wrote in message
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"john" wrote:
My last boat sunk for this exact reason.

How old was the boot? And was it moored in salt or fresh water?

I've owned a couple of sterndrives over the years, with boots that
became fairly old ( 10 yrs), but I would never leave them in the
water. Well.... except maybe a weekend here and there or a week
(vacation) when I planned to use it every day.
From what I've seen of moored boats, I would think a boot would last a
lot longer kept in fresh water than salt.

Rick

I only left it in the water from weekend to weekend myself, It was in Fresh
water. It has been a while, I haven't had that boat for 10 years. I
"think" the boot was probably about 17 years old, but it might have been
older, I was the third owner, I bought the boat and drove it for 7-8 years
before it sunk.
It was my first I/O and now I know better to check those kinds of things.