The only thing an outboard will ever do reliably is fail ?

[Timm R Oday25]

For at least a month before we launched this summer I had both the Johnson 8 horse for the sailboat and the almost new 2.5 horse Yamaha sitting in barrels being tested to make sure they would start reliably once they were actually connected to the back end of a boat .
 After the hour and a half of getting Enigma ready to slip into the water , what does the Johnson 8 horse do ?
Not start .. yep .
So I tied the painter of the dinghy to the bow eye of Enigma and towed her out to her new mooring .
I came back the next weekend to clean the boat and finish running the rigging and tensioning the stays .
I took a chance and pulled the rope on the Johnson . Yep.. she caught almost instantly and settled into a nice idle .I let it run for 20 minutes or so . When I reached for the tethered kill switch I could only laugh as the red button popped off and floated for a minute or two before it sank .
For the first time ever , I had an outboard that wouldn't stop running . I ended up unplugging the gas line ..
They want $120.00 for a replacement switch ... argh ..

[Spot]

Did you check Amazon for the switch?

[Spot]

Did you check Amazon for the switch?

PS 1 am 1 for 2 getting outboard motor parts off Amazon
#1 (cam follower lever, controls carb) was a 17$ part + 2 hours driving vs 5$ and free 2-day shipping on Amazon
#2 (starter pinion gear) was 38$ on Amazon and is 27$ more locally with about 1 hour total driving that I can mix in with other errands

I did not see #2 was broken until after I fixed #1.

[noelH]

A few years ago was my last ICE outboard motor failure. Never at the right time. IIRC the wind was F4 out of the SSW. Beautiful day to sail. Two of us took out one of the North Coast Community Sailing's(NCCS) Sonars. Right as we exited the Washburn Marina the motor idles down to zero. As my sailing partner was trying to restart the motor I quickly deployed some fenders to the starboard side. Just in time to prevent banging the hull against the S facing concrete break wall. Pinned against the wall. Luckily NCCS was running some classes. Based out of Thompson's West End Park just S of the Marina. Safety boat came and pulled us free.

Nice day of sailing. Just needed to anchor in the area between the Marina and Thompson's.  Good anchorage as long as you are aware of the location of the rock piles.

Decided go electric. Was debating about the air cooled small Honda, but by then Honda had moved production of that motor to China. Viewed a few British Ytube maintenance videos. One was a bit scary. The old Honda was a solid built motor. The made in China had some important bolts made of inferior steel that in salt water use could result in some issues. Maybe just one or early production run? Or maybe lack of QC when sourcing hardware? Or maybe a cost savings?