The guys had an engine come in that was overheating.  Chris, a mechanic, fixed what he thought was the problem and we went for a test drive.  The engine was still overheating over a certain RPM (too low an RPM be overheating at), and so we took the boat back so that Chris could pull the thermostat out and see if it was opening up at the right temperature.  It wasn’t.

This boat was in pretty bad shape — looked poorly maintained.  The thermostat wasn’t the only thing that was broken.  But Chris says that if you do basic maintenance, well-made boats last a long time.  What constitutes a “well-made” boat is up for debate, but I know just from this week that many (if not most) powerboats are NOT constructed with maintenance in mind.  Most of the time you have to cut  hole in the boat to get an engine out — this seems illogical to me and I’m interested in the apparent lack of communication between boat-builders and mechanics.  Any thoughts?