Vintage outboard bracket

[DavidK]

I have a bracket for mounting an outboard on a canoe. I think it's from the 1920's. The Johnson motor co. showed similar brackets in their accessory brochures. The attached photo is from a brochure I believe is from 1939. I'm hoping to try my bracket on a 1930 Old Town, with a motor from that period.

I'd like to see other examples of outboard brackets for canoes of that period. Did Old Town list any in their catalogs? Other makers? Are there members of your group that run antique outboards on vintage canoes?
-David

 

[Benson Gray]

Did Old Town list any in their catalogs? Other makers?

Old Town first offered the "Jiffy Outboard Motor Bracket" in their 1936 catalog for $5.00 as shown below. The same picture and caption had been shown on this catalog page since 1932. These were also listed in the Skowhegan catalogs in 1946 as shown below. Similar brackets showed up in the Howe catalogs in 1951 and in the Chestnut catalogs in 1973. Let us know how it works out for you. Good luck,

Benson

 

[Michael Grace]

Here is a Willits Brothers Canoe Co. (Tacoma, WA) outboard motor bracket. Made of mahogany, it mounts to the rear seat by a pair of brass U-bolts.

 

[DavidK]

Very cool, Benson! Thank you for that information.

 

[DavidK]

Thanks for posting that photo of the Willis Bros bracket, Michael. Looks rugged. A woodworker's solution to outboard bracketing. I see why the brass brace was added.

 

[DavidK]

I think I have a Jiffy bracket. There's the remnant of a Skowhegan decal on it. You'll see that the motor mount is an aluminum casting with the top snapped off. I hope it happened in the yard and not on the lake. I'm wondering if I can fabricate a replacement? I'd love to see a complete one.

 

[robert malin]

My brother has a HW 16' sponson old town, sold to Abercrombie and Fitch in 1927. It came with a steel and bronze motor mount. He had it at the 2017 assembly, motored around the lake at Paul Smiths with an electric.

 

[DavidK]

Thanks for posting those photos, Robert. I'm glad to see another example of an early canoe bracket.

I've learned that Johnson had a version of their early A series of motors the came with a canoe bracket. They would be identified as model "AC." I haven't seen one yet.

 

[millie_sass]

I am attempting to attach some pictures of a bracket that my father constructed in the 1960s. I don't know where he got the metal bracket. I believe that he attached a 1hp Evinrude motor to it for heading up-river for fishing.

 

[millie_sass]

I was wrong about the "original" date of the bracket that is illustrated above. See the image of my father from 1940 - the bracket is on the back of that Peterborough. He must have simple re-fashioned the wooden part that attaches to the canoe in the 1960s timeframe.

 

[DavidK]

Great picture of your dad! Interesting bracket. I think a small Evinrude of that vintage would have had only one clamp. Took me awhile to figure out how it would attach but I think I get it. Thanks for posting this photos.

 

[Dave Nelson]

Here are a couple more clamp-on outboard brackets.. The green one came with an OT double ender rowboat 1949 I restored about 15 years ago. The aluminum one came with 1930 Old Town Yankee I acquired two years go. I don't think it's that old (1930), but it does have the OT label on it.

 

[Craig Johnson]

DavidK.
I believe I have the same bracket. There is no label on it but it looks the same so you can see what the rest of the bracket looked like.

 

[DavidK]

Yes, Craig, that's it! Thanks for the detailed photos. That helps me see what I'm missing. Must have been a sad day when the top of that bracket snapped off. Hopefully they were in shallow water.
-David

 

[DavidK]

Here's another bracket photo I found on the web.

 

[DavidK]

Video of a 1920's bracket in use.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

I'm always surprised at how much metal gets used on some of these brackets. In some cases, it just seems to unnecessarily complicate a pretty simple issue. Back in the 1970s we bought my father a fiberglass Lincoln fat 14 footer. He wasn't a paddler and we wanted something stable for him. I built a simple ash motor bracket for it. This style can either sandwich the gunwales with a matching piece underneath, or in this case, I just installed a short, curved thwart behind the stern seat and the bracket and thwart had matching bolt holes to clamp the bracket on.

I found the mount a couple of years ago, on the wet ground under a porch, where it had apparently been for a few years. It was pretty weathered, but still sound enough to clean up and refinish. It has a few small checks in the ash but is still quite solid, fully functional and it cleaned up surprisingly nicely. A friend wants the canoe for restoring, as the wood trim is all in bad shape or missing, but and at least one part of it will be ready to rock.

 

[DavidK]

That mount is an elegant design, and now getting a new life.