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Miss England I

Field	Value
display_title	Miss England I
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	Bundesarchiv Bild 102-07851, Templiner See, Internationales Motorbootrennen.jpg
image_caption	Miss England I in 1929
image_size	190
section2	{{Infobox ship/career
country	United Kingdom
flag
name	Miss England (I)
builder	*Hubert Scott-Paine
launched	1928
status	Museum exhibit
section3	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
type	Racing motorboat with hard-chine planing hull
length	27 ft
beam	7 ft
power	900 hp
propulsion	*W12 Napier Lion VIIA aero engine
crew	2

British Power Boat Company
Hythe, Hampshire
Designer: Fred Cooper
vee drive to single screw

Miss England I was the first of a series of speedboats used by Henry Segrave and Kaye Don to contest world water speed records in the 1920s and 1930s.

Design and construction

Miss England was built for Henry Segrave in 1928, in an attempt to retrieve the Harmsworth Trophy from the American Gar Wood. Gar Wood's series of "Miss America" boats were using multiple high-powered aero-engines to establish an apparently unbeatable record. Segrave had already used multiple aero-engines in his land-speed record setting Sunbeam, but Miss England used a single Napier Lion engine and relied on an advanced planing hull design.

The hull was of an advanced lightweight construction, which some designers, including Gar Wood, regarded as too light and flexible. Wood made many sportsmanlike contributions to his competitor, particularly sharing his experience of propeller and rudder design – he wanted a close race with a worthy opponent.

Racing career

Miss England raced successfully against Gar Wood's Miss America VII in Miami in 1929. It had been a successful trip for Segrave, having also taken the land speed record in Golden Arrow, and he was knighted on his return.

A record for single-engined boats of 91 mph was established. The racing success though was due to Segrave's brave driving and some mechanical problems for Miss America. However Miss England was always outclassed by the far more powerful and faster American boats.

Survival today

Miss England I survives to this day and is on display in the Science Museum, London

File:Miss England I.jpg|Side view File:Miss England at Science Museum London.JPG|Cockpit File:Miss England I Napier Lion engine.jpg|Napier Lion engine File:Bow-on view of Miss England I.jpg|Bow-on view File:Propellor and rudder of Miss England I.jpg|Propeller and rudder File:Miss England I, showing the planing step under the hull.jpg|Under hull view showing the planing step

References

"Speedboat: 'Miss England I', used by Segrave to contest World Water Speed Records, with various components".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

racing-motorboats vehicles-powered-by-napier-lion-engines

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