I am new to this sytle of boat but not new to boating in general. All O/B to this point. I am going to look at a 1999 Hammer with 240 hours on a 7.4 MPI Bravo 1. I need a few pointers on how to go about checking over the drive. Is it possible to visually inspect the bellows, boots and other associated wear items on these Bravo 1's? What should I be looking for in regards to the engine? Compression check should be what PSI range? The boat is in a frozen climate right now. How, if even possible do I check for rot? I know about the rubber hammer trick, put I don't think that will do much in a frozen enviroment. What else should I be looking for in regards to this boat?

Thanks in advance

you can see the bellows when the outdrive is up to visually inspect. Listen for sound variance when using the hammer. I believe comp should be 170-180 new. anything 140-160 is fine as long as the cylinders are within 5-10 percent of each other. Im sure someone with more knowledge will chime in. Search the site it has everything.

Nothing special or hard to check on the boat, since there is no genset, pump out, and so on to check.

Just check the normal wear and tear items that you would on any boat.