Back in the late 60s, Tricia’s family purchased a 1961 Starcraft speedboat outfitted with a pair of Mercury “Merc 400” 45 horsepower engines.  We’ve had the boat since the late 90s.  A few years ago, I tracked down a copy of the engine service manual and got the boat working almost like new after replacing the distributer caps, re-gapping the magnetos, replacing the starters, fixing the control units, etc.

Even before we left on our 2013 RV trip, the port engine was difficult to turn.  I tried loosening up the grease inside the mount with a heat gun:

Checking out the engines:

Today, after getting the engines running in our driveway, we hitched up the boat trailer and made our way to the Hudson River:

55 years old and still running like a champ:

After anchoring off of Stony Point and having a picnic dinner, we peeked into the Haverstraw Marina where the Tallship Unicorn is docked.  This sailing ship, built in the late 40s from German U-Boat scrap metal, was used for all-female sailing trips by Sisters Under Sail, a “New Jersey based non-profit corporation established in 2005 dedicated to helping teen girls and women build confidence, develop leadership skills, and witness first-hand what women can do together when focused on a common goal.”  The ship is for sale, and can be yours for only $375,000:

This boat is a little bigger than ours:

Not bad for a boat and engines built at the tail end of the Eisenhower administration: