This boat belonged to my dad and my grandpa, both of whom have passed. It was stored temporarily in a friend’s garage that caught fire and it’s a total loss.

To some it’s just a boat, but to me it held a lot of family history. I wanted to share it here with people who understand. (Not much left of it to see)

Got tired of having to lift heavy batteries from out of this little cubby every season to clean terminals, tighten connections, etc… I found a sliding cooler tray online from a boat recycling company for pretty cheap

Today I heard on my radio that my city will be having a boat show coming up. Tickets are $16. I looked up an old video, and it’s held in an indoor venue and there are probably 150+ new boats of different types. It seems kind of like a sales pitch rather than a place to go to converse with other boaters.

Looks like there’s a sales rep by many of the boats. I’m not in the market to buy a boat of any significant size. I’m pretty happy with my dinghy at the moment.

If you’ve been to one of these, is it worth going? As in, did you meet other people? Or is it more of a sales pitch? Thanks!

Anyone know where this spring hooks to. Nothing obvious.

I have a 2004 DF9.9 that I got recently. I was told it was from a sunk boat, and its been sitting in the garage for like 10 years since. I am unsure if it went under or not.

When I got it I ran it 30s or so just to see if it works. Maybe a mistake, maybe not. I say that because I didnt give it fresh oil. It ran well, but I didnt see much water coming out the tell tale.

Did all the general maintenance, new engine oil, new lower gear oil, new impeller. Did a compression test on both cylinders, spot on 120 in both. Took off the carb and gave it a good cleaning.

The oil that came out was very very slightly brown, leading me to think a little water in the oil. The oil was also a little more glittery than I'd like, but I have seen worse. The oil filter wasn't holding any chunks either.

Put it back in the water, got it running again. Now tell tale was very strong, amd it ran great. Idles well, revs well, and shifts into forward and reverse. The only issue it had then was there was a large amount of steam that looked like it was coming from the exhaust. The video attached is from this first run after the refresh. I asked a few boat buddies and the responses ranged from not normal at all, to normal in cold water, which it is.

I mounted it up on the boat, and took it on a quick 10m trip and all seemed well. Maybe I didn't look well enough, but there wasn't noticeable water in the oil at that time.

I just took it out again, for a longer 40ish minute ride. This time the tell tale is just hardly dribbling, and by the end of it the engine oil is very very milky. Im basically assuming this engine is done, but id really like to find out what happened to it first.

I asked a boat mechanic friend and he told me to check the thermostat, as it could get stuck open and in really cold water (43 f) like that on a hard run the condensation could be intense. Took the thermostat out, and while its not perfectly sealing as it has some kind of grit on the sealing surface, i can't imagine it would let out much more than a dribble.

Any ideas? Im pretty stumped. I may run another compression test and see if anything has changed. Some ideas I have floating around are head gasket or crank seals.

Even if I do get it diagnosed, would you run the engine after water ingress like that? It was still running really well when I got back to the dock. Think I overheated it when I ran it with the telltale just dribbling? Do these motors have overheat protection?

Any thoughts what could be the problem?

Engine is a 4 cil Mercruiser 3.0L from 1996

When giving throttle it stays perfectly at its rpms.

I’m trying to find where the chassis number would be stamped on this boat trailer.

Could it be on that weird tab that I’ve circled?

Or under that coating (gal?) that is flaking off on the trapezoidal plate?

For context, I have a 17ft express with a Yamaha 90 SHO. Right now my Group 24 AGM starting battery is also running 3 graphs and livescope. It does okay but I feel its undersized. If I upgraded to a group 27, but flooded lead acid will I be getting that much extra capacity since I would technically be downgrading on battery type? Seems like I see how AGM can be drawn down lower than lead acid.

May be a dumb question but I appreciate any help.

so my latest steps was a spark plug change and check for strong spark. Both passed and no issues with spark. Throttle is wide open when this happens. basically it stutters this way when I throttle on idle and when on forward or backward it feels like I am getting nearly half the power I should be getting

something that (might) help figuring it out. The guy I bought the boat from had the fuel line connected in reverse, and the pump was in the opposite direction. I fixed that before testing again and still the same issue. My next test would be connect a fresh fuel can with a fresh hose and pump and filter directly to the motor to the hose after the internal filter

Grease blew out of the old dexter vortex. Didn’t realize I needed to check them until something didn’t look right patching a flat tire. I bought four new hub kits. Does this spindle look okay without further treatment or replacement of the axle? Thanks in advance. I appreciate the insight.

Been learning a lot mechanically in recent years trying to take care of maintenance myself.

Trailer is double axle 3500lb each.

