I spend a lot of time on and near the water, always have. As a teenager, my first job, summers, was working for my now-wife's grandfather in his marina/boat and motor business. At that time, he was an Evinrude dealer. He would also grab every used 5 1/2 hsp Evinrude he could to put on his rental boats because they were so trouble free.
In my opinion, Evinrude went to hell in the early 70's, around the time they started making bigger motors. I've had a few and they were nightmares to keep running. The last Evinrude I had was a two cylinder 15 hsp that ran pretty well, but was getting tired. I gave it to my wife's cousin. Since then, it's been nothing but Yamaha's on my boats, with the exception of one Honda, a 220 or 225, something about that size. It was okay. Yamaha is eating everyone's lunch in the outboard business. They have been building the best, most reliable outboards for a long time.
