RE: [omc-boats] Sportsman engine model/serial # lookup?

From: Lee Shuster <lib1@...>
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:46:00 -0700

Jeff,

You don't say (a picture would be worth a thousand words) what trailer you have under your boat, but most of our boats (mine was an exception) were sold as a package with the OMC custom-designed trailer, tailor-made by the factory for the specific boat.

Back in the late fifties and early sixties, boat dealers and unsuspecting, newbie buyers would specify the bare minimum trailer in a short-sighted effort to save $25 to $50 (back then that was a lot!).

OMC engineers came up with a very innovative and well-designed, very robustly built trailer, first for the 17, then the 14,16, & 19-ft. See: http://hhscott.com/evinrude/omc_trailers.htm

They even used disc brakes and an innovative torsion-bar, rubber isolated (a la Torflex ?) independent suspension axle and a great titlting mechanism. Yes, by today's standards they are a bit long in the tooth (narrow track axle & rather odd size tires) but rickety and flismy they were not (properly maintained, especially compared to the trailers of their era. And because they were designed specifically to match the boat, they were well-balanced with respect to forward-bias tongue weight, something a lot of dealers didn't bother to do properly (some still don't).

Lee Shuster

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "jdood" <jdood@...>
Reply-To: omc-boats@...
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 11:37:13 -0700

>I'd like to know who came up with the trailer design for my 65
>Deluxe......that rickety thing scares the hell out of me every time I
>have to unhitch it!
>
>jeff
>
>
>
>Even the trailers on some of these where one of a kind.
>
>Glenn
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Lee Shuster" <lib1@...>
>To: <omc-boats@...>
>Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 12:42 PM
>Subject: Re: [omc-boats] Sportsman engine model/serial # lookup?
>
>
>> Ah yes, yet another interesting little fact/question on our beloved
>boats!
>>
>> With respect to your question about white gunwales on the 16-foot
>Evinrude
>> hulls:
>>
>> My guess is you are talking about the cover shot of the Sweet 16
>running
>> the 90-S on the 1965 MOTORS brochure:
>> http://www.old-omc.de/e_1965/seite_01front.jpg
>>
>> The answer is yes. The original 1964 introduction of the Sweet and
>Sport
>> 16 outboards had the deck gel color (blur or gray) extending down the
>> sides to the rub or spray molding rail and also over the brow on the
>bow.
>>
>> As either a running change or a model year change the "1965"
>> Sweet/Sport-16 ran the "white" gel up the sides to meet at the
>horizonal
>> surface. But the more interesting variation is the bow treatment above
>the
>> rub rail. Some remain dark while some were white. Also, the cutoff for
>
>> this change isn't real clear. Some boats that people think were
>registered
>> as 1965 models, may have been leftover 1964 models, or they may have
>just
>> been incorporated as "running" change.
>>
>> In my opinion this was done to give the illusion of more freeboard,
>rather
>> than better looks. The 66 and 67 model Sportsmans continued with white
>
>> sides and white brows at the bow.
>>
>> When the upper deck molding changed with the 68 models, they used a
>dark
>> navy blue side above and below the rail.
>>
>> That gave way to a red/blue combination treatment on the 69 - 70
>models.
>>
>> Hope this makes sense.
>>
>> Lee Shuster
>>
>> ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
>> From: Phil Budne <phil@...>
>> Reply-To: omc-boats@...
>> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:42:37 -0400 (EDT)
>>
>>>> From: <lib1@...>
>>>
>>>> Over at www.fiberglassics.com they like to use JEGO for
>>>> Johnson/Evinrude/Gale/OMC as they are typically talking about older
>>>> outboards, not stringer sterndrives. see:
>>>> http://www.fiberglassics.com/jego/
>>>
>>>Thanks! I've added this link to my site. The JEGO page also has a
>>>link to www.old-omc.de which is replete with old catalogs.
>>>
>>>The 1965 Evinrude engine catalog;
>>>
>>> http://www.old-omc.de/index2.html
>>>
>>>Shows a Sweet '16 with white gunwales -- did boats ever come from
>>>the factory like this?
>>>
>>>> Note: Us old farts remember when Gale was another badge-engineered
>brand
>>>> of
>>>> OMC outboard and later the Parts & Accessory Division of Outboard
>Marine
>>>> Corporation.
>>>
>>>I was born in '61, and they stopped using the gale name around then,
>>>so at least I'm not an old fart in one part of my life!
>>>
>>>P.S.
>>>I've never tried to make a list of engine model numbers, but
>>>I do note them on my boat models list when people send them to me:
>>>
>>>
>>>http://www.gull-wing.net/data.html
>>>
>>>-----
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>>>
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Received on Tuesday, 19 September 2006

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