A few months ago I mentioned our boat was in the shop after the engine seized up during a simple flat calm trip home from the city. E was alone in the boat and everything was going along as it should, when off of the outside of the U37 marker can, the engine went gasp, cough, choke …. dead… No warning, no reason… nothing… It is a Yamaha 150 four-stroke. Although we had a kicker (Yamaha 9.9 4 stroke), it didn’t start either.

Our friend Tim came out and towed him into the Cove (thank you!) and the next day C-Tow towed us to the mechanic at our Marina in town. Our boat insurance covered the tow fee ($700.00). Every year we get one free tow. However, if we had a membership in C-Tow the membership fee is only $250.00 with a free tow.

After a week in the shop the diagnosis wasn’t good. Engine dead, mort, no more. We had to buy a new engine. While we were at it, we had the boat cleaned and painted, new zincs and, as they say, in for a penny in for a pound,  we bought a new kicker. You cannot live here, full-time without a reliable boat. At least, I will not. Middle of the night, you get a kidney stone (as I am want to do).. you need a boat which is going to start, first time every time, most weather situations.

We share the boat with my sister-in-law. Sharing, halves the pain to the chequing account.. With many properties on the island shared, and many families on the island with more than one property, a few of us share our boats in this way.

Although, we had spent a lot of money every year on the engine maintenance, it was nine years old and we had put a lot of hours on it during the reno. The old boy had 680 hours on it at time of death….E’s brother sells insurance and when we contacted him to claim the tow fee he encouraged us to put in a claim for the engine. … We had bought the engine new and had all of the receipts for our regular maintenance.. E sent them in and we crossed our fingers.

The reason we are in such a good mood today is the insurance company called and they are basically covering most of the cost of the new engine ($$$$$). They were able to sell the broken one for parts so that probably helped. Happy dance, Happy dance.

I could say the moral of the story is to have an honest mechanic who will testify about your regular engine maintenance to the insurance company, or maybe I would say the moral is to keep every mechanic receipt or maybe it is to stay away from marker U37. But in this case, the moral of the story is to always send in an insurance claim when you know you have done nothing wrong,

just in case