The demise of OMC

[Skoontz]

There are going to be numerous reasons for their demise posted, and comming from an OMC family, I was sadened to see their filing for chapter 11 and reorganization under Green Marine, and eventual shift to Bombardier.

By 1965, OMC had the largest die cast aluminum manufacturing plant in the world and employed thousands of people.

Lets step back a bit. Around 1980 give or take, Brunswick, Mercury's parent company began buying boat companies and selling packages with their Mercury engines. By the late 80's, there was an economic shift because of the luxury tax Regan had placed on items such as Ferrari's and boats. It destroyed the small boat builders such as Switzercraft to name one. So, OMC decides to get into the boat building business when all they really needed to do was offer the existing manufacturers to pre-rig for their engines rather than dropping all the badly needed capital on another industry.

Second, you had the enviro knumbskulls pushing cleaner engines, so, oil injected motors were being made. OMC's system at first was very flawed and they ended up replacing alot of blocks that seized. Add the two and you got the beginning of the end.

Any insiders have anything to add, I'm all ears.

[Mark75H]

OMC followed Merc in buying boat companies to sell packages ... even though Merc bought their boats when interest rates were low and OMC paid premium prices for the boat companies and for the money to buy them. Borrowing when interest rates are high ... dumb idea

[Jeff Akers]

OMC, Having the best warranty in the industry (at the time) Lost a ton of $$ on failed powerheads from the VRO Pump and its related worning systems.

By the time they started selling off some of the boat companies and failing to keep the COBRA merger with Volvo Penta, the upper manegment seemed to be looking at saving money in the wrong places. ie enjenering and manufacturing.

We sudenly saw V6 gearcases that were in the past almost bullet proof fail in numbers . The tooling was out dated and worn out ..They out sourced for a short time with little or no results.....They put the FICHT injected engines on the market way before the bugs got worked out

It was like an airplane in a tail spin.......and damnd if it didn't crash !

Lets just hope BRP will turn it all around. E-tec is looking pretty good sofar

P.S. I've worked for the same OMC/BRP dealer for over 23 years. We only sell Evinrude and Johnson Motors......I race with an OMC engine...Go figure

[Skoontz]

Jeff:

Were you around OMC long enough to see the 3 year from purchase warranty change to 2 years, then drop to an 18 month, then a year?

During the time they had a 3 year warranty people were running their engines near 8 seasons before they brought them back for the first tune up, so long as they unplugged the fuel line and ran the carb dry. It made me cry to see that stuff happening to what was the best in the business.

As far as Bombradier, if they do what they do with the snowmobiles and wave runners, Johnson/Evinrude will be back on top in no time.

Imagine what would have happened if Ole Evinrude did not get tired of rowing when he brought his then girlfriend back that ice cream.......

[Jeff Akers]

[QUOTE=Skoontz]Jeff:

Were you around OMC long enough to see the 3 year from purchase warranty change to 2 years, then drop to an 18 month, then a year?

QUOTE]


Yes, It was a bad time for OMC...Heck, good luck trying to find an extended warranty at the time also I think they went through 3 differant companies in 3 years

[Roy Hodges]

together with all that's been said, it did not help , that the big shots all gave themselves platinum (more than golden) parachutes , before destroying the corp.

[Jeff Akers]

together with all that's been said, it did not help , that the big shots all gave themselves platinum (more than golden) parachutes , before destroying the corp.

I Agree 100% with the above post!

[Ron Hill]

Ted May got Jack Leek to give me a ride at Havasu, 1966. Fresh out of college and wanting Boat Racing to be the largest motorsports venue in the world, I would have died to do anything to make boat racing bigger and better....

I hung out during the summers around Waukegan and lived part time in the Travel Lodge in Waukegan. I learned a lot about the company. It was OLD SCHOOL for sure: Management and Others....

I remember, like yesterday, (1968) testing a Switzer Wing at Sevard's at Havasu Springs. Ray Nydahl would not put the boat on the trailer until he saw 100 on the Keller....At dark and without enough gas to get back to the trailer, Ray saw that MAGIC number....

After we cleaned up, Ray and I were having a martini in the bar....I asked about the new three cyclinder looper, as I thought this might be the answer for kneeldown racing, especially a replacemnt for the Mark 75-H, which were almost nonexsist and even then.

Ray started telling me about the engine, and dyno readings and what he thought he could do to make the mother whistle...Ray got called on the carpet, in the bar, by an OMC Brass for telling me "CLASSIFIED" information... Hell, I'd just won the Havasu World Champiuonship, and Chicago To Milwaukee, with Ray Nydhal motors, we were testing for Parker....Wasn't I "ONE OF THE BRASS"????

Ray quit OMC soon after Parker.....

Outboard Racing started to "BALLOON" and I thought we'd be as huge as INDY, maybe bigger, and for sure bigger than those "Door Slammers" in NASCAR...

OMC BRASS had a dream, too, of single engines, I dreamed of four engine rigs....At the Galveston 250 Speed Classic, the singles ran first and the fans layed around and yawned...much like they always did at little outboard races.....

Then, the twins and triples came out....Jimmy Merten had this triple Jone with three stackers on the back, he was in line ahead of me going to the launch ramp, when that boat towed by the crowd, they literally attacked the boat...they knocked the fence down but they wanted to see that triple mother...

