evinrude 85hp starflite model #85293R ignition issues?

Hello. I bought a very nice older boat for 500 today. Older man who had it running last year, this year tried to turn the key and it didnt turn over, but when he connected the battery to the starter selonoid it did turn over. is this just the ignition switch? Any suggestions on what i should do and look at on this engine? Thank you for any help.

-Brett

Wiring and/or ignition switch, Run a compression test on motor

#1 thing you should always do in a situation like that is check the throttle position. It shouldn't crank if it is set to a fast position. #2 thing you should always do is check the battery cables connections. Don't just look at them, take them apart and clean them shiny bright then reinstall tightly. These two steps will fix it in the majority of cases. If it still won't crank, don't guess- Test. Get out your trusty multimeter and do some voltage tests. If you don't know how to do that, learn. Or get some help.
Or you can replace parts, spend money and get frustrated.

Well OK perhaps I should have included check the fuse. But you would discover that with your voltage tests.

Um.. the 1972 also has to be in neutral to start.

Thanks for all the info guys! Sorry for the late response, i just didnt want to come back until i had tried some things. So i bought a new marine starting battery to finally and try starting it myself, hoping maybe he just had a lose connection or as stated above it wasnt in neutral. I cleaned up those connections, just the ones on the battery end with a brissel pad, i had the thick negative and thick positive cables running from the solenoid so it was clear what those were for. Other then that i had 1 single black much skinner connection i assumed was a ground so i put it on the ground side.

I made sure the boat was in neutral and throttle in start position before turning the key. I get no noises, no clicks, nothing just silence. motor does not turn over. So i used a one side of some car jumper cables to jump the solenoid and it turn over.

Naturally i assume it must be a bad solenoid then. All marine stores were closed (7:20p) so i just picked up the automotive equivalent to test the theory ( i understand the differences in corrision protection etc, i just wanted to give it a try and if it turns over, bring it back and run to the marine store.)
This dude not fix my problem. Still no clicks no nothing just dead silence, i didnt jump it since its a new solenoid and as mentioned i plan on taking this one back and getting a marine grade. Can someone point me in the right direction as to where to look next? So weird how its not the solenoid, i was convinced!