Update: I'm not entirely surprised, but last night the silicone hose failed. We went out for a late-season night cruise, and of course we were just idling for probably close to an hour, when suddenly the exhaust makes a much louder sound. It's clearly the sound of exhaust dumping out under the engine cover, and I shut the engine off right away. When I opened the engine cover, there was nothing visible, and no extra water anywhere. A quick look around revealed the starboard side hose completely SPLIT down the side, along the length of the hose over a span of about 8 inches. The fact that it wasn't spewing water out means, of course, there wasn't much, if any, going down that side.

I was able to wrap some webbing around the hose to sort of keep it together, then move a hose clamp and use another strap I had to keep the webbing in place, just enough to get home. I ran at a speed just above idle to keep water flow going, but not any faster so as not to put excess strain on the rest of the hose - or to fill the bilge with exhaust water.

I still don't think this is a water flow problem before the manifold, but rather an issue later in the system, possibly a partial blockage in the muffler. The reason I think this is because I have addressed all possible water flow issues in past years with the system leading up to the manifolds. I don't know who it was on this forum who had the problem recently, but someone who had redone their floors had a similar problem and found the muffler to be the culprit. The fact that the issue stays on the starboard side only is more evidence that it's not a water supply problem.

My dilemma now is what to do with the boat at this point. The floor is absolutely solid. The motor mounts are... pretty solid. But I know it's all original, and we all know what that means. I love the boat but it's not my dream to own it forever. I have money set aside for a new boat, but I'd have to sell this one. I will be sleeping on this, but I'm tempted to take this as the reason to rip up the floor and replace everything from the front seats to the transom - I'm sure there is some water-soaked foam, if not much rotten wood yet. I've seen plenty of boats that were caught early - before there were any major signs of rot - and didn't need a full bow-to-stern gut. I'm just terrified to go down that road because I know where it usually goes.

Or should I just get another 3' section of VHT silicone hose for $150 and remember to bump up the RPMs a little more?

See my handy band-aid fix to get the boat home without massive noise and/or water filling the bilge. It wasn't bad actually - you could hardly hear the difference!

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