Second International Online Steamboat Race
Scheduled for 04 July 02
TO: Editors of travel, Internet, lifestyles and sports columns & all interested parties
RE: Steamboat Racing on the Internet
DATE: 16 May 2002
URL: https://steamboats.com/2002race.html
CONTACT: Nori Muster
CYBERSPACE -- This year's annual online steamboat race will take place on the Fourth of July at the Los Angeles River. An award ceremony in Hollywood follows.
Everyone is invited. Bookmark this page to get into the race. The race will remain posted as a permanent record at this website.
This is the second online steamboat race of the century. The first event was held last year just outside of virtual New Orleans (click here to see the race).
The purpose of online steamboat racing is to raise awareness of steamboats history. As long as there have been steamboats, there have been river enthusiasts who have wanted to race them. The tradition almost ended in the first decades of the twentieth century, but steamboat racing entered the modern era in 1963 when Belle of Louisville supporter Judge Marlow Cook challenged Letha Greene, head of the Delta Queen's Greene Line Steamers, to a race. It was the first steamboat race in thirty-three years and has continued over the last four decades. Now the tradition has gone online.
click thumbnail to see larger image
This is the coveted steamboat antler trophy. Three websites compete and the winner has the honor of keeping the trophy until next year. Last year it went to Jerry Canavit, a leading steamboat historian and owner of the domain Steamboats.Net. In second place last year was Steamboats.Org, hosted by Franz Neumeier and Carmen Winkler of Munich, Germany. Log on to Steamboats.Org to hear fifty different steamboat whistles, sounds of the Delta Queen calliope, video footage of the Delta Queen, plus photos, information and links. In third place last year, due to an irregularity (only) was the rightful winner, Steamboats.Com (you are here).