Victoria Park

Sailing With ‘Ghosts’

OTW Visits Victoria Park.

On a beautiful spring day OTW made its first ever visit to the spiritual home of tethered hydroplanes, Victoria Park in Hackney, East London. The Victoria Club is over 100 years old and has its water and boathouse in a delightful tree surrounded location in this large London Park. Sitting there in the sunshine in the very spot that the likes of Ted Vanner, Stan Clifford, Arthur Cockman, the Innocents and Ernie Clark from the home club, and visitors such as Gems Suzor, Westbury, Noble, Lines, Williams and a host of others was exciting and humbling at the same time. Reflecting on the famous boats that had run there (how much nicer when they had names) and the splendid regattas of the past, including the first ever MPBA Grand in 1925, produced a delightful state of reverie only shattered by the scream of a modern hydro being wound up for a run.

Formed as the Victoria Model Steamboat Club in 1904, the club has embraced hydroplanes almost throughout their entire existence, from the ‘heady days’ of 8mph top speed to the staggering record currently held by club member Norman Lara at 135mph. Originally the boats would run free, and regularly double up as straight running boats, but as speed increased the use of a pylon became universal. The ‘boating lake’ now is significantly smaller than it once was, with the large 'bathing lake’ being divided up in the 30s when the lido opened. The lipped concrete sides to the pond and the proximity of the boats to the edge, rough water has always posed a challenge to competitors on fast runs, and with this in mind a limit has now been set on the speed that boats can run on the lake.

Norman Lara who along with his father 'Nobby' has been competing on the lake for many years made a direct connection between the ghosts of the past and the present day, by producing a selection of vintage boats and engines for us to ‘drool’ over.


10cc 'baby' Sparky with original flax lines. Hornet motor now missing.	The late Vic Collins second version of Sharkie. 4 stroke engine in a later boat.	30cc 'Sparky' type engine built and raced by Norman Lara's father, 'Nobby'.

Amongst these was one of Victoria’s most successful boats,
Ernie Clark’s ‘Gordon 2’.

‘A’class events in the late 40s and early 50s were dominated by Ken Williams from Bournville, George Lines from Orpington, Stan Clifford, John Innocent, and Ernie Clark, from Victoria. Places were regularly being swapped about between these five long established competitors, with equally regular appearances in the ME Speedboat Competition. Unlike Messrs Innocent with ‘Betty’ and Williams with ‘Faro’ who each used just one boat throughout their career, Ernie Clark changed hulls and engines throughout his, but ‘Gordon 2’ was to be the most notable.

E.G Clark competed throughout the 30s with a succession of 30cc ‘A’ class boats called Tiny. By the Grand in 38 he had reached Tiny VI and in 1939 the last of the series, Tiny VII was unveiled. The last recorded outing for number 7 was a second place at Malden in South London, a few days before the outbreak of the Second war. The attentions of the Luftwaffe severely curtailed boating activity in London, although Victoria did manage occasional meetings with very reduced entries and it was not until 1947 that competition was back to anything like normal.

Ernie Clark appeared at the club with a new boat, but breaking with tradition, he named this one ‘Gordon’. A simple 3-point hull with outrigger sponsons and a surface prop showed good speed, but lacked reliability. This mirrored his exploits with the ‘Tiny’ boats where he had experienced "Varied luck and more than a fair share of disasters". Gordon proved equally reluctant at the 48 ‘International’ and failed to get a run in.

Eventually the boat was sorted and the 48 season started with a great deal of promise, only to be cut short on the 30^th May at Victoria when the line broke during a practice run, doing severe damage to the boat as it hit the wall. A frenzied week of work had Gordon rebuilt in time for the ‘International’ where a ‘most spectacular run’ resulted in a speed of 37mph.

Hull design was moving on rapidly, and for the 1950 season Ernie had built an American ‘ventnor’ style boat with integral sponsons for the four-stroke OHV motor. Named ‘Gordon 2’ although referred to in reports as II, this boat was significantly faster at around 45-46 mph gaining third place in the ‘International’ and first place in the ‘MPBA regatta’. With ‘Betty’ ‘Blue Streak’ and ‘Faro’ some 10mph quicker something special was required, and so over the winter Ernie designed and built a 30cc two-stroke motor. This involved producing patterns and castings and as a result a number of fellow Victoria members were able to use these castings to produce their own engines.

This short stroke motor galvanized ‘Gordon II’ and it became a force to be reckoned with when it completed a run. Like all tethered boats, staying on the water was always a problem, and being very wide at the bow ‘Gordon II’ could be unstable and in an attempt to cure this Ernie made up a set of tether brackets that allowed the bridles to slide so that the boat canted inwards in the style of the American boats with the three leg bridle system. This 'lean' is very noticeable in the heading picture of the boat 'tramping on'.

For 1951 another American influenced hull was revealed as ‘Gordon III’. Longer, narrower, lighter and more streamlined with much of the hull from carved balsa wood. There was no doubt that this boat was quick and at Kingsmere it averaged 61 mph for 1000 yards. At the ‘Festival Of Britain Regatta’ Clark just lost out to George Line’s ‘Big Sparky’ after a run off. Gordon II was still being campaigned and with a run of 63 mph in July, Ernie Clark was able to claim a new British record. This was not to be the last record for the boat as "E. Clark made a spectacular debut (in the 1951 speedboat competition) with the highest ever recorded speed" 70.1mph. ‘Gordon II’ never quite matched that speed again but was very much in contention in regattas throughout the following year. A best of 66 mph was sufficient for a silver medal in that year’s Speed Boat Competition.

In subsequent years Ernie Clarke turned his attention to the ‘C’ restricted class where the 10cc commercial engines were outperforming the 15 and 30cc home built engines, without requiring the enormous time input required to build a competitive motor from scratch. Gordon II had its original engine loaned to the ‘Bluebird’ team for powering scale models and is currently in a collection in Sussex. Luckily the boat has survived and is complete, although with a later engine, and has been superbly restored by Norman Lara. The last boat that Ernie ran, ‘Patsy’, a smaller version of ‘Gordon III’ used an American Hornet motor and can be seen at the national Motorboat Museum. The fate of his other boats and engines is unknown.

How appropriate it would be if ‘Gordon II’ or ‘Patsy’ could be seen once again thundering round at their original home, Victoria Park.