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That motor doubled the
weight of the boat. OK, I'm exaggerating. It tripled the
weight. I referred to the motor as a Binford 6000. Binford was the
fictional sponsor on the TV show "Home Improvement," as anything
that has more power than normal is often referred to as a "Binford."
The call from the marina that fateful night went something like
this:
Marina person: "Mr.
Niemann, your boat sank."
Me: (in a state of
shock) "WHAT?!?"
Marina person:
(louder) "Mr. Niemann, your boat sank."
Me: "I heard you
the first time." (After calming down a little) "Well, that's not so
bad. How's the Binford 6000?"
Marina person: "Bad
news, sir. I'm afraid the motor went down with the ship."
Me: (in another
state of shock) "WHAT?!?"
Marina person:
(louder) "Bad news, sir. I'm afraid the motor went down with the
ship."
The next day I called my brother to help me pull it out, telling
him to bring ropes, a pulley, a winch, whatever he could find.
So he brings a camera.
"Hey, this is a Kodak moment and I want to get it on film," he
says. I think he wanted evidence in case I ever denied that my boat
sank.
After he took several pictures of me standing next to my little
Titanic, we pulled it out of the water and towed it over to shore.
After towing it home, I found that the caulking around the back of
the boat had peeled away. While it didn't cause any problems when I
took it out on the Mississippi River for a couple hours at a time,
it couldn't handle three days in the water at the marina.
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I was fortunate to find a mechanic who wanted to buy it despite the fact
that it didn't run anymore. Actually, I think he just wanted the Binford
6000 motor and not the rest of that old boat.
The whole incident, which I've been unable to forget even though it didn't
leave any psychological scars, made me think about how the Binford motor
-- uh, make that the outboard motor -- was invented. It turns out that
the Girlfriend of Necessity (rather than the Mother) was the inspiration
behind this invention.
In 1906, a 29-year-old immigrant from Norway named Ole took his
girlfriend for a picnic near a Wisconsin lake. She hinted that she
wanted some ice cream, so Ole rowed his boat across the river to get
some ice cream for her. When the ice cream began to melt by the time
he returned, he figured that there must be a quicker way to power
his boat. In fact, it was during this trip that he figured out that
a boat might be able to use a gas engine.
Ole came to America with his family when he was just 5. At age
10, he quit school to work on the family farm. He had read about the
internal combustion engine and was no doubt inspired by its
potential and its applications.
When Ole was just 15, he built two boats. Why two boats? Because
his father, who had lost three uncles at sea, chopped the first boat
to bits. Ole had never sailed before, but his boat worked just fine.
He was as well-qualified to design the outboard motor as anyone.
What was his last name?
You guessed it: Evinrude. Ole Evinrude created a whole new
industry with his invention of the outboard motor. And the person
who inspired him to invent it, his girlfriend Bess, soon became his
wife. His company later merged into the Outboard Marine Corporation.
I'm guessing that Ole probably checked his boat's caulking before
he stored it in the marina.
[Text from file received
from Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann may be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2007
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