What was your first outboard?

[need2fish]

My grandfather’s 1934 Johnson K-70. It still runs.

Followed immediately by a 55′ Merc Mark 25, which prompted the building of my first hydro, which in turn fueled my lust for more speed which led to building a tunnel-hull for my “newly” acquired RD-17, and with input from Marc Guertin – a popular hydro racer in the 40s&50s.

[desert4me]

Mine was a 1935 Champion standard single, the only model they made that year. 3.2hp. I sold it years ago to a man in Boston who bought it for his dad as a gift. Wish I had it back.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by desert4me.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by desert4me.

[kirkp]

I think I posted earlier that my first was a ’52 Evinrude Fleetwin that my father and grandfather used on a plywood boat they built in the basement. I even have the Popular Mechanics book they used for patterns. Since that earlier post I was able to find some pictures of them moving the boat out of the basement and on the water with that motor on the back. I also found the sales receipt when dad bought the motor in ’53 from a local hardware store. Pictures were taken in ’55 about 3 months before I was born.
Kirk

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by kirkp.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by kirkp.

[bobw]

Very cool, great piece of family history. I’ll bet your father and grandfather were really excited to have that!

Bob

1937 Champion D2C Deluxe Lite Twin
1954 Johnson CD-11
1957 Evinrude Fastwin 18
1958 Johnson QD-19
1958 Johnson FD-12
1959 Johnson QD-20

“Every 20 minute job is only a broken bolt away from a 3-day project.”
"Every time you remove a broken or seized bolt an angel gets his wings."

[mike n]

i love the old pictures .i wish my dad had pictures of the boat he built. he had a lauson that he said was very heavy. he left the boat down by the water and carried the motor 3 blocks on his shoulder to the boat.i think the amount of blocks increased each time the story was told.

mn

[crosbyman]

After buying a summer cottage for $2500 on a 60×80 lot which he paid off in 5 years by putting 10$ a week from the family budget of 100$/week fireman’s salary (early 60s) Dad decided we needed a boat so he built built one in the basement) which was also a PM boat.

It think it was about 4×10 totally square front and back slanted 45 degrees. Seems it took a million brass screws Thankfully my uncle had “borrowed” them from his employer “DOSCO” where they made steel beams, nails and… brass screws

The boat got fully assembled for fit and came spring time… he had to take it apart (unscrewed) to take it out of the basement … as planned from the beginning.

He was not going to get his buddies fire station joke about him for years because of a boat sitting in the basement 🙂

Dad meant to return the screws when the boat rotted away years later … but he kept most of them 🙂 in tomato cans

Love for fishing and boating starts in many strange ways but will last for years.

Our job is to pass the flame.

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by crosbyman.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by crosbyman.

[seakaye12]

fleetwin wrote:

cranky1 wrote:

A 1956 Johnson 5-1/2, CD-12, I must have been 13. I’d saved all my grass cutting, window cleaning, car washing money. Hung it on the back of the Optimist pram my Dad built for me (I paid for materials). 3 or 4 other buddies had small boats with small outboards and we ran them from May to September, every day, in our little harbor off Long Island Sound. We’d stick the handle end of an oar in the water at speed and try to soak each other with the rooster tail, fish, swim, run up creeks and backwaters. Pretty sweet memories. Love to have another CD-12.

I grew up on Long Island Sound also…My parents used to rent out our home near the city to city people, and we would rent out a shack on Fairfield Beach for the summer….The Sound was our front yard, the “creek” was our back yard. My brother and I destroyed several mid 50s fleetwins, I think they spent as much time under the salt water as they did right side up. Always got em restarted though, surprised none of them ever threw a rod. Then one day, my brother brought home a beautiful looking 58 Fleetwin, but we never got it running on both cylinders…This one probably had a thrown rod, and we didn’t know it. Probably why it was nice looking, never got any use. A few years later, I would get my own 68 Lightwin for the 8′ flat bottom “skimmer”. Our summers were most kids “dream come true”. Both parents worked, so us four “delightful” Kellogg kids were left “home alone” on the beach for the summer, quickly learned how to “spin the bottle” and smoke cigarettes watching the older siblings having fun.
It is ironic that our dream summers were born out of financial need…Parents rented out our home across the street from the sound for big bucks, and we all jammed together in a summer shack for much less. I have many great memories with my brother on the beach, before he got old enough to drive and chase girls….

Quite a few Long Islanders; eh? Add me to the list. Grew up in Little Neck….in bicycling distance to the Boat Launch right off the Cross Island Expressway. Right by the Throggs Neck Bridge. Hung out at the ramp for hours.

My dad and I went boating/fishing out at Huntington with the 1947 Scott Atwater Model 473 7.5HP motor that he bought new. That was my first motor.

Chuck

[bruceter]

My first outboard was a Johnson A-65 when I was 15 back in 1959 , I worked in a guys garage and he owed me $25.00 and I took the A-65 instead of the money ran great for years Then a QD-21 showed up and the A-65 sat on the rack for years , I sold it to a guy for his grandson for $30.00 , When I got the old outboard bug I started to hunt for a A-65 , it took me year and a half to find one for $100.00 , I have done a complete restoration & polish job on it and have run it , It is the only motor that I own that is not for sale until after I die because it is going to sit beside my urn when I die

[Barry Blesi]

My first was a new ’69 4 hp. McCulloch (McCulloch having taken over the manufacturing of Scott outboards in 1956, and renaming them for a few inglorious years before throwing in the towel in the late ’60’s). Pic of a similar motor attached. It was one of the old standard designs that had an air-cooled powerhead and a water-cooled exhaust leg. I spent nearly every waking minute on the water with it in 1969 and most of 1970, and thus it was probably responsible for some slight hearing loss in the ear closest to the motor. Geez, it was loud. That motor was fine for what it was. My old man bought it instead of a Johnrude (or the Merc I wanted), because it was cheeeep. Then in late 1970, we traded for a ’69 7.5 hp McCulloch – a REAL POS. My dad and I had built a Minimax by that time, which was originally to make the 4 go faster :), but by the time it was finished, the 7.5 happened. It was on that boat for 3 WHOLE DAYS when a coil went out on it. The was the last in a series of problems, and my old man said “That’s enough”, and we traded it in on a Merc 7.5, and it was night-and-day difference in performance – and that motor never skipped a beat. Traded that one in for 1963 Merc 9.8 in the never-ending quest for speed, and that one ran like a scalded dog.
I run a Merc 250 Pro XS now – not on the Minimax, although I’ll try anything once, LOL – but my garage is full of little Mercs from ’63 to ’79 – including a really nice copy of the same ’63 ‘Nine-Eight’ that I had when I was 14, as we used to call ’em as kids. I had to relive my youth. My current fav is a ’66 Merc 60, 6 hp. (pic attached). Its little 1.5″ x 1.5″ bore and stroke just make it as quiet as can be.
You can hardly tell it’s running on the boat.

[Tfelty]

1946 Elgin 2.5hp which my Grandpa bought new.

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