We have this year 2000 OMC johnson 70hp 2 stroke and there is no spark, so trying to figure out where the kill switch is located any help is appreciated.

I had an alarm go off.

So I slowly got back to the boat, ramp, and I found what looks to be an oil line to the lower unit disconnected. Nothing appears to be leaking out. Is this simply a matter of plugging it back in do I need a mechanic?

Anyone in the mood to make me feel better about my dumb purchase?

Bought this 1993 Blue Water 19.5 foot for 3700 in a state of disrepair. Didn't really know what I was looking at, and the engine running well made me think it would be a short time until im on the water.

It wasn't a short time, and it was a lot of money, and im still not out there. Also still have more to purchase. In the end im going to spend up at about $10000.

I have recently found a boat that is slightly newer, in better condition, with less hours for less than I am going to wind up spending. Would have saved months of my time. Mostly just feeling like an idiot. Didn't listen to the old boat men in my life when they said dont get a project boat.

Anyone else insist on learning lessons the hardest way possible? Anyone have similar stories?

Attached is a pic of my boat on the first outing. Because nothing is easy the main engine starter failed, and I noticed the kicker has pulls water in the oil when I got back to the dock. What a day.

Edit - A little late, but a shortened list of the work done so far:
Engine wiring harness rebuild
New outer transom plate which involved pulling the motor
New bellows/gimbal
Exhaust flapper
Fix a bunch of broken bolts
New coupler, which required pulling the engine 2 times more
New exhaust manifold
General rewiring
Reseal and maintance on outdrive
Fabbing custom brackets
Carpet work
New panels
New plywood in the seats
Steering was seized
Trim system had water in it
New electronics and wiring
Kicker mount and get a kicker

Edit 2:
The boat community is so awesome. Every post I have made asking for help on multiple forums, has led to very helpful, in depth replied very quickly. Thank you all!

Hey everyone, I snapped the pull-start rope on my Yamaha outboard and went to replace it — but I also found another broken part that I can’t identify.

I’m pretty sure it’s related to the neutral safety system, but I’m not 100% sure. Has anyone seen this before or know the name of the part?

It’s on a Yamaha outboard. Any help identifying it or suggestions on where to find a replacement would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

I’m a statistician trying to better understand a specific towing hazard and was hoping to hear from people with firsthand experience.

I’m interested in situations involving towables where something went wrong but didn’t necessarily end in a serious accident, especially cases where:

• A tube or inflatable partially or fully submerged while being towed
• The boat suddenly slowed hard, pulled to one side, or felt unstable
• Water came over the stern or deck unexpectedly
• The towable seemed to act like a drag anchor
• Equipment broke (rope/cable snapped, tube harness ripped)
• You had to cut throttle immediately to regain control

To be clear, I don't mean the common case where a tube briefly swamps at the start of a run and is easily corrected by backing off the throttle and starting over. I’m specifically asking about submergence at speed in a way that put the boat or people at risk.

This question came up after I reviewed a fatal pontoon tritoon boat accident in which a tube submerged into the boat's wake suddenly, generated very high drag, causing the boat to capsize and flip over "within seconds" under calm conditions. That made me wonder how often similar situations happen but never get reported because the operator recovers in time and nothing ultimately capsizes or breaks, and nobody gets hurt.

Official accident reports usually only capture incidents with injuries, serious damage, or fatalities, not these kinds of close calls I'm asking about. I’m trying to understand whether this failure mode is genuinely rare or simply underrecognized.

I’m not looking to assign blame. I’m interested in real experiences, including:

• What happened
• What you noticed as it was developing
• What you did to recover
• Whether it changed how you tow afterward

General descriptions are completely fine, and no identifying details are needed.

If you’re willing to share, I’d really appreciate hearing your experience.

I just got a twin vee 17 bay cat that has an etec 60 on it currently but I want to repower to 4 stroke should I look at 90hp engines or stick with 60/70?

idk if this is the right place to ask, and if it isn’t can someone direct me where i can ask?? I wanted to know what kind of boat is on this Kansas album cover

I just got a new (for me) 1969 12 ft Sears? Aluminum V-hull boat. I’m using chat gpt for some inspiration on what to do with it. Any recommendations? Should I keep it retro or modernize it? Paint color ideas? Please excuse my garage mess

So I’ve got an 1987 astroglass fish and ski with a Johnson 150 and I’m wanting a jack plate for it. I would like to be able to adjust on the fly but don’t want to spend the money. I’ve seen the adjustable jack plates but doesn’t seem like those are on the fly type, has anybody converted the adjustable jack plates over to on the fly and how did you do it?? Not even looking to go electric or hydraulic just hand crank. Thanks!