As with Brooks Stevens, the involvement of Dick Cole in the hull design of the first
generation Evinrude boats seems to be a career footnote. Cole was a designer for
hire with his firm making most of it’s money from per unit royalties. Ralph Lambrecht
– OMC’s Chief Engineer for the entire run of the 1962-
Lee Wangstad -
“In my interviews with Dick Cole we talked mostly about the early Thunderbird boats,
including the cathedral hull. We also discussed the Botved Coronet and Imperial
Boats (built in Japan). He certainly had some interesting stories, but his mention
of doing the hulls for OMC was just more of that, a mention. He felt his major achievement
was the Wellcraft Air-
So while we’d like to think that the Evinrude hull design was a labor of love it
seems it was -
Below the Waterline...Dick Cole