Evinrude Aquanaut
William Carlyle
Hello,
I have a Evinrude Aquanaut which is a surface pump (powered by a small
2-cycle engine) that suppies air to a diver by way of an air hose. Does
anyone in this NG know anything about the unit?
Thankyou for your time, wil...@tcsn.net
Ted H
Evinrude had a brief flirtation with the device a while back but it's
been out of production for lots of years.
There is a place in FL called Brownie's Third Lung
(They have a web site: http://www.browniedive.com/dive.htm )
that currently sells a line of similar (?) units for everything from
recreational to commercial diving. They may be able to supply some info
on the gizmo.
Else, an OMC dealer may be able to shed some light on the thing.
BTW, I'm fairly sure that you need a diver's cert. to purchase one of
these. You should certainly have completed a scuba course to use one.
Any form of compressed air diving can be dangerous (fatal) if you don't
know what you're doing.
Regards - Ted H
Dave Brown
Ted H wrote:
> William Carlyle wrote:
> > I have a Evinrude Aquanaut which is a surface pump (powered by a small
> > 2-cycle engine) that suppies air to a diver by way of an air hose. Does
> > anyone in this NG know anything about the unit?
> Evinrude had a brief flirtation with the device a while back but it's
> been out of production for lots of years.
If memory serves, it was also called a Scu-Boy and was powered by a
Lawn-Boy engine. There are definitely no more parts available and it was
removed from th market for liability reasons (too many ppeople killing
themselves). It floated inside an inner tube and continuously supplied
air to a mask-type apparatus. I've still got some parts manuals kicking
around here somewhere and believe they stopped production circa 1972.
Can Marcus or Bill add anything here?
> BTW, I'm fairly sure that you need a diver's cert. to purchase one of
> these. You should certainly have completed a scuba course to use one.
> Any form of compressed air diving can be dangerous (fatal) if you don't
> know what you're doing.
This is why so many people killed themselves. The units were shipped
with a standard 30' garden hose to supply the air and this depth is
considered safe for any length of time (I am a certified diver). Problem
was, people started adding more garden hose and going deeper and natural
selection prevailed. :-) Of course, having the exhaust so close to the
air pump intake wasn't healty either. ;-)
I have a friend who still owns one but hasn't used it in years. Me? I
strap a proper tank on when I want to stay down for any period of time.
:-)
Regards,
Dave Brown
Brown's Marina
Marcus G Bell
Dave Brown (dave....@sympatico.ca) wrote:
> If memory serves, it was also called a Scu-Boy and was powered by a
> Lawn-Boy engine.
The Evinrude version was the Aquanaut, and the Johnson version was the
Air Buoy, or maybe vice-versa, if my memory serves. Perhaps in The
Provinces they went by different names.
> It floated inside an inner tube and continuously supplied air to a
> mask-type apparatus.
I also suppose you could just set it on top of the ice up north there
:-)
> This is why so many people killed themselves. The units were shipped
> with a standard 30' garden hose to supply the air and this depth is
> considered safe for any length of time (I am a certified diver). Problem
> was, people started adding more garden hose and going deeper and natural
> selection prevailed. :-)
Providing the customer with a simple method of modifying a piece of
machinery without knowing what they're doing means they WILL do it,
many of them without knowing what they're doing.
> Of course, having the exhaust so close to the
> air pump intake wasn't healty either. ;-)
But it no doubt made the underwater scenery seem so much
more... colorful :-)
--
--
Marcus. ( be...@mail.med.upenn.edu )
Paul Kamen
>The Evinrude version was the Aquanaut, and the Johnson version
>was the Air Buoy, or maybe vice-versa, if my memory serves.
I used one of those (forgot which brand) a number of time in the late
'60s, with good results. The hose was 25 ft. long, as I recall.
It seemed very safe. Since I'm not a certified diver it would presumptious
of me to say that "I knew what I was doing." But I did understand
decompression tables, knew the gas laws, the basic physiology of
partial pressure gas absorption, and also understood all too well (from
earlier experiments with long snorkels in swimming pools) what would
happen if the hose broke and the check valve malfunctioned. The proximity
of the exhaust to the air source did bother me a bit, and I don't know if
I'd want to use it in absolutely flat calm conditions.
We even used it to salvage a sailboat that was on the bottom in 15 ft. of
water. With one hose for breathing and one hose for "salvage air," it was
the perfect tool for the job.
--
fish...@netcom.com
http://www.well.com/~pk/fishmeal.html
-"Call me Fishmeal"-
bill...@n-jcenter.com
>
> If memory serves, it was also called a Scu-Boy and was powered by a
> Lawn-Boy engine. There are definitely no more parts available and it was
> removed from th market for liability reasons (too many ppeople killing
> themselves). It floated inside an inner tube and continuously supplied
> air to a mask-type apparatus. I've still got some parts manuals kicking
> around here somewhere and believe they stopped production circa 1972.
