After having owned a 1996 90hp Mariner outboard with a Quicksilver control set for a few months with NO problems, I thought I would finally relent on a hot calm day and go ski a bit, leaving my wife and daughter to run the boat (first time) and spot. I crash, they come about and go off to pick up a ski I dropped 1/4 mile back to try to ski on one. They cut the engine to pick up the ski, and it won't start again. I yell directions across the water for the whole start process (lever to neutral-check, kill switch up-check, turn key....) wife says all that happens is a loud hum in the engine, no turnover, no click, nothing else. I swim back to the boat, sure enough the engine is humming like a bad transformer, and keeps humming with the key in or out. I disconnect the positive terminal of the battery and it stops, I reconnect, and without a key, the engine cranks and keeps cranking. It will start only with the key in and turned, but it cranks no matter what as long as its connected to a battery. So how does this starter work and what might be happening here?? Just out of curiousity, how would my wife have accomplished this feat??