sorry for the bad luck but better that it happened at the ramp....

I have a port on my sea strainer that I installed a 90* AN fitting on and that has a cap on it full time. If I were ever to flood and be in trouble, I could hook up a hose to that fitting, stick the other end in the bilge and let an engine act as an emergency pump...

We also went for our first boat ride last Sunday. Normally I run on the hose first at home, but this year I skipped that step. Both engines fired right up with boat still on the trailer in water. Left running and went to back in just a little more to release boat. I noticed smoke pouring from the exhaust. I never turned the water vavles on from the drives, I turn them off when winterizing. The antifreeze was burning off. Shut them down, opened valves, and fired back up. One impeller lived and the other did not. Roped around the dock, tied up and went to marina to buy new housing and impeler. Got that changed and we were off. Idled out and went to stop, shifted both in nuetral but starboard stayed in drive. Shifted to reverse on that side, still in drive...weird. My thought, lower shift cable broke. So we went on, ripped out to lake, parked, had lunch, and went for a quick 15 mile run. Got the boat apart yesterday. Wasn't the cable! Was one of the 1/4-28 bolts that hold the shift fork to the shift shaft! The bolt was sheared off and just sitting there. Had the head of the bolt fell and made it into the drive it would have destroyed everything I am sure! It was an easy fix, but almost an expensive lesson. If it isn't right, back on the trailer and go home :/

I didn't use antifreeze to winterize - just drained the system and put in a heated building day after I picked it up from you.

I bet you see lots of stupid $hit repairs like this roll through - it just blows me away. If it was a $5000 boat maybe, but WTF! I'm surprised the RTV has held up as long as it has - no telling when it was "repaired" - I've had boat for 2 years, and have had that drain plug out at least half a dozen times when flushing.

That's a good backup plan - unfortunately, I don't have strainers.

That's a good idea. I have a standard garden hose fitting on top of my strainer. So, all I would need is a few feet of hose with a male fitting on the end.

I always fire my motor up at home before going to the water. Particularly if it hasn't been started in more than a week or two.

Last year, I forgot to put the cap on my strainer and smoked my impellor at the ramp. I was offered a spare but I knew I had to go home and back flush everything. Good thing I did, the impellor was in a million pieces.