"john" wrote:
My last boat sunk for this exact reason.

How old was the boot? And was it moored in salt or fresh water?

I've owned a couple of sterndrives over the years, with boots that
became fairly old ( 10 yrs), but I would never leave them in the
water. Well.... except maybe a weekend here and there or a week
(vacation) when I planned to use it every day.
From what I've seen of moored boats, I would think a boot would last a
lot longer kept in fresh water than salt.

Rick