TOPIC: 1962 MFG Westfield & new boat owner

Greetings all,
As of 8/14 I am the proud owner of a beautiful 1962 MFG Westfield that some previous owner designated "Cuffs" (I am hoping they were a law enforcement officer...). Sadly, the Mercury 800 she came with isn't running and my tow vehicle is barely running so I doubt she will see the water this season.

I am also a new boat owner and I'm excited at the prospect of exploring the lakes and rivers around me. I do have one question though: the motor my boat is equipped with has manual trim/tilt. How does one manage launching and retrieving the boat while having to manually lift the motor?

Here's some eye candy:

image by a747freak , on Flickr

Welcome aboard 747. Looks like you found a nice one there. Operating your rig without Power T&T is certainly doable, just a little more strenuous, obviously. I found it helpful to put one foot against the transom to gain/aid in leverage to get her tilted up when necessary, there should be a tilt lock on your Merc to hold her in the up position.

Quite a few of the gang here have converted the older Mercs over to PT&T, you may want to read through the Merc Outpost section to find some of the previous threads on that subject, or ask the question there.

Hm, I'm not sure that mine has a working tilt lock. Is it a lever or something?

You've got a Mercury outboard. The lock releases when the control is in the forward position - it's locked when in neutral and reverse. So to tilt the motor, put the control in forward, then tilt up the motor. There is a tilt lock when fully raised on the port side of the motor. To lower, you pull the motor up s tad, then might have to lift up on the tilt lock a bit to fully release the motor, then go ahead lower the motor.