On Tuesday, June 7 at 7 p.m., the Boothbay Railway Village will present a multimedia lecture on the history of Champion Outboards, Scott Atwater Outboards, Scott McCulloch Outboards, McCulloch, and Firestone, Corsair, Hiawatha, and Wizard Outboards made by Scott Atwater and McCulloch.

The speaker is Larry Stevenson, Navy and Coast Guard Auxiliary veteran and retired UPS International Industrial Engineering Manager in the international operation. He has lived in the UK, Belgium, and Germany, and has a passion for art history, industrial design, sailing, history, and collecting old outboard motors. Stevenson recently donated nearly 300 vintage outboards motors to the Museum. A new exhibit is currently under construction and will open later this season.  A special preview of the most important outboard engines in the collection is already on view inside the Antique Auto Exhibit.

This particular story begins with a Minnesota man named Sig Konrad, who designed an outboard motor he called the Champion Outboard Motor. He only produced a few, before he was bought out in 1935 by a man named Earl DuMont who had no production experience or facilities. 

DuMont approached a Minneapolis machine shop owned by Cliff Scott and H. Bruce Atwater to produce his outboard for him, and they agreed. Sales were good.  In 1939, they started producing badge motors for Firestone. By 1941, Champion was the second largest outboard motor producer.  The war intervened, and few motors were produced due to aluminum restrictions and the priority for war work.

After World War II, DuMont decided to build his own factory to produce his Champion outboards, so Scott and Atwater went into the outboard business for themselves in 1946. From 1946 until 1956 they produced very popular, good running outboards.

In 1956, they sold Scott Atwater to Robert McCulloch, boat racer, maker of aircraft, auto superchargers, and chainsaws, among many other things. He was rich due to his grandfather’s success with Edison Electric, and did everything in a big way. Much of the lecture will cover this brilliant, colorful character’s history. He was married to the daughter of Stephen Briggs, who, with Ole Evinrude, owned and managed OMC, so McCulloch was competing against his in-laws in the outboard motor market.

McCulloch took Scott Atwater towards becoming McCulloch Outboards while starting Lake Havesu City, buying the London bridge and having it installed in the Arizona desert, and also building an outboard test center. McCulloch designed high performance outboards up to 60 hp, and was active in racing them. 

The talk will take place inside the historic 1847 Boothbay Town Hall at the Boothbay Railway Village. A donation of $5 is suggested for admission and proceeds will benefit the Museum’s general operating fund. The Boothbay Railway Village is located at 586 Wiscasset Road, Route 27 in Boothbay, Maine. For more information, find Boothbay Railway Village on Facebook or visit the Museum’s website at www.railwayvillage.org.