> Can Marcus or Bill add anything here?
>
Yeah, Dave, you just KNEW that I was familiar with these.
Back in the '60s while working my way thru college at a dealership, one
customer had 20 of these. He hired kids to find fresh water clams to ship to
Japan for buttons. Besides spending hours in cold water, I got to service all
of these machines. They worked great and would have loved them for lobstering
in the Keys.
I don't think many got killed by these since it only had a 30' hose and when
I added more hose, the engine wasn't strong enough to pump the air needed at
greater depths.
The biggest problem was carbon blocking the tiny exhaust ports since the oils
of those days didn't have the cleaning additives and the customer used the
cheapest stuff available.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I guess that's one of the advantages of
being an "old fart".
Bill Grannis
Bluewater Boats
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Dave Brown
bill...@n-jcenter.com wrote:
> Yeah, Dave, you just KNEW that I was familiar with these.
Well I knew I was but a lad at this time so you'd have been what -- 35
then? <running and ducking>
> Back in the '60s while working my way thru college at a dealership, one
> customer had 20 of these.
So what's the deal with the names? I'm sure it was simply Scu-Boy up
here in the Great White North, but as Marcus has pointed out, there were
Johnson/Evinrude versions down your way. For those who might be
interested, Canadians have always known Johnson & Evinrude to be the
same motor/company because all of the related oil and accessories were
labeled OMC so this would explain the name differences. A great
challenge as a dealer is convincing Amercicans that they are one and the
same and have been for some 40 years.
> I don't think many got killed by these since it only had a 30' hose and when
> I added more hose, the engine wasn't strong enough to pump the air needed at
> greater depths.
That's why we Canucks were killing ourselves -- the cold artic air was a
higher density and the pump was actually able to feed to over 100 feet.
;-)
> Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I guess that's one of the advantages of
> being an "old fart".
I knew I could count on you for this trip. What year did they stop
making them? I believe it was around 1972.
Dave Brown
Marcus G Bell wrote:
> The Evinrude version was the Aquanaut, and the Johnson version was the
> Air Buoy, or maybe vice-versa, if my memory serves. Perhaps in The
> Provinces they went by different names.
I'm very sure we flew by the Scu-Boy name up here. I'll have a look at
the one locally and confirm it.
> I also suppose you could just set it on top of the ice up north there
> :-)
Didn't need the inner tube though, we just adapted our snowmobile
engines to do the work -- much higher volume. :-)
> Providing the customer with a simple method of modifying a piece of
> machinery without knowing what they're doing means they WILL do it,
> many of them without knowing what they're doing.
And I still see this phenomenom in the NG today. "I think I'm smarter
than the engineers who designed my motor and will to modify it to prove
it." The proof usually becomes evident in the obituary columns.
> > Of course, having the exhaust so close to the
> > air pump intake wasn't healty either. ;-)
>
> But it no doubt made the underwater scenery seem so much
> more... colorful :-)
:-)
BTW, loved your poems in .cruising -- had me laughing for some time. :-)
S. McNab
> Providing the customer with a simple method of modifying a piece of
> machinery without knowing what they're doing means they WILL do it,
> many of them without knowing what they're doing.
Hehe,
This reminds me of all the people who try and run thier propane grills on
fork truck tanks they've "borrowed" from work and cobbled to make fit.
Instant flame-o-matic!
Scott
Marcus G Bell
Dave Brown (dave....@sympatico.ca) wrote:
> BTW, loved your poems in .cruising -- had me laughing for some time. :-)
Thanx for the compliment.
I had one poem to my knowledge. It "sent" itself a few times while I
composed it, and I cancelled all but the final version.
Marcus G Bell
Dave Brown (dave....@sympatico.ca) wrote:
> So what's the deal with the names? I'm sure it was simply Scu-Boy up
> here in the Great White North, but as Marcus has pointed out, there were
> Johnson/Evinrude versions down your way. For those who might be
> interested, Canadians have always known Johnson & Evinrude to be the
> same motor/company because all of the related oil and accessories were
> labeled OMC so this would explain the name differences. A great
> challenge as a dealer is convincing Amercicans that they are one and the
> same and have been for some 40 years.
Well, they weren't the same company for a long time. The first
Johnson/Evinrude to be the same was the '51 25 HP Big Twin. Then came
the '52 3 HP Light Twin, then others in subsequest years. By '56 they
were all the same. J/E combined engineering forces and split up
manufacturing duties. Johnson made come parts, Evinrude made others,
and OMC's 3rd division Gale built still other parts. The parts were
assembled into complete motors on separate assembly lines in separate
Johnson and Evinrude factories. That was then, and now they're built
on the same lines.