And see it they did, Jimmy raced everyone's *** off that day and the crowd went wild....I want to say I finished 5, with my twin Jones, after the race, and I was hot as hell, so I walked back from the launch ramp to my pit by walking in the awter to cool off....As the boats, went by the crowd was cheering, when Merten went by they went wild....

I stopped at the burger stand and was getting a coke and I heard Charlie Strang (OMC) and Gary Garbrecht (MercurY Racing) (Standing behind me)..agreeing to only race single engines, next year......I turned around and said, "Did you guys see the crowd watching the single engine boats??? They were taking naps... Did you see what the crowd did to the fence???? When Mertan went by??? They knocked the sucker down...Fans want to see power...."

I flew home that night and thought seriously about quitting boat racing....Single engines, that totally sucked....

I started racing MOD VP, because the speeds were what I thought I could handle, and I was tired of Mercury and OMC only having a few engines for the "CHOSEN"....I was having dinner with the Chief Engineer of OMC and I asked him if he planned to change the swivel pin on the 235, like I had done, so they would break....Actually, I didn't do it, Tim Soares, did, after Dick Knight's swivel pin broke....I was told they knew of no such problem....But the next year they changed this part, like my dad had told them to do, which was to machine the groove with curves rather than square corners.... Did anyone at OMC ever mention a THANK YOU Ron/Russ Hill????? Or Tim Soares??? (NO!!)

That same night, pre V-8 days, I was explaining what Dick Sherrer was doing with LA. Sleeves....(Guess where the V-8 sleeves came from)??? Also that night, I was told for the next year they could do anything in engineering for the new OMC models as long as it was cheaper....I said, "You're F%$#ING kidding??? OMC will go broke over that kind of thinking."

Not long after than, Yamaha Marine had a little problem with their V-6 motors....(Burning rods)... Ted Zahorski gave me and my dad about six dumpsters of V-6 motors and asked me to ask my dad if he saw why they failed....My dad sanded the rods thinner on a surface place and the needles did not fail on our Yamaha Mod VP (Not enough room between the crank and the rod for oil to get through, especailly at idle of 100:1 oil).... My dad told Ted, Ted told Yamaha...My dad got a letter from Yamaha and they wanted a bill for his time....

Two different compaines, two different management styles...

OMC built a race V-8 with an even fire crankshaft that still makes you have chills when you hear them...But they made JOHN Q. PUBLIC's V-8 sound like a V-4 TURD, because of the firing order...I've forgotten, and I knew, but HONDA MOTORS spent millions of dollars making their little "PUSSY CAT" motor sound like a muscle car when you drive it....

All this before the Green Group...Roger Penske was going to buy OMC, and the Green Group thought they'd make him pay more. (They bumped the stock a hundred million, and Roger was quoted as saying I have the hundred million, but I want to put it in machinery and design, not STOCK!!!!) When Roger walked away, anyone in their right mind knew OMC was in trouble.

I sent Roger Penske a letter asking him to run for President of the USA, and then added when he took control of OMC to call me.....Just an FYI!!!!

Here's a picture of the First Outboard to ever lead the Parker 9 Hour. The boat was owned by Mac McConnell, Jimbo's dad, and my dad. Freddy Hauenstein and drove together... The Life Line Jacket I had on, was the first Life Line every worn by an outboarder....Rod Zapf, my dad, Ted May and myself, worked all winter on this boat, if you look closely, you can see air traps on the sponsons, copyed from Berghauer's,, Bob Oakner's, round sponson Sid Craft....This is a DeSilva hull....we lead 118 boats, and was later told by OMC brass, if you put enough power on anything it will go fast......But this was after they paid Mac and my dad $10,000 for the boat, becasue Merccury wanted it...

I'm not looking for credit...but no other OMC boat lead Parker that year....

[Michael J Gwaltney]

There are going to be numerous reasons for their demise posted, and comming from an OMC family, I was sadened to see their filing for chapter 11 and reorganization under Green Marine, and eventual shift to Bombardier.

By 1965, OMC had the largest die cast aluminum manufacturing plant in the world and employed thousands of people.

Lets step back a bit. Around 1980 give or take, Brunswick, Mercury's parent company began buying boat companies and selling packages with their Mercury engines. By the late 80's, there was an economic shift because of the luxury tax Regan had placed on items such as Ferrari's and boats. It destroyed the small boat builders such as Switzercraft to name one. So, OMC decides to get into the boat building business when all they really needed to do was offer the existing manufacturers to pre-rig for their engines rather than dropping all the badly needed capital on another industry.

Second, you had the enviro knumbskulls pushing cleaner engines, so, oil injected motors were being made. OMC's system at first was very flawed and they ended up replacing alot of blocks that seized. Add the two and you got the beginning of the end.

Any insiders have anything to add, I'm all ears.

Another "point" was moving manufacturing plants to the south. Loss of plants in IL & WI in the late seventies caused utiltiies and operating costs to skyrocket. Poor communication between one town mayor and company officials, fueled a decision to leave generations of workers behind. The ramifications of this "point" could fill a book.

Mercury had simular challenges, but received support from the community to stay. They decided to keep a skilled workforce, but convert to more automated equipment and offer training. Quote I recall: "In ten years, you will still have a job, but higher wages will go to trained workers.

Two top quality companies with different solutions. Go figure

[Andrew 4CE]

Interception!

Sorry to deviate here, but, Ron, your stories and ideas are great! When you going to write a book!? (Or do you have one I don't know of?)

If I was American I'd vote Hill for president... haha.

Back to your regularily scheduled thread...