Time for a Change
HOW TO MAKE A GOOD BOAT EVEN BETTER
A couple years ago, aft er six decades of abuse, my hips gave up the ghost and I had to have them replaced with shiny new artificial joints. I dreaded the two procedures, but both turned out to be less horrible than either of the two times I had to swap engines out of a boat. A hip has only a couple of parts, and they’re easy to replace if you have a scalpel, a saw, and a hammer. (At least that’s what my orthopedic surgeon said.) An engine? Not so simple: The in-and-out will most likely be both stressful to one’s psyche and debilitating to one’s finances. But like my clapped-out acetabulofemoral joints, when an engine’s dead, it’s dead, and repowering is the only answer.
Modern marine engines last a long time; a thousand hours of service is what we expect. Those who buy new, or even moderately
