This is way cool! Wretched excess in all its glory. Note that the boat had to have been extremely heavy, being both wood and fiberglass, plus those worthless fins. And, as I remember, the Evinrude Lark 2 cylinder, 2 cycle outboard (pictured) put out only 35 HP. The top speed was likely about 25 MPH on a calm day. Add a waterskier and boat guard and I'm guessing a 180 pound skier could barely get out of the water. That's likely why we never saw these boats become reality. The four cylinder OMC V4 engines weren't far behind, and Mercury made a straight 6, but the popular boats to put them on in the late 50s and early 60s were flat bottom Dorsetts, Glaspars and Glastrons. They were light and trim; no wretched excess for show. BTW, @DUB6, the later Evinrude line of stern drive boats was featured in the Bond film Thunderball. My family had a 1965 "Playmate," which was a 4 seater powered by the first stern drive inboard mounted outboard engine, hence the moniker "inboard/outboard." It was Evinrude's 90 HP 2 cycle V4, and it could pull a slalom skier at about 32 MPH maximum. At altitude (say, Lake Tahoe) its performance was extremely diminished. As families grew in size, so did boats. Auto engines replaced the V4 in stern drives, and Mercruiser grabbed the market lead with their effective lower units. OMC eventually dropped their line of boats in both Johnson and Evinrude livery, but their outboards still soldier on.
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