In Our Wake: The Good Old Days?
One fine day in a mythical America of 1954, as a scandalous Elvis Presley’s first hit was blasting American airwaves, Evinrude’s Mad Men unveiled a 7.5-horsepower “Fleetwin” model outboard. To me, the magazine ad announcing this little wonder actually tells a bigger story. A smiling young father—perhaps a budding Mad Man himself just back from the Korean war and blissfully unaware of the vast societal changes soon to come—sports casual shorts and an airy button-down while piloting a small, non-foam-infused runabout. In cocktail dress, pearls and cashmere, Mom cradles a sleeping baby while shushing Dad. The lullaby comes courtesy of Evinrude’s pull-start “Whispering Power” “Aquasonic” motor. A space-aged, carbureted miracle, it boasted a “Cruise-a-Day” fuel tank, “Roto-Matic” tiller control and “Auto Lift” hood.
But consider what we are, and are not, seeing. A VHF? Lifejackets? A kill switch? And check that smoke out back. “What?” Madison Avenue would have scoffed. “Showing a life-jacketed passenger or captain or a kill switch (not patented ‘til 1972)? Why, that tells consumers we’ve designed something unsafe—something capable of a circle of death! It would be like promoting safety belts on a car (in ’54, one percent of Americans wore seatbelts). That oily smoke? What’s next? Admitting to the 45 percent of the 1954 smoking American public that cigarettes are dangerous? No. Call it “Hydra-Carbon” with “Aqua-Lube”! Nine of ten boating doctors who smoke say it’s good for your lungs!
Today, even your baby can wear a completely unobtrusive inflatable life jacket and a wrist-mounted, water-activated kill switch. That sweet smell of “Hydra-Carbon” behind your now unsinkable little runabout? A 2024 electric-start, fuel-injected Mercury 9.9 generates well over 90 percent fewer emissions than that ‘Rude—with maybe 80 percent better fuel economy and essentially zero exhausted “AquaLube.” Solar-charged, a Mercury Avator can run on actual space-aged fusion power. Now to be fair, according to Antique Outboard Motor Club guru Jack Aylsworth, that “vibrationlessly” running Evinrude actually won awards for its quiet operation. But anyone who’s driven a two-stroke knows, it’s screams versus whispers. And don’t get me started on today’s small boat tech that makes Mr. Spock’s tri-corder look like a cave torch.
I get it. My family owns a ’92 McKee Craft, an ’83 Hydra-Sports and I bloody my knuckles wrenching our ’62 Coupe DeVille—the very model driven by Mad Man Don Draper. I’m awed by the engineering in our vintage machines. But when it comes to boating, the good old days are now.
This article originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
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Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/column/in-our-wake-the-good-old-days
