Ramp ettiquette requires one to stay away from the ramp and its approaches until the vessel is completely rigged and ready for launch. Of course not everyone is vying for the Emile Post of the launching ramp award. Take the bozo with the new sailboat who hasn't a clue how to rig his mast (standing rigging) or to set up his running rigging (sheets, down/out hauls etc. and tries to figure it out by process of ellimination using an exhaustive search method that ensures he tries every possible combination and permutation in pseudo-random order ensuring that some arrangements are tried multiple times. My experience has been that the longer it takes, the less likely that it is done correctly in these evolutions.
I was at one time probably fun to watch at the ramp. I had a partial keel sailboat that sat way high on the trailier to clear the keel above the pavement. The trailer (hot dipped galvanized with stainless steel fenders) had a telescopic double extension tongue to allow backing the trailer WAY out in the water and not getting the tow vehicle in the water. Of course the tongue is only extended on the ramp and used to go in a straight line as it can't take the side force of a turn. You back the trailer down to the water leaving the tires out of the water, chock the wheels, crank down the tongue jack, unpin the tongue's first extension and pull the tow vehicle upo the rampo until fully extended and repin. Sounds easy BUT often some eager bozo has edged down toward you and is in the way, recall you can't turn now. Release second telescopic section, pull forward and pin that then take a strain on the trailer so yo can pull the chocks and back her in. This is not fun for just one person. As thre are frequently drop offs at the deep end of a ramp and you can't pull the trailer up over one of them with the boat on the trailer, launching is OK but retrieval requires high water as in high tide, yet another consideration in the planing stages.
Actually, the most entertaining I think we ever were at a ramp was when my buddy fired up the inboard auxilliary engine on a small sailboat of mine and had a pretty advanced throtle setting and since it had a centrifugal clutch the boat took off down a line of small rental boats with him fending off with his feet untill the boat came to a stop against a padded dock and he went below and throttled down. I was standing on the ramp hoping for the best and trying to look serious. Hey, it was my first sailboat and probably his first time starting the engine (removable hand crank with bicycle chain starter drive). Too bad this predated the ready availability of camcorders, it was a hoot.
Little itsy bitsy trailer wheels have to turn hig RPM to make much road speed. This coupled with overloading gives high bearing temps. Sometimes high enough to make a hiss of steam when the axles hit the water. Any voids/air space in the grease and bearings then contract and suck in water to "help" the grease turn to mayonase. Ever wonder why so many trailers with small wheels are parked at the side of the road with a wheel off, it isn't all flat tires!
Patrick
