Zipping across the waves in your 12-foot runabout, trusty outboard roaring on the transom, and your best girl at your side: What could be better than that? Well, how about a nice Chesterfield, packed with flavorful Turkish and sweet, smooth Virginia tobaccos, unencumbered by a filter so all the tar and nicotine flows straight into the lungs? Not a bit goes to waste. The clean sea breeze and the aromatic exhaust from the two-stroke outboard are only enhanced by the “refreshingly mild” smoke wafting from the glowing end of America’s most spray-resistant cigarette. ‘Twas a perfect summer afternoon in 1937, when Liggett & Myers ran this ad.
Most outboards were under 5 horsepower back then, with a few four-cylinder models around 10 horsepower. Evinrude’s 16.2-horsepower Sport Four was about the most powerful—weighing about 100 pounds. This skipper’s driving a two-cylinder engine—you can just make out one spark plug below the flywheel. But it’s still a pretty big engine for a boat this size and will provide enough speed to keep any lady interested.
No gal can resist a Chesterfield man, especially if he’s got a boat—at least that’s what the ad implies: Her smile says it all. Did they go “all the way?” Both are already enjoying their smokes, so we know what that means. Maybe the romance of the open sea was too strong to resist. Or was it the Chesterfields? Is she bothered by the pounding of the little runabout’s zero-deadrise bottom as it skips over the waves? Apparently not: It just makes the trip more exciting.
This adventurous pair doesn’t mind heading way offshore, either. That looks a lot like Montauk Point Light in the background, so perhaps they’re several miles offshore and heading for Block Island, 16 miles of open Atlantic away. Hope there’s enough gas in the built-in tank. But despite the size of his yacht and the dubious cruising range of his engine, the skipper is not worried: He has another pack of Chesterfields in his sea bag.
This article originally appeared in the April 2026 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
