Boat launching is easy

[Diamondpilot]

We were at the marina about 10 years ago and a couple took a good 10 minutes to pull a brand new 25' boat up to the dock alone. The man was cussing and yelling at his wife like a **** fool. The boat has temporary tags so its brand new. Had to be a $40,000 boat. She then heads up to the parking lot and gets a brand new Chevy Avalanche pulling the trailer. It has temp tags also. Another $35,000. She tried for a good 6 or so times to back it down but keep getting it all out of whack. The husband is out idling around yelling and cussing the whole time. My friend David went up to offer to back it down for her and she declined. She tried once more and jack knifed it so bad that the fender of the trailer was touching the drivers side of the truck. Not exaggerating. People are screaming and yelling at her to stop and she gets nervous and embarrassed and puts it in drive and takes off. The husband is now ballistic.

She comes back about a 1/2 hour later and a crowd is around checking out the damage to the truck and trailer. The trailer is tweaked. The fender is bent and rubbing the tires on the trailer. The entire drivers side of the bed and rear bumper of the truck along with the rear drivers door are folded in. The husband is going nuts. He tries to get in and back it down and does no better hitting a tree and fence post in the first attempt but finally gets it in. The get the boat up on the trailer and pull it out. I am over there trying to determine if the trailer is road worthy when my dad throws salt in the wound. He says in a loud voice for me to go to his Corvette and get his check book. I ask why? He says because he is going to offer here $20,000 for the whole rig, he is quite sure she will take it. The husband had the look in his eye like he was ready to take my dads head off. I doubt that would have happened because about 75 people at the marina was ready to whip this guy for the way he treated his wife during the whole ordeal.

To this day I have never seen that boat on the lake.

Chris

 

[xtn]

The opposite is pretty impressive to watch also. Our Marina has a ramp that will take three wide...just barely. When several loaders in a row come along that DO know what they're doing, and everything snicks into place like butter with hardly any corrections, it's almost like watching a choreographed dance.

 

[meledward23]

Grider Hill Dock - Lake Cumberland, KY | Flickr - Berbagi Foto!
An oldie but goodie.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Our ramp will take 10 wide but basically people are stupid so 7 is the norm.

Chris

 

[Artisan]

I will stay w/ my 21' MAGNUM Duckworth.

12 Degrees of Constant Deadrise a 460 and a pump and I am a
ship doing layovers in 6" of H2O. If ya hit a rock, you make a dent
and keep on going.

 

[crazyal]

Nothing like seeing a temp plate on a boat trailer at the access. One lunch break I got to watch man with a new boat trying to launch it for the first time late April. Up here the water is numbingly cold that time of year so he decides his two kids should get into the boat before he launches it (the wife's job was to guide him down the ramp). Anyway after trying to back down the ramp a few times with no luck he decides that he's going to use the wheel on the trailer tongue jack and just roll it down the ramp. Being a smart guy he puts a bow line on with the end wrapped around his hand so he can walk it down. The moment he released the coupler on the ball the boat and trailer take off like a rocket. He quickly forgets about trying to hold the tongue and switches to the rope. Luckily the rope slides through his had, burning all the way, instead of dragging him down into the water. The momentum of the boat carried it into deep enough water so the trailer (still attached to the bow) is now acting like an anchor as it's standing straight up underwater.

So there sits dad and mom on shore while the kids sit in the boat. Not a one knows what to do since the bow line is way too short to be thrown to shore and being his first time out with a new boat he doesn't have the usual supply of rope and other boating accessories. So he decides he's going to bite the bullet and swim out to the boat and pull it back in. He get about knee deep before he realizes that there's no way he's going to swim in mid 40 degree water so he returns to shore now with his legs hurting like he's never known before. He finally gives up and calls the boat place he bought it from. They show up with their truck and a dingy to retrieve his boat and kids.

I will admit, through out it all he was upbeat and laughing at himself. If anyone out there is a skier and has ever watched Warren Miller movies you'll remember the scenes he shoots at the top of the chair lift on the beginner's slope. All the beginners falling as they try to get off the lift, the pile ups as those who fell can't get out of the way quick enough for the next chair, and the lift attendant tossing skis out of the way trying to keep the whole thing moving along. Spring on an access ramp is very similar.

 

[Combustix]

Have gone to several ramps in my area just for the entertainment value. Sometimes it can get dangerous especially when the wx is not cooperating. I do believe boat ramps bring out the ugly side of the inexperienced

 

[Artisan]

Lake Mojave, 1991ish. At the ramp a skinny lil elderly gent and his wife
were trying to load there quite large cuddy type lil large twin screw cabin cruiser. He
is in the water, wife backs in, they get loaded, he exists the water and what do we see?
He is in his tighty whities ONLY and thru them, wet, you could see he had
a propeller tatoo'd on each cheek. GAWD that was funny.

 

[Scotty Dive]

It's also funny to watch the bilge pump turn on immediately indicating someone forgot to put the bilge plug in before launching.

 

[Lloyd_E]

A couple of funny stories. I may have been involved may not - not telling....

A friend owned a wooden 30' Cape Island boat. Spent about 6 weeks scraping and painting with no help from his family(he's divorced now - another story) We had the boat towed on its skid to the ramp and pushed down into position for the tide to rise. The tide came up , water starting seeping in through all of the seams - it needed time to swell and I was madly cutting strips of cloth and "corking" the seams as fast as I could. The water kept rising(thank you Johnny Cash) and the boat wasn't floating and water was still coming in somewhere. We started running to the houses near the marina asking for sump pumps etc. It was now getting stressful. I then asked the owner: You did put in the new hull plugs I made for you? The ones left on the cradle. Found the old ones drove them in on the inside and didn't look back. Second to this story as my friend was working on his boat there was always a few old timers hanging around. He was repairing the stern and trying to put oakum in the seams with a screw driver. One of the old guys goes home and comes back with a small canvas bag tied up. As he was opening it up he said the first $20 gets it. Here was a beautiful set(4) of corking irons.
I was too late to speak - lost out. We asked him to show us how to use them. He did one seam and started another. We told him we couldn't understand the pressure needed etc. He did another seam(six seams needed to be done). We asked more questions and he continued... almost completing when he finally said "you have to do it to learn and it takes about 40 years!" He laughed and walked away...

One more... my good friend(met him 10 years ago) is the grandson of a famous schooner builder here. We were hauling his boat out(last boat his grandfather built - 29' bright work mahogany hull) this older gent/bystander keep telling him what to do. At first it was great but it became tired and PITA after a while...(this is when you should bit your tongue and say nothing)I was ready to tell the guy to shove it. My friend came from a long line of boat builders and seamen... including his father. He knew how to do it. I never meet his father before... until he was telling my friend how it should be done! It was a year or two later that I told the story to both of them... they had a great chuckle over it.

Boat launching can be fun, exciting and frustrating and to think up here you may have a window of 2 months for enjoyment... maybe 3 if you push it.

Diamond Pilot tells it straight... that idiot would have been dangerous to everyone on the water - including himself - but he wouldn't know it - sad!