The Baby Bootlegger is not, as the name may suggest, a bootlegger who imports babies. It’s a racing boat that went on to revolutionise boats and it’s effect is still felt in the world of marine architecture to this day. She was designed and built in 1924 by George Crouch for wealthy Wall-Street banker Caleb Bragg, Bragg then raced her in the 1924 and 1925 APBA Gold Cup and won on both outings (by over a minute and 16 seconds in 1925).
Baby Bootlegger originally used a 1,000-cubic-inch V-12 Lycoming engine, in recent years this was replaced with a water-cooled Hispano-Suizo V-8 marine engine producing approximately 300hp. She has seating for two in the aft cockpit and seating for 2 in the bow cockpit, the engine is mounted amidships to maintain balance and stability at speed.
Text and images from “SiloDrome”
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