1919 - The Ford of Water Sports (outboarding)

This is an article that gives you a feel of how cool the new invention of the outboard motor was to folks in 1919.

I added a great color Evinrude ad that was in the same April 1919 issue of Outing at the bottom of this article, as well as the other outboard ads from this issue.

The Ford of Water Sports

The Motorized Row Boat is Handy and Dependable

EVERY motor car isn't a Ford. Taken by and large, however, most of them are.  Likewise, all row boats are not equipped with portable outboard motors. But if you have spent much time around vacation resorts you will probably agree that most of them seem to be. Just as every road you travel has its full share of Fords, so does nearly every lake and stream have its motor propelled row boat.

Come to think of it, the Ford and the motor propelled row boat have a good deal in common. Each is dependable, easily handled, and will take you where you want to go irrespective of ordinary difficulties.  The Ford will take you through hub deep mud or up a steep mountain side where a more expensive car will be hopelessly stuck.  The motorized row boat, in turn, will carry you through any water deep enough to float a boat; it will creep silently up on a sandy beach or plow its way easily through a thick bed of weeds; all places where a high powered motor boat would seldom dare to venture.

The motor driven row boat has it on the Ford in some respects.  This mainly in portability. You can't detach the power plant from a motor car very handily and carry it around looking for another chassis to fit it to.  But that is exactly what you can do with a motor driven row boat.

This discussion is concerned with the detachable row boat motor rather than the boat it fits into.  The boat may be anywhere—perhaps you rent it for an hour on some likely stream during the course of an automobile tour.  Perhaps also, you haul out from under the seat of your car a row boat motor which you have stowed there.  You simply attach it to the stern by clamps, give the fly wheel a simple spin, and away you plow down stream, at six or eight miles an hour.  Your hour's fun over, the motor is detached, easily carried in one hand back to the tonneau, and you proceed on your way to new lakes and streams.

We mention this as a single example of the varied uses of the portable outboard motor. Here is power in marvelous simplicity and compactness. This little plant may weigh somewhere between fifty and seventy pounds.  You can easily carry it for a way by hand if need be.  The installation is confined simply to clamping the motor to the stern board of any boat.  There is no such thing as involved wiring or the tearing up of planks in connection with it.



There are several different makes of row boat motors.   As representative of a fairly long list we might mention the following: Lockwood-Ash, Evinrude, Koban, and Caille.  These are all dependable motors.  Each manufacturer's article, of course, is different in some respects from the other fellow's, but the basic principles of most are the same.  Horse power varies from 2 to 3 1/2. 

For the most part they are confined to 2 H. P. Some of the manufacturers think that a 2 H. P. motor is the limit of size that can with safety be applied to the stern of a row boat or canoe.  But the fact remains that there are satisfactory motors of 3 H. P.   More powerful motors of the same type are made for larger craft,  even up to 5H.P.

In several instances an individual manufacturer makes portables of varying specifications. Take the Caille for example. For a fourteen foot open fishing skiff, this firm considers the 2 H. P. Caille "Neptune" as the most appropriate portable.  But they also make a 2 H. P. 5 speed portable called the "Master Motor" and for general all around use in a light open row boat between 18 and 21 feet long consider this portable rather better.  For an 18 to 21 foot light open row boat, however, they recommend their 3J4 H. P. "Neptune" portable.

Row boat motors are of both single cylinder and two cylinder types.  There are also other points of divergence between various manufacturers.  We will impartially present the cases of two or three and leave final judgment with you.  

Take the matter of steering gear.  The Evinrude is a propeller steered kind.  There is no separate rudder.  The manufacturer holds that a rudder increases the weight, makes the motor cumbersome in carrying, and collects weeds.  The Evinrude has a special steering arrangement whereby the swinging of the tiller handle to the right or left causes the entire propeller sleeve including the propeller to swing also.  In the Caille, as well, the propeller obviates the use of a rudder.

In the Lockwood Ash motor, on the other hand, the steering is by means of a rudder.  The manufacturer claims this as an advantage over the propeller mode just mentioned.  The reasons given are that a rudder steered row boat will propel the boat in a straight line without attention from the operator, and effort is required only when it is desired to turn the boat from a straight course.  The claim is further made that in the case of the propeller method of steering, the propellor must be held against the torque of the engine at all times to keep the boat from turning.

Another point about which manufacturers are at odds is the reversing mechanism.  Both Evinrude and Koban use automatic reverses, although of different sorts.  

The Evinrude people say that with their automatic reverse the boat is under absolute control at all times.  Without stopping the motor the change can be made from Forward to Reverse, or Reverse to Forward almost instantly.  
We are told to turn the boat in its own length—go ahead— back up, maneuver at will even in crowded quarters.  A simple twist of the steering handle releases a dog, the propeller sleeve swings through a half circle and is "pointed" in the opposite direction.

The Koban people claim their reversing method to be the most ingenious used on any row boat motor.  Reversing is automatically done without stopping the engine and hand starting it again.  By pressing a brass button, the engine backs water instantly.

Lockwood Ash, on the other hand, do not use a mechanical device.  They say that their motor, being two cycle, is reversible; and that it can be operated to drive the boat either forward or backward, thus eliminating the necessity of a mechanical reversing device. 

They hold further that because of the small compass in which a mechanical reversing device must be enclosed, positive clutches must be used.  The sudden starting of the propeller wheel produces a sudden shock on the engine and boat which they believe to be bad practice.

As already mentioned, we have impartially set down claims of various manufacturers. 

We leave the decision to you.

from Outing, Volumes 73-74