On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 03:55:28 -0700 (PDT), richard
wrote:

Happy 4th of July. For the first time in almost 20 years, I will not
be on the Charles River in Boston to see the fireworks. My boat is in
the shop. Here is what happened. Several weeks ago, while I was
putting around the harbor, the engine started sucking in salt water. I
got towed in and had my mechanic/shop, which I have used since I owned
the boat, look at the boat right away. Compression check revealed all
cylinders were OK. They hauled the 1993 25ft four winns out and
cleaned out the gunk. 2 weeks later, the told me I needed to replace
both the risers and manifolds. Which they did. They tested the boat
yesterday to discover that they had been wrong. it was not the risers
or manifolds and now we are back at square one. My question is: What
does the boat owner pay for and what does the shop have to eat in this
situation. Should I pay for the new risers and manifolds? The mechanic
says they can put the old ones back. This boat is old and we do not
want to put more money into it than we have to. Keeping in mind that
we are not able to do any of the work ourselves, what would you do?

15 years with a sal****er cooled engine is a long time. It is getting
to the end of its useful life and rusting from the inside out. I went
through this with my old runabout several years ago and ended up
wasting quite a bit of money. If the boat itself is in reasonably
good condition and you want to keep it, the best strategy is to
install a rebuilt engine that is offered with some sort of warranty,
typically 12 months.