Reply To: 1960s “Mini” Outboard

[NATHAN KILLIAN]

It is definitely not the Clarke Troller, which I am rather familiar with.  In The Old Outboard Book, in the section titled “The Big List” about all of the outboard brands, there is a section about an outboard called the “Mini” in which it says Quote:

“One of the most fact-filed leaflets in 1960s outboards advertising indicated this tiny motor was ideal for senior citizens.  Weighting less than 9 pounds, the Mini outboard motor came as a “Result of many years of testing and designing a multitude of combinations to achieve the smallest, lightest, most economical, least expensive, yet practical outboard motor attainable.”  Knight Distributing Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, was proud to acknowledge its air-cooled product as 100-percent manufactured and assembled in the USA.  Because Americans relate to empirical data, the model 10-S Mini outboard motor’s “unbelievable propelling power” was verified in an ‘actual speed test.”  The pint-size kicker was “Clocked at 4.2 mph with three men in a twelve-foot aluminum boat.”  For some long-forgotten reason, however, the photo captioned with these statistics showed a man and a woman in a sailing dinghy named the Two-Teds.  The craft was inching a long under power from an engine with no rewind starter or plastic powerhead cover (unlike the one prominently featured on the front of the informative brochure).  The single-cylinder, 2-cycle Mini outboard motor featured an adjustable shaft length and a 14-millimeter ‘Shorty” spark plug.  Its polycarbonate, semi-weedless propeller had a lifetime guarantee against breakage.  Exhaust excited the cylinder through a piece of flexible gooseneck pipe before traveling to the water via a little rigid tube.  Customers purchasing the small motor had a little time to try it, and if not completely satisfied, return it within seven days.  “any damage or misuse of the product by the customer would be deducted from the purchase price.”  At $99.95 the 1-hp (at 6.300 rpm) outboard cost about the same as the garden weed whackers that its powerhead resembled.”(Hunn)

Source:

Hunn, Peter. The Old Outboard Book. International Marine, 1994.

 

The description of this outboard sounds quite interesting, but it also could have been some sort of scam during the 60s.  If they were actually produced, I wonder how many are still around, as it sounds like an even poorer built version of the Cruise n’ Carry outboard.

 

"Outboards seem to multiply exponentially..........I find that for every finished project, there are two more waiting to be completed."