Interesting Photo...

[JPEROG]

...65 foot estrella center console...

Provide more high output reliable power and hulls will come-

Joe

[Lake X Kid]

Many boat owners best days, are the day they bought the boat and the day they sold their boat.

This looks like the guy never got to the latter, selling the boat.

[Lake X Kid]

In 1956 things change since. And they did not know, that 5 decades later Center Consoles powered by Outboards would be a major player in the offshore market.

[engineermike]

Kiekhafer thought the idea of a stern drive was silly. It took Volvo beating him to market (albeit with a design originating within mercury) for him to take it seriously. Fast forward to today and I guess kiekhafer would say “I told you so.”

[David]

Charles (Charlie) D. Strang (quincylooperracing.us)

"Although Charlie did not discuss the following story with us, it is well known and documented that in 1951, just 2 weeks after being hired by Carl Kiekhaefer, Charlie presented Carl with an idea he had developed in college about a way to improve the old stern drive technology from the 30’s, which had been tried and abandoned. The truly innovative part of Charlie’s design was to incorporate a double-universal joint between the inboard motor and the outboard propeller, allowing for fluid steering control and maximum power transfer. Carl Kiekhaefer dismissed the idea and instructed Charlie to focus on the Lightning and Thunderbolt engines, letting the modern stern drive concept sit untouched for years. Charlie named his invention after a comic book character, shortening the name to AVC. The AVC drive would eventually become the first functional version of the modern stern drive. Strang and a Kiekhaefer employee named Jim Wynne, Chief Engineer in charge of product testing, discussed the AVC during a business flight in 1955. Wynne included another employee named Alexander into the conversations. Alexander was VP of Engineering for Kiekhaefer at the time. Strang confided that Kiekhaefer had rejected the idea, so the three men decided to pursue it themselves. By 1958, Wynne quit his job with Kiekhaefer Mercury to spearhead the three men’s secret vision by securing a patent in his own name on the AVC and starting up a small company called Hydro Mechanical Development. The three men tried unsuccessfully to sell the idea to other manufacturers. Wynne eventually connected with Volvo and set up a meeting in Sweeden. The meeting went well and Wynne contacted Strang, encouraging him to leave Kiekhaefer Mercury and begin the new relationship with Volvo. Surprisingly, Strang declined and gave Wynne permission to do what he wanted with the stern drive. Volvo agreed to buy the patent. Because Wynne was not as visionary an engineer as Strang, he could not answer questions from Volvo regarding details of the design, so Strang himself had secret meetings with Volvo engineers to refine the product for manufacturing while still at Kiekhaefer Mercury. Wynne was given credit for the invention and the three shared the secret for 30 years.

[Mugs914]

Any info on this one? Who, when, where, etc.?

[FUJIMO]

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[FUJIMO]

...parker rabe's mom...(we'll see if he's still on scream & fly)......

[FUJIMO]