J/E kept some separate identity even after the '50s. For instance, in
'66, Johnson boosted its 18 to 20 HP, but the Evinrude Fastwin stayed
at 18 HP till its 1974 discontinuance. Evinrude called their motors by
name, like Lark, Sportwin, Starflite, while Johnson called them simply
by Sea Horse and the HP. That hadn't always been the case, for in its
early days Johnson had named it outboards too, and they did have some
motors with names in later days--Javelin, Golden Meteor, Stinger, for
some.
My '64 Canadian Evinrude 9.5 came with its own original OMC tank,
while my '66 Johnson's tank bore the Johnson name. OMC Canada did
things their own way at their Peterborough assembly plant. In 1949,
Gale Products Division started selling outboards directly to the
public in addition to their established contracts through Eatons,
Wards, Goodyear etc. They were called Elto, a name that had been part
of the OMC family since the early days of the company, but not since
the original division had been closed in 1940. In 1950, Gale changed
its US label to Buccaneer, but OMC Canada kept the Elto moniker
through 1959.
I believe that OMC Canada's younger and more centralized operations
may have reinforced Johnson and Evinrude's similarities. The tendency
to label everything but the motors themselves as OMC no doubt was a
factor as well.
Tom Colton
Marcus:
How do you know all this stuff??
TC
Marcus G Bell wrote:
>
> Dave Brown (dave....@sympatico.ca) wrote:
>
> > So what's the deal with the names? I'm sure it was simply Scu-Boy up
> > here in the Great White North, but as Marcus has pointed out, there were
> > Johnson/Evinrude versions down your way. For those who might be
> > interested, Canadians have always known Johnson & Evinrude to be the
> > same motor/company because all of the related oil and accessories were
> > labeled OMC so this would explain the name differences. A great
> > challenge as a dealer is convincing Amercicans that they are one and the
> > same and have been for some 40 years.
>
> Well, they weren't the same company for a long time. The first
> Johnson/Evinrude to be the same was the '51 25 HP Big Twin. Then came
> the '52 3 HP Light Twin, then others in subsequest years. By '56 they
> were all the same. J/E combined engineering forces and split up
> manufacturing duties.
clipped
Marcus G Bell
> How do you know all this stuff??
> TC
Here's how:
Member, Antique Outboard Motor Club
Editor, Antique Outboarder Magazine
See us at http://www.aomci.org
And way before any of that, I was already an outboard fanatic. :-)
Rick Inzero
>BTW, I'm fairly sure that you need a diver's cert. to purchase one of
>these. You should certainly have completed a scuba course to use one.
>Any form of compressed air diving can be dangerous (fatal) if you don't
>know what you're doing.
I don't recall that you needed certification to buy one. They
were extensively advertised in Popular Science at the time
(late 60s or early 70s).
It came with a fairly short air hose (like 25 or 50'?), so perhaps
decompression/nitrogen in the bloodstream wasn't ever an issue.
---
Rick Inzero uupsi!cci632!rdi
Northern Telecom, Inc. rochester!cci632!rdi
Rochester, NY r...@cci.com
"Well, right now, I'm actually water skiing behind a largemouth bass!!"
-radio ad for Keystone Beer Fishing Hotline, 1992
Bill McKee
Marcus G Bell wrote:
Besides, he's an old fart. d;-)
Regards, Bill
--
Opinions expressed are mine not necessarily my employers.
All other standard disclaimers apply!
Remove nospam. To email reply.
Ted H
Rick Inzero wrote:
>
> I don't recall that you needed certification to buy one. They
> were extensively advertised in Popular Science at the time
> (late 60s or early 70s). <snip>
>
Rick -
Until about a year and a half ago (Oct, '96), you did need a SCUBA cert
to get one. Now NAUI offers a course for those who won't be using tanks
but will only be using RHD (Recreational Hookah Diving).
Nitrogen bubbles (bends) is not the issue with shallow (<30') compressed
air diving, air embolism most certainly is. If one *really* tries, you
can get one by diving, on compressed air, to shallow (let's say 10')
depths. Just take a real deep breath at depth, hold it for all you're
worth and then surface - I'd say that you'd have a good chance of offing
yourself (or at least doing yourself a lot of hurt).
Diver training courses beat the dangers of holding your breath while
ascending into your head so that constant, normal breathing becomes a
reflex. Also the sudden loss of your air supply, for someone who hasn't
been exposed to it under controlled circumstances, could cause a fatal
panic situation.
There are lots of other concerns that compressed air diving create that
just don't exist with free or snorkel diving.
