Small outboard parentage

wombat88

wombat88

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I'm confused.

Whenever I mention a make of small outboard to one who 'externally at least' appears to be in the know I'm told that no it isn't really a Whotsit, Thingummy makes them for them, they are all the same.

So, is my Tohatsu really a Mercury or is my Yamaha really a Mariner etc etc

I suppose it doesn't really matter but I am curious.
 
Mercury and Mariner are from the same stable as far as I understand it. They are identical. They were different companies at one stage so may not apply to old engines.

Mercury <30hp are made by Tohatsu. But they are different engines but there are of course common parts. (Tohatsu are part of Nissan).

Yamaha have made blocks for Mercury.

Parsun are a copy / clone of Yamaha engines. But not made to Yamaha quality supervision.
 
It's a fair question, in terms of the much loved 2 and 3hp, 2 strokes.

I have an old PBO article in which Pat Manley said Mercury, Mariner and Force engines were, under the badges, Tohatsu. We can be fairly sure these engines were produced in the Tohatsu joint venture, shadow factory, at Okaya, Nagano (see below). They exported engines under the Nissan moniker to the USA markets.
Manley also pointed our that Eveinrude and Johnson small engines were "remarkably similar" apart from 1mm greater bore. I guess these engine could have originated in Japan or been manufactured in the US under licence, perhaps someone with a late 90's engine could tell us if it displays the country of origin?

From the Tohatsu website:

"In February 1988, Tohatsu established a joint venture company, “Tohatsu Marine Corporation” with Brunswick. Matsumoto became the first president of that company.

With Nissho Iwai and Itochu, two of the Japan’s biggest trading companies, Tohatsu had introduced its outboards to U.S., the biggest market for outboard motors. Brunswick, the parent company of Mercury Marine, was seeking a Japanese partner who could supply products with advanced technology and productivity.

After fierce competition, Mercury Marine showed a great interest in Tohatsu.

Mercury Marie hoped to have a capital participation in Tohatsu in early discussion, but at last it was decided that a joint venture company would be established. This new company was located in Okaya, Nagano, a mountainous area of Japan. At the same time, Tohatsu started to reconstruct the facilities of Okaya Plant, and the first stage of the construction; a new full-scale assembly line for Outboard motors up to 120-horsepower, was completed in November 1988."

So all these names are linked by shared ventures and marketing agreements. It's a bit too simplistic to say they all came from the same place or, indeed, that they are all "Tohatsu's" - though in one sense this is true.
Any road, they are probably knocking them out in Brazil, or some such, at the present time.
 
In the old days, some Mariners were Yamahas. I had a 6HP Mariner with the 'three tuning forks' on various castings.
It was the 'ancient Mariner' when I got it, and that was mid 90s. I believe it still exists.
I had a small Mercury which IIRC was made in Belgium. It was never very good.
In my view, there are three sorts of outboards:
Seagulls
Yamahas
Others.
 
Thanks, so my little 2hp two stroke for the dinghy will be of Tohatsu parentage, these little ones hold their price I see.

As to the Seagull, I am surprised that the larger ones don't appear more often in threads about anchors.
 
...and the daddy of Tohatsu outboards was a motorcycle.
Many small Evinrudes are also collaborative efforts with Tohatsu (although Evinrude is actually owned by Bombardier). Founder Ole Evinrude is credited with developing the very first outboard engine. Earlier he'd helped his childhood friend Arthur Davidson develop the engine which powered the first Harley-Davidson in 1903. NMPKT.
 
Oh jeez. They all have used each other at some point. The exception maybe being merc and Yamaha have never crossed paths. More recently merc and mark we have been the same with thoat coming on board too. The old mariners used to be Yamaha. All referring to 2 stroke above.
 
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