Evinrude Factory

[Rode Neagle]

Evinrudereinforced their commitment to customers that the company will continue to support its E-TEC and E-TEC G2 engine customers well into the future. With over 1,000 dealers and distributors globally, the brand will continue to honor manufacturer limited warranties and extended service contracts and will supply customers and dealers with service parts as needed.

While it was announced that production of outboard engines will cease at the Sturtevant facility, there are production plans to build inventory of parts and accessories necessary to support the outboard engine currently in market. Along with the dealer inventory, the company also has enough inventory to ensure customers who have ordered an engine will receive their units in a timely manner.

Current owners are encouraged to continue working with their local Evinrude dealer for all warranty related maintenance and service. Outboard enthusiasts that are looking to purchase Evinrude E-TEC or E-TEC G2 outboard engines can take advantage of the Evinrude Factory Authorized Clearance Event; an aggressive retail promotion that includes three-years of non-declining, 100% factory-backed extended service coverage in addition to a competitive instant rebate. Please see your local Evinrude dealer for more details.

Evinrude motors parent company, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), announced last week that it would discontinue manufacturing of its Evinrude E-TEC and E-TEC G2 outboard engines. Instead, the company will focus on growing its boat brands and developing technology and innovation of other marine products.

How big was this announcement? Consider that Ole Evinrude invented the first commercially viable outboard engine in 1907. The Evinrude name stepping out of the outboard business would be akin to Ford announcing it would no longer build automobiles.

The announcement came as a surprise to Evinrude's now jobless global workforce of 650, mostly located at its factory in Sturtevant, Wisc. Many of the employees were already on furlough and were told their positions were eliminated by recorded phone message, according to Scott Martin of Clewiston, a professional bass angler and 20-year Evinrude pro team angler.

"I was driving back from the coast Wednesday with my wife, had had a really good day including getting my first haircut and dining out for the first time in months, when I got this phone call," Martin said via his YouTube channel. "My stomach sank. I immediately thought of all the great, hard-working people and service technicians who worked for them. As I called a few of them, they had just heard when I did."

Our outboard engines business has been greatly impacted by COVID-19, obliging us to discontinue production of our outboard motors immediately," said Jos Boisjoli, president and CEO of BRP. "This business segment had already been facing some challenges and the impact from the current context has forced our hand. We will concentrate our efforts on new and innovative technologies and on the development of our boat companies, where we continue to see a lot of potential to transform the on-water experience for consumers."

Evinrude was a well-known name among the Treasure Coast boating community. Ralph Evinrude was the longtime husband of singer and philanthropist Frances Langford living in Jensen Beach from 1955 until his death in 1986. Evinrude was the president and CEO of Outboard Motor Corporation which manufactured outboards under the Johnson, OMC and Evinrude brand names.

A saltwater outboard engine test facility in Stuart next to the Roosevelt Bridge was named after Evinrude. As recently as 2017, Evinrude donated two E-TEC outboard engines to the Environmental Studies Center in Jensen Beach for its River Scout boat as part of TCPalm's Twelve Days of Christmas program. It was unclear Monday what was the status of the test facility in Stuart.

David East, builder of Horizon 3000 catamaran powerboats in Fort Pierce, has always been a devoted Evinrude outboard engine customer. He said the entire marine industry was shocked by the sudden news.

"It caught everybody off guard," said East, who before returning to the boatbuilding sector, was the longtime editor of Florida Sportsman magazine's Best Boat series of magazines, boats and television programs. "The G2 had on issues mechanically or technologically. I rig my boats with Evinrude, Yamaha, Mercury or Daihatsu and my boat is better with an Evinrude. It performs better and has much better fuel efficiency."

East said conversations he had Monday with BRP contacts alleviated some of his concerns. He said the company will have to stand behind warranties and parts for the next 12 years partly because their other product lines like Sea Doo, Ski Doo and Can-Am are cross-owned by loyal Evinrude outboard owners.

BRP announced it has entered into an agreement with longtime outboard engine competitor Mercury Marine which will support boat packages and continue to supply outboard engines to our boat brands, Alumacraft and Manitou. It will continue to supply customers and its dealer network service parts and will honor manufacturer limited warranties, plus offer select programs to manage inventory.

Ole Evinrude was born on a farm in Christiana, Norway on April 19, 1877, one of elevenchildren born to Andrew and Beatta Evinrude. At the age of five, Ole moved with his family toAmerica, settling in Cambridge, Wisconsin. It was on the journey to the US that Ole fell in lovewith boats and the motors that powered them. He spent much of the oceanic voyage in the engineroom of the ship, fascinated by all that he saw.

