Flash

A small, wiry, grey-haired millionaire drove a leaping spray-plumed power boat up and down Indian Creek in Florida a little more than a week ago at the average speed of 93.123 m. p. h. The achievement broke two world's records: the salt water mark of 80.567 miles, set by the same man, and the fresh water mark of 92.834 set by his brother last summer in Detroit. The man was Garfield Wood, Gar Wood for short, and this was his answer to the disappointing race of a fortnight ago, won on points by the British speedfiend and automobile racer Henry O'Neil Dehane Segrave in a leaky boat at 61 m. p. h. With his record hung up, Gar Wood stepped out of his boat, forgot it, and set to work designing another boat to go even faster. His first racer was a panting dinghy that the experimental Gar teased up to eight miles an hour by squirting raw gasoline into the air bell of the motor with an oil can. His latest, before the careening flash of last week, was the beautifully designed Miss America VI that dove in the Detroit River last September at an unofficial speed of 102 m. p. h. In 1912, relaxing from problems of speedboat design, he invented and perfected the hydraulic hoist truck which made him a millionaire and gave him the money and the time to indulge his hobby. Gar Wood now has an income of perhaps $1,000,000 a year, four homes, a fleet of cars, a 15-passenger airplane, a wife and a ten-year-old son. But his is a lonely hobby; Gar Wood is as unbeatable on the water as the Etonian Segrave is on land. He longs for competition.