Regards - Ted H
Mike
Amen
If you want to dive deeper or longer than you can with a snorkel take a NAUI
or PADI dive class. Not only will you learn a whole lot, its fun!
badg...@hotmail.com
badg...@hotmail.com
Keyser Soze
> What would one be worth today ? I have one works great i get asked all the time if i want to sell it
>
scuba diving buddy who also had an Aquanaut and I saw him use it once
while diving on some close in rocks at the beach we frequented. This had
to be...maybe in the mid to late 1960s?
armya...@gmail.com
ginch...@gmail.com
> Hi I have a Evinrude aquanaut brand new still in box and was wondering how much it's worth
waynebatr...@hotmail.com
It might be worth more to a museum or serious collector than anyone
else. The Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY (in the Thousand Islands
region) has an interesting collection of old outboards. Unfortunately
I remember when some of them were new. :-)
https://www.abm.org/
---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com
John H.
waynebatr...@hotmail.com
wrote:
It most certainly is, and you get to see the Thousand Islands as part
of the same trip. Best weather is July and August.
gfre...@aol.com
>On Wed, 08 May 2019 17:45:59 -0400, John H. <salmo...@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 08 May 2019 16:59:15 -0400, waynebatr...@hotmail.com wrote:
>>
>>>On Wed, 8 May 2019 13:36:11 -0700 (PDT), ginch...@gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at 2:53:45 PM UTC-4, armya...@gmail.com wrote:
>>>>> Hi I have a Evinrude aquanaut brand new still in box and was wondering how much it's worth
>>>>
>>>>Still have it?
>>>>
>>>
>>>===
>>>
>>>It might be worth more to a museum or serious collector than anyone
>>>else. The Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY (in the Thousand Islands
>>>region) has an interesting collection of old outboards. Unfortunately
>>>I remember when some of them were new. :-)
>>>
>>>https://www.abm.org/
>>>
>>>---
>>>This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
>>>https://www.avg.com
>>
>>That looks to be a fun place to visit!
>
>===
>
>It most certainly is, and you get to see the Thousand Islands as part
>of the same trip. Best weather is July and August.
down here ;-)
John H.
Mr. Luddite
Aquanaut was, so I Googled it. Found some for sale with asking
prices ranging from $700 to just over $1,000 for vintage but working
units.
waynebatr...@hotmail.com
I know the area well. For five years I did my two weeks of army
reserve training at Camp Drum, and as a kid, spent every summer at our
family cottage on Lake Ontario near Sackets Harbor. Two years ago we
took our trawler north to Lake Ontario, spent a few days in Sackets
Harbor visiting friends and family, and then went north east down the
entire length of the St lawrence River. It was quite a trip.
An interesting Camp Drum story: I was in the 411th Engineers out of
Ft Tilden, NY. As part of our summer training we used to send survey
teams out into the boondocks so they coud practice their surveying
skills. One summer they discovered a tank from the Korean war era
that had been abandoned at some time in the past. Tracing back the
serial numbers it was discovered that it technically belonged to a
National Guard unit from New Jersey. They had somehow "forgotten"
about it some time in the past, but were still carrying it on their
books as an operating piece of equipment.
gfre...@aol.com
wrote:
> One summer they discovered a tank from the Korean war era
>that had been abandoned at some time in the past. Tracing back the
>serial numbers it was discovered that it technically belonged to a
>National Guard unit from New Jersey. They had somehow "forgotten"
>about it some time in the past, but were still carrying it on their
>books as an operating piece of equipment.
logs.
waynebatr...@hotmail.com
Exactly. On paper it was still battle ready and where it was supposed
to be. You'd like to think that heads would roll over something like
that but I'd guess that accountability had been papered over also.
John H.
of the roads. There was a nice clearing just off the road, and as the chief of the Fire Direction
Center, I passed the word 'hip shoot' down the line after receiving the fire mission. Six
deuce-and-a-halfs loaded with ammo and pulling 105 howitzers pulled off the road and immediatele
sank up to the axles. Luckily I had a 3/4 ton and was able to haul ass through the muck. The poor
gun bunnies had to unhook the guns and get them turned in the right direction to shoot. We did not
get a good grade for response timeliness.
But it makes a good 'war story'.
Having spent two years working with Guard and Reserve units, I have no doubt about them carrying
that tank on their books.
Tim
> I have one and it works great have both mask any idea what they are worth? Both mask and hose all original
gfre...@aol.com
wrote:
>On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 7:53:00 PM UTC-5, badg...@hotmail.com wrote:
>> I have one and it works great have both mask any idea what they are worth? Both mask and hose all original
>
>I was always afraid those things were going to start sucking exhaust fumes and sending them down to you. woah!
upwind of the exhaust. Now I have an electric motor hooked up to it
and the kids play with it in the pool.