Sudden panic turned wheel hard to port and headed out a bit into open water and shut off the engine (of course it was still in drive - more on that later). I hadn't been into this at all so it was new ground for me (second season with this boat and it had never happened before), but the symptom was the stick was just not engaging anything, neither drive nor throttle.
I found if I pushed in on the lever it would catch a detent, so presumed it was somehow loose and indeed that is what it was.
I pulled off the little gromment cover and removed the plastic push-rod and the bolt was loose. I didn't have many tools, but tightened it up with a pair of needle nose pliers! Then the fun began as it would not engage the starter ... I remembered it was in drive when I shut it off, so I must have it in the wrong detent and it was not in neutral; so I played with various positions of the lever until I could get the starter to engage; then since that was obviously Neutral, I loosened the bolt and repositioned the lever to the median verticle position and re-tightened the bolt. Once started it all seemed good, but I headed to my home Bay a couple of miles away, before experimenting further! I wanted to be sure I could repeatedly get it re-started multiple times after stopping and moving the lever into different positions and back to neutral.
So all seemed well, had it re-start multiple times and no issues.
Then it happened again on Saturday (curiously enough, at the same beach I was before!!!!) But at least I knew what it was this time. No tools however (ANOTHER note to self which I had made previously to buy a basic tool kit to keep on board - actually now that I think I have a couple of OEM Motorcycle kits that will do nicely). I was able to position the lever correctly the first time on this occasion and just tighten the bolt enough with my thumb.
When I got back I knew I had to fix it properly to avoid it coming loose again - so removed the bolt, applied some BLUE Loctite and re-installed, this time with a socket and a gentle squeeze - no need to horse it down if using the Loctite. Important to use Blue, so you can remove it if/when you need to.
So my recommendation is just to put that on your check-list - feel for play in the lever across the beam vs fore/aft and/or just check the bolt directly.
And secondly, if you don't have a mini-tool-kit on board, get one!
