River Rat

Here at Uphill we have an old boat, a 1983, 19 foot Bayliner that we have owned for almost 20 years. The boat has served us very well and we have had many enjoyable days on it, poking around, up and down the river. When we bought it, it already had many hours of use and I never expected the old girl to last as long as she has. I think the trick is that I’ve always kept her covered summer and winter. Last year with the princess graduating, all the rain, and preparations for collage, I never even started her up. I was astonished this weekend to put her at the boat launch and with very little futzin around she was running once again! I had charged the battery up (7 years old) and cranked on the starter but no fire….could not smell any 2 year old gas coming up to the carb…found that the float and accelerator pump to be stuck, cleaned them up and we were running. I was so happy that I ran it up to the Quicky Mart and put 20 bucks of high test in her. We ran her back to the boat launch, shoved her off the trailer and ran to Catskill and back. She never skipped a beat and the temp gage sat just where it has for the last 20 years.
I have to say that the old Volvo 4 cylinder is a good engine, probably why you see so many old 240’s still on the road.
One thing to note, and this is very important to keep in mind, if you come in off the river and you really, really need to relieve yourself…do not forget about the web cam!!