A couple of years ago, I joined a friend of a friend, in pursuit of a few large tarpon. Our soon to be Rvictory-at-seaS exercise took place just outside the mouth of south MiamiUs deepwater shipping channel, Government Cut. The weather was relatively calm, and we were eagerly anticipating a fine day of fishing. As often is the case, everything looked too good to be true. In fact, it was.

Here we were amid hundreds of big tarpon, rolling and splashing all around us. The outgoing tide was running strong, which meant at the end of each 20-minute drift, we had to crank the engine up and run a ways in to begin the next drift. Although boat traffic had picked up some, making the channel a bit choppy, things where going well Q a few jumps, with one fish nearly boated.
Then, the unthinkable happened. The engine wouldnUt turn over. Nada. Not even a click from the starter. After some discussion about what the %#@& happened here, I began to realize why there was no life of any kind under the engine cowling.
Apparently, clutch-brain had been having problems with the battery holding a charge for close to two months. Furthermore, he had continued to run his raw-water livewell, VHF radio and tape deck, regardless of signs that the battery was failing fast.
The battery looked ancient. I had to spend 20 minutes scraping away the crud to confirm that it actually was a battery.
The next course of action was to attempt to rope-start the engine. Now, hand-cranking most small outboards is normally no great task, especially since electronic magneto designs make it much easier. But at 200 horsepower, this was no small engine.
According to ownerUs manuals accompanying Mercury, Mariner and Suzuki V-6 models built all the way up to the mid-1980s, they can be manually rope-started, but only in an emergency Q kind of like the one we were in now.
I love this part. Lets assume, with some grain of logic, rope-starting one these earlier model V-6s is possible. Obviously, some weenie in the engineering department thought so. Why would they go through all the trouble to put it into the ownerUs manual in the first place? However, the instructions were obviously written by someone who never intended to rope-start an engine Q probably an engineer.
Step 1. Before anything else, place the engine in neutral. Duh!
Step 2. Remove the engine cover from the unit. Duh, again.
Step 3. Coil the rope around the flywheel (be sure to use only the rope that
is provided with the motor).
Lets stop for a moment so I can rant a bit over the fact that little imagination is needed to realize that this entire scenario was completely avoidable. We lost a precious dayUs fishing because of sloppy battery maintenance and the ownerUs lack of knowledge about the particulars of his boat, engine and everything else in between.
To add insult to injury, not only had my illustrious Captain Hornblower never read the ownerUs manual (which by now, was quite obvious), we were (not that it would have mattered any way) without a proper rope starting kit. All we had was a 2-1/2-foot section of rope with no handle. I had blisters after the first pull.
Step 4. Manually prime the carburetor.
Step 5. Press in the manual button on the fuel-enrichment valve (read manual to locate) and count to 5. Then wait 20 seconds for the fuel to vaporize in the cylinders.
Step 6. Before pulling the rope, make sure that the throttle is not too far forward in order to keep the engineUs timing stable. The engine should remain in neutral until everyone aboard is ready to safely get under way again. To believe somebody behind a desk actually thought this was possible Q again, probably an engineer.
Step 7. With one fluid motion, pull rope as hard as you can. Ever tried to pull one of these suckers? At the time, I was still young and stupid, but I can tell you this: attempting to push a Greyhound bus would have been easier. After being spotted (luckily) by friends in another boat, we were eventually (once the laughter ceased) towed back to dock. Four visits to the chiropractor later, IUm ready for some more tarpon fishing Q on my own boat. Q Walt Stearns

Originally Published: April 2000
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