Go Back   Winnipesaukee Forum > Winnipesaukee Forums > History
Home Forums Gallery Webcams Blogs YouTube Channel Classifieds Calendar Register FAQDonate Members List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-19-2009, 02:49 AM   #1
ApS
Senior Member
 
ApS's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Florida (Sebring & Keys), Wolfeboro
Posts: 5,781
Thanks: 2,080
Thanked 735 Times in 530 Posts
Smile Melvin Village's Link to "Legionnaire 70"...

Not many folks know of the Melvin Village connection to Lake Winnipesaukee's most famous "Laker".

Member McDude has previously recorded a lengthy history of the "Legionaire 70", excerpted in part here.

Quote:
"...In October of 1940, the fastest 'passenger boat' in the world arrived at Alton Bay from the Corby Estate at Bald Peak Colony Club in Moultonboro..."
A long-time resident of Melvin Village advises that the famous "Legionaire 70" was previously named the "Jay-Cee III", for Jacqueline Corby of the famous Gin-manufacturing family. It was nicknamed "The Fastest Family Runabout in the World". While the two accounts conflict, it's only on this runabout's name Jay-E III or Jay-Cee III (or possibly JC III), and the two nicknames.

As previously noted, the "Legionnaire 70" was 36 feet long by 8 feet, 7 inches. It had a single 1,000 H.P. 12 cylinder V-type Packard engine and built by Garwood in 1929. It ran on 75% aviation gas and 25% benzol. Its gas consumption, when running at wide open throttle, was 100 gallons per hour.

What isn't widely known is that this boat was maintained daily on-site by two professional Packard mechanics hired by Corby. It ran an honest 70-MPH.

The Jay-Cee III was black, built of mahogany, and had three cockpits to seat 8 persons (3/3/2), and ran an honest 70-MPH.

It was stored in the Moultonborough area at a boathouse that has seen several owners: In the mid-30s, the owner at that time was Kip Scott, according to my source. Renamed, the boat became particularly well-known on Lake Winnipesaukee after World War II.

Though my source's memories of 1930s Melvin Village are prodigious, any updates, photographs, or corrections are welcome.

Any errors may be due to the penciled notes taken from this dern wrinkled paper napkin!
ApS is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:54 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.

This page was generated in 0.29328 seconds