64' Johnson Runabout

[Karl]

Here are a couple pictures of my 1964 Johnson Runabout (outboard). I've got her all spruced up and ready for the 4th of July parade. The photos give a pretty good view of the very unique hull design.

Karl

[Helmar]

Here are a couple pictures of my 1964 Johnson Runabout (outboard). I've got her all spruced up and ready for the 4th of July parade. The photos give a pretty good view of the very unique hull design.

Karl

Yes it is. I seen one of those down in a town called Mololla Oregon at a friend of mines place. I had asked about it and he told me one of his customers just gave it to him.
I looked it over real well but it had some kind of weird engine design in it, kind of a corvair looking engine. I don't think it was a V6 but could have been as it was a long time ago.
Then we did the Seattle opening parade and here you come with yours all dolled up

He told me, good luck finding parts for that one so I just walked away from it.
He has now since passed on and driving by, I see all the boats are gone now.

I really like those early designs too.

[Karl]

Most of them had 2 stroke inboard/outboards. A couple even came with 2 I/O's. Mine is a pretty rare outboard version.

[bruceb]

Love that boat, Karl. Like Frederic's Evinrude boat, these were pretty experimental for their time. We've since seen cats and tri-hulls gain popularity and sort of drift away from the spotlight.
As a kid I remember the Johnson's, especially, as the marina that we kept the boat at was a Johnson dealer. And they promoted the boats very actively. Like Karl mentioned, they came as single I/Os, twin I/Os and his rare outboard. I recall the single as the most popular. By that time, we'd repowered our Skagit with a 1964 90hp Johnson. The single and twin I/Os were the same v-4 as our 90, only tilted so that the "v" was sitting as a v-8 would in an inboard. The carbs were re-positioned to the side of each engine.
These were very heavy hulls, requiring a more "beefed-up" trailer, along with the unique shape. The step hull was a super cool looking thing in the era, very few boat builders(outside of hydroplane designers) had explored the shapes on lower hulls for a mass produced boat. Think theres a Johnson/Erude specific tribute page for these. Have seen some really cool boat/motor/trailer combos on CL in Wisconsin- still out there in like new condition. The dedicated trailer for Johnsons had special Johnson hubcaps !
www.omc-boats.org (think Karl has a story there on this boat)
Attached- pic of twin V-4s- had a neat shaped cowl. Nice boats, Karl and Frederic !
rederic !!!!

[Frederic Lynes]

Love that boat, Karl. Like Frederic's Evinrude boat, these were pretty experimental for their time. We've since seen cats and tri-hulls gain popularity and sort of drift away from the spotlight.
As a kid I remember the Johnson's, especially, as the marina that we kept the boat at was a Johnson dealer. And they promoted the boats very actively. Like Karl mentioned, they came as single I/Os, twin I/Os and his rare outboard. I recall the single as the most popular. By that time, we'd repowered our Skagit with a 1964 90hp Johnson. The single and twin I/Os were the same v-4 as our 90, only tilted so that the "v" was sitting as a v-8 would in an inboard. The carbs were re-positioned to the side of each engine.
These were very heavy hulls, requiring a more "beefed-up" trailer, along with the unique shape. The step hull was a super cool looking thing in the era, very few boat builders(outside of hydroplane designers) had explored the shapes on lower hulls for a mass produced boat. Think theres a Johnson/Erude specific tribute page for these. Have seen some really cool boat/motor/trailer combos on CL in Wisconsin- still out there in like new condition. The dedicated trailer for Johnsons had special Johnson hubcaps !
www.omc-boats.org (think Karl has a story there on this boat)
Attached- pic of twin V-4s- had a neat shaped cowl. Nice boats, Karl and Frederic !
rederic !!!!

Thank you, Bruce! Yes, the hulls are very heavy. They glide through calm water, but your passengers better be ready to catch some air, when there's some chop.

Funny you should post a pic of the Johnson hubcap. I've been on the hunt for Evinrude hubcaps and score a single one yesterday on eBay. It's been floating around on the web for several months, because the exact same picture shows up on the net a while ago.

Now to find the other side.

Karl, you have a beautiful boat. Have you been over to the OMCboats.org site? I don't remember seeing your boat there. Andrew Gleason has your boat's twin and did an excellent job of restoring it. He runs the site, lives in South Carolina and is a really nice guy. There's a lot of good info there, unfortunately not very many active posters.

[Kelly]

I was lucky enough to ride in Karl's boat the other day...man that thing is way cool on and off the water! Loved the way it handles. Karl where is the parade?

[bruceb]

HEY, check out this string of vids posted by a classic boater ! SEARCH YOUTUBE for "1964 Johnson Deluxe chevy 327". Sounds pretty cool, too....

[Karl]

I can't see the link....

[bruceb]

Didn't put a link in there, wanted to see if watchers saw a different posting than that on another website.....but if you insist......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d9QL7jHJIY he has a couple vids of this boat.