My uncle called me up a month or so ago and wanted me to help him cut up an old boat he has. I went over and told him that i would take the boat as long as we can get some paperwork on it and sure enough he has the papers. He had owned it since the mid 60's and used it until '98 when the motor died. I swapped an old 3 wheeler i had for a 60hp Mariner outboard and replaced the transom on the boat.
My first voyage out with it was nearly my last. Went into a tugboat wake and that must have broken an old repair loose in the bow because we started sinking, fast. A buddy of mine manned the bucket while i ran back to the dock. We couldn't plane off at the time due to a very flat pitch prop on the engine.
This is what i found when i cut out the floor under the bow.
This is where it was. One light tap with the hammer popped it right out.
I cleaned the area up and put a 5 layers of glass cloth and epoxy over it from the inside. Works MUCH better now. Last trip out only had a teacup of water in there. Now if i can figure out why the engine only fires on 1 cylinder.