Welcome to the entry page for Jack Craib's two web sites.

Below the photo you can choose the one you are interested in.

Click to E-MAIL-jack.craib@gmail.com

Search both of Jack's sites.

This site is only concerned with Caille outboard motors. From the teens into the 30s they produced many models. They also made motors for retailers that were sold under other names; these are called badge motors.

You can research your motor by visually matching it to photos and catalog pictures. If you are new to old motors you will learn a lot by having to pay such close attention to little details!

Feel free to contact me AFTER you have given it a shot.

I feel I have reached the age where I am allowed to be grumpy if people don't do their share of the work. Don't worry if you couldn't figure it out...if you tried, that is all I ask!

This site is is documenting the many companies that made and sold the early outboard motors.

What is a rowboat motor?...

Well, that depends who you are asking.

Here they are motors designed before 1920. Some, like Caille and Evinrude, were manufactured after 1920 but were introduced earlier. They were to convert a rowed or paddled boat into a motor driven boat without using an inboard motor.

They were usually (but not always) single cylinder, forward pointing. Exceptions to the single cylinder were Federal, Koban and Arrow, which were twins. And the vertical Waterman had the single cylinder pointing skyward!

They are always fascinating in their engineering. Remember, these are old...Henry Ford hadn't even introduced assembly lines yet when the first rowboat motors were constructed. They could be crude and simple, and they could also be the opposite, with their designer's delight in this new technology of outboard motors reflected in engineering Rube Goldbergian in its complexity.