My friend, photographer Tom King, is a stickler for detail. So while watching his video of the neo-classic Raveau runabouts featured in my Feb. 20 blog, I was not surprised to see the boat driver wearing a vintage Kiekhaefer Mercury outboard cap. My reaction was to call Tom and find out where he got that cool cap, expecting to hear “at a yard sale.”

merc-caps-1

Found with a Google search: two styles of "vintage" Kiekhaefer Mercury caps.



“I found it on Google or Amazon or something,” he said instead. “Some website had them. I thought my dad would like to wear it when he drove the boat.”

Well, I’ve got the Google, too. So I searched for “vintage mercury cap” and got a hit at Short’s Marine in Millsboro, Delaware. They had the gray cap worn in Tom’s video, and also a very cool green cap that had an even older style Kiekhaefer logo. So I got one of each.

Turns out that these are genuine Mercury caps, also available from the Mercury Dockstore website, which didn’t show up on the Google search I did because Merc calls the green one the Retro Kiekahefer Cap, and the gray one a Nostalgic Kiekhaefer Cap. Each costs $12.00 direct from Merc.

Either is going to make me very popular in Wisconsin this summer.

We Badgers are also nostalgic for the Evinrude brand, founded in Milwaukee, but so far I have not located a vintage-style Evinrude cap. An ELTO cap (Evinrude Light Twin Outboard) would be even cooler. I could go with Merc on even days, Evinrude on odd days, and stay politically correct.

If anyone has a lead on an old-style Evinrude cap, let me know.

 

Written by: Charles Plueddeman
Charles Plueddeman is Boats.com's outboard, trailer, and PWC expert. He is a former editor at Boating Magazine and contributor to many national publications since 1986.
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