In America, life was much the same as it had been in Norway. Oles father, having lostthree uncles to the sea, persuaded Ole to put aside his longing for a maritime life and concentrateon farming and landscaping. After dropping out of school in the third grade, Ole workedalongside his father on the family farm and in a tobacco warehouse as a sorter. Soon Ole becamea household name among the neighboring farms for his ability to repair broken tools that wouldusually have required a trip to the blacksmiths shop.

With money saved from his job at the warehouse, Ole bought a subscription to amechanical-science magazine and began to build a sailboat out of lumber from his fatherswoodshed. His father was furious at the time and money he felt Ole had wasted on the effort andbroke the boat to pieces for firewood. Devastated but not defeated, Ole began again to buildanother sailboat. This time he hid the pieces throughout the farm until a few months after hissixteenth birthday when his father went out of town. During his fathers absence, which lastedonly a few days, Ole assembled his handcrafted18-foot sailboat and docked it in the lake. Whenhis father returned home and asked about the boat, Ole confessed that he had made it. Unlikewhat he was expecting, Oles father was impressed by his sons efforts and gave his blessing forOle to pursue his dreams.

That same summer Ole began to use his boat to ferry sightseers around Lake Ripley,charging 25 cents per person. He saved enough money to move to Madison, where he became anapprentice machinist in the Fuller and Johnson farm machinery shop. While working, Olebecame interested in an idea that he had read about in his mechanical-science magazine. The ideawas to power a boat, and possibly a carriage, with a new type of gasoline engine. This ideastayed with Ole as he moved from job to job. In 1900, he landed at the E.P. Allis Company inMilwaukee, where he was employed as a pattern maker; a profession that would serve him wellin the years to come.

The outboard motor industry saw more than just the rise of Elto in the early 1920s. Otherplayers had also entered the marketplace. The newly formed Johnson Motors Company burstonto the scene with a twin-cylinder motor, quickly taking leadership away from EvinrudeMotors. Much like Evinrude Motors though, Johnson Motors Company begun as a family ownedand operated business. In 1908, with just the bare basics for parts, the brothers Johnson craftedtheir first marine engine in a barn in Terre Haute, IN.

Lou Johnson was the oldest of seven children born to Soren and Bertha Johnson. Lou wasdescribed as a natural leader and an innovator. Like Ole Evinrude, Lou Johnson conceived of theidea for a motor one hot day in 1903 when he had to row his 18-foot boat, the Arrow, ten milesupstream to harvest walnuts. Lous first engine was a single-cylinder, two-cycle, 3-hp monster,weighing in at 150 pounds. By 1905, the Johnson brothers, Lou, Harry and Clarence, hadperfected their creation to a single-cylinder, 3-hp engine weighing only 65 pounds. With aninterest in speed, the brothers expanded to both two and four-cylinder inline models and testedthem in the Black Demon, a 26-foot displacement boat. The Black Demon raced down theWabash River at speeds of up to 18 mph.

While marine engines were the main focus of the Johnson brothers, they also developedan aircraft motor. The lightweight V-4, two-cycle motor produced 60-hp. Since the Johnsons hadno aircraft on which to test the motor, they decided to build one. In 1910, seven years after theflight of Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Johnson brothers built the first American monoplane toactually take flight. The plane weighed 750 pounds, had a 36-foot wingspan and measured 34feet from propeller to tail. The monoplane quickly gave the brothers celebrity status, drawinginvitations to attend county fairs and carnivals throughout the state. Visitors paid 25 cents to takea look at the machine. In addition, Lou piloted the plane in contests; once winning $1000.

The Johnson brothers continued to handcraft airplane and seaplane motors while buildingand selling marine motors and racing motorboats. Business was good, with the brothers sellingproducts just as fast as they could make them. Then on Easter Sunday of 1913 tragedy struck inthe form of a tornado that ripped the Johnson factory from its foundation, destroying everythingwithin. Because the family had no insurance, rebuilding was out of the question. Instead thebrothers conceived of a new invention a motor to propel a bicycle. With this new idea, theJohnson Motor Wheel Company was founded. Because the motor wheel was very hard onmagnetos, burning them out as quickly as they could be replaced, the Johnsons began to discusspossible solutions with Warren Ripple, owner of the Quick-Action Ignition Company in SouthBend, IN. Ripple took a special interest in the manufacture of the motors and helped facilitate amove of the Johnson Motor Wheel Company to South Bend in March 1918. The motor wheelwas very successful, selling more than 17,000 units during the years it was manufactured.However, the Johnson Motor Wheel Company went out of business in 1921 with the onset of therecession.

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