Solitaire - Page 7

This is the fabled, Evinrude Lark / Cadillac Sea Lark. For decades, this was the "Holy Grail" of Finned outboards, none were known. There were frequent "Sightings" and wild goose chases and plenty of rumors, but nothing ever panned out. I first became aware of the boat upon finding the infamous "plaid cover" issue of the 1957 Popular Boating magazine, about 12 years ago, and have searched diligently ever since. I finally captured the elusive beast in the spring of 2004, it remains the only one known, of the five produced.

The boat was created under the direction of famous Milwaukee designer; Brooks Stevens, and two "prototypes" were produced for Evinrude at a cost of 11,000.00 in 1956 and shown at the Motorama-like, Evinrude factory Boat Show tour. One of these is shown at the top of the page

The B&W ad is an airbrush retouch of this same boat for the Cadillac Boat company catalog. Cadillac was allowed to put the boat into production, the only Brooks Stevens / Evinrude show boat ever offered to the public, but with outrageous styling and a list price of $1,975.00 in 1957, they simply did not sell. A new dream boat was designed for Evinrude each year from 1956 - 1962. They Included a Faux Helicopter boat, a Flying Saucer boat, a Trimaran with folding Sponsons, and an outboard powered paddle wheeler to name a few.

According to the original owner of my boat, which was liquidated at or around the close of plant operations in 1960, Cadillac only built three of these. A company employee had related this to him at a chance meeting in 1961. Together with the 2 Evinrude Lark boats, this makes a total of five pieces. My boat appears to have been the last, based on photographic evidence.

As a 1958 model, my boat went unsold for two years. It was finally liquidated for just $330.00 It was purchased from a boat dealer that took on a large number of unsold boats from the closed, Wagemaker/Wolverine/Cadillac factory. A motor had not yet been installed.

The first design of the Evinrude Show boats series, this was also the first outboard boat designed in history to specifically match it's motor as a package. This is a common practice today, but at the time it was revolutionary. This is a very important boat in the history of Evinrude, it had extraordinary media exposure and was very influential.

My Sea Lark was fitted with it's first and only motor in the spring of 1961 by the same dealer, a leftover 1960 model Evinrude Star Flight. My boat retains this original motor, in well preserved condition. It is currently in storage. 1960 was the first year for the 75hp V4. While it harrnonized well with the boat, I plan to replace the cover with a 1958 - 50hp V-4 cover. This particular cover is a direct fit and it has virtually the same artistic design as the original 1956 - 35hp Lark motor which the boat was designed to showcase. I have period photographs of all five boats built, the 4 others all had the smaller, 35hp motors.