Matt Colie writes:

Jace,

Things like this become available for two reasons, Yamaha is selling
these out as private label (are you old enough to remember Gale) or
Yamaha has licensed a other company to build from its designs.

snip
Mariner was a line of Japanese built Mercury marine designs. They
started out being some real problem engines, but they also were a
whole lot cheaper than the same HP Mercury.

I have a 25 year old 5 hp Mariner but under the hood the castings
say Yamaha so I assume that is what it really is. It's rusty and
generally looks awful but works just fine.

Cheers,

--
Martin Schöön

"Problems worthy of attack
prove their worth by hitting back"
Piet Hein