The 1960’s. OMC and Mercury continued the competition between themselves as the leaders of the industry. Other outboard motor makers such as Homelite and Scott-Atwater ( McCulloch ) were less popular and sold far less units than the big two. This decade saw fiberglass boats sales explode and wood pleasure boats started to disappear.
Mercury started the new decade by dropping their Mark model name and started using numbers only. The Mark 10 became the Mercury 100, the Mark 80 was changed to mercury 800 and so on. In 1961 Carl Kiekhaefer decided to merge with the Brunswick corporation in order to greatly expand operations. 1962 was an important year for Mercury because they introduced thru hub exhaust Mercury boat propellers with bigger more efficient blades. The first mass production 100 horsepower outboard, the merc 1000 was unveiled and the old 1950’s white paint scheme was change to black. Improvements went on thru the 60’s and in 1968 Mercury came out with a 125 horsepower Merc 1250 model. In 1970 Keikhaefer left the company.
Evinrude – Johnson continued making better, more reliable motors with a model lineup starting with a 3 Horsepower single cylinder engine up to a 100 horsepower V-4 engine. These all were great motors that pleasure boaters loved because of their great looks, dependability, good speed and power. The higher horsepower models were the best to have for pulling water skiers.
OMC’s best selling engines were the 35 and 40 horsepower models. OMC outboards started using the better performing thru hub exhaust boat propellers in 1968, 6 years after Mercury.
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