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I believe the motors that Tom is talking about is the Briggs & Strattion engines that has just come out in the last few years. They have a pretty conventional shaft body and lower unit as other outboards. With the exception of a lawnmower type motor in place of the power head. I have not had the privilage of seeing one in action, but back in the late 60's early 70's there was a Eska5 and a Eska7 which sold at a now defunct chain department store (Woolco) the Briggs looks as though it is a reincarnation. A freind had a 5 hp with a 12 ft aluminum vee hull which performed as well as watercooled outboards of same horse power. What I did not like was the noise, the exaust was channled down to the water, but the fan-flywheel and governer arangement did not alow a cowling so it had the sound of lawnmower on the water.

The motors that Wrangler is talking about began as a large side shaft (horiz.) engine with a long shaft from the crankshaft to a propeller, the motor was balanced on a pole with a pivot to lower prop into water with the aid of a tiller handle. It has evolved to a new generation that somewat comes back to a outboard in what is called a surface drive engine. The videos at the Manf.'s site are impresseve ( a boat moving across a mud bank with prop digging a furrow that does not close up) check them out at WWW.GODEVIL.com The original motor ( the long tail godevil was a copy of a motor seen in a James Bond movie in a asian port, a lot of us saw it and talked about how that would work down here but soon lost our pipe dream. About 6 years later Godevil was born and in a interview with the owner, he revealed he was inspired by the James Bond movie.