Clifford E. "Cliff" Padgett (December 19, 1879August 7, 1951) was an American motorboat builder who built

racing boat Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...

s. He broke the world water speed record in hydroplane boat racing in 1924.

Life

Padgett was born in 1879 in

Barry, Illinois Barry (formerly Worcester) is a city in Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,318 at the 2010 census, down from 1,368 in 2000. Geography Barry is located at (39.694756, -91.040957). According to the 2010 census, Barry has ...

. In 1894 he moved to

Quincy, Illinois Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...

, where he began an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

at a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop owned by John Reagan. In 1903, Padgett began to take an interest in the river as well as in building a racing boat with a Pierce-Budd 3-cylinder engine. In 1906, he married Reagan's daughter Lillian and opened his own blacksmith shop. With only a fifth-grade education, Padgett took a

correspondence course Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

mechanical drawing {{Technical drawingsMechanical systems drawing is a type of technical drawing that shows information about heating, ventilating, air conditioning and transportation around the building (Elevators or Lifts and Escalator).design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

. He developed a skill for " blueprinting" and

carving Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and ...

miniature boat models out of

mahogany Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...

. He entered and won his first

regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...

in 1914, and in 1916 his 16-foot hydroplane convinced him to give up blacksmithing for

boat building Boat building is the design and construction of boats and their systems. This includes at a minimum a hull, with propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other systems as a craft requires. Construction materials and methods Wood W ...

. For the next 25 years, Padgett built and raced boats. Many of the races he participated in were on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

along the Quincy waterfront. By 1928, Padgett was too busy building boats to race and his racing designs and boat construction skills were becoming well-known, even outside the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. He died in 1951 after a career that included building more than 200

pleasure Pleasure refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious anima ...

and racing boats.

Racing

Padgett designed, built, and drove

racing motorboats In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

in Quincy. He also chaired the planning committee of the Quincy Boat Club, the organization responsible for sponsoring many of Quincy's races and related celebrations.“25th Year of Motorboat Racing", ''Quincy Herald-Whig'', March 10, 1955 He won trophies and in 1924 at

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoas ...

, in competition with twenty-one other boats in the 151-class hydroplane races, he clocked a world record .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Padgett, Cliff American boat builders 1879 births 1951 deaths