and called it Greenwich Folly (a name derived in part from the boat’s initial design flaws). Though not a winner of any one heat during the regatta, Greenwich Folly’s consistency earned her the most points and Townsend, driving in his first real race, took first place.

Townsend raced Greenwich Folly and was victorious in one more Gold Cup the following year, and then sold the boat to West Coast capitalist Leland Stanford Scott, a sportsman who had his eye on the annual Lake Tahoe Championship title. Once more undergoing a name change – this time to Baby Skipalong, which stuck – the boat won all three races in 1929, its first season on Tahoe, and was sold again to R. Stanley Dollar, Jr., who would soon become Tahoe’s winningest championship driver.

Baby Skipalong became a perennial champion in Tahoe’s regattas, and was raced from 1929 to the 1950s, to the delight of the thousands of fans who would line Tahoe’s shores, often for more than a mile. It became Dollar’s veteran standby racer, heavily favored to win whenever she entered a regatta. Though regattas would continue to be staged into the 1970s, liability issues began to cause complications, and the golden age of racing on Tahoe ended in 1959. In 1975, Baby Skipalong was retired to storage, and in the next three decades emerged only occasionally for a few sneak peak appearances.

Last year, Baby Skipalong was purchased from the Dollar Family by Edward Scott, whose great uncle, Leland Stanford Scott, originally brought the boat to the west coast in 1929. Edward Scott’s family has been intimately associated with Tahoe lore for nearly eight decades. His father, E. B. “Bud” Scott, penned the now legendary Saga of Lake Tahoe volumes, a complete documentation and photographic record of Tahoe’s history.

“It’s great to have Baby Skipalong back in the family and back on the lake,” Scott says. “It was a crime that it has been in storage for so long. This boat is truly a museum quality boat… it’s something that people need to see,” he adds.

Since its initial modifications prior to its first Gold Cup victory in 1926, it has undergone some adaptations for speed, including the addition of a foot throttle for ease of operation while racing. However, despite technical advances during the boat’s quarter century of competition, it remains very original.

“Her 275 horsepower Packard 621 engine is one of only four in existence today,” Scott states, adding that one of the other four is also in Tahoe. The boat and engine have undergone a full restoration to the tune of $300,000, according to Scott. “It’s not exactly the way it was the day it was manufactured, but we brought it back to its original racing condition,” he explains.

“It is unique not only in its history and its pedigree, but also in its existence,” Scott explains. “There aren’t many of these early race boats left because, frankly, so many either crashed or sank,” Scott adds with a chuckle.

Baby Skipalong will be proudly displayed as one of the marque class entries in the 2008 Lake Tahoe Concours d'Elegance, August 7 to August 9. After the show, Scott plans to make sure people continue to see it, possibly entering the boat in other boat shows in future summers. In addition, he would like to make it available to Tahoe Maritime Museum as a winter exhibit, to make it available to be seen and appreciated.

“That’s really what it’s all about. It really is a piece of art,” Scott smiles.