Launch Ramp Fun

[Lakenut]

LOL.....This is just what I needed today!!!!!!!

Here is a story. Jetski will appreciate it. 2 summers ago we were finishing up a sunset slalom set at Table Rock. We were getting everything put away and enjoying the evening. Out of nowhere comes a brand new 2000000hp sea doo with two riders. They slow down and let one rider off and then proceede to rip up the calm of the evening. About 5 minutes later the rider decided to try and spray their buddy who was standing on shore. After no luck with a few slow passes, the rider goes all out and opens her up, freaks out at the last minute, lets up on the gas, then tries to turn. It takes the guy a few seconds to remeber that no throttle=no turn. It was too late. The dude drove the thing at least 3 boat lengths up on the gravel/chunk rock shore. The funniest part was when he did give it some gas and try to turn, he was in the gravel and you could hear the impeller chewing the stuff up.

Despite the very strong urge to laugh as we left them there, we did give one of the riders a lift back to their camp site where they had an I/O ready to go salvage the sea doo. On the ride back, the gal sad that this was the first time the sea doo had been on the water. I really had to bite my toung.

[RiverRunner]

Ran across this picture the other day that I took last Aug. at the boat ramp.

The wallies are out in full force at our favorite ramp. So far this year: The ramp is two lanes wide, we are waiting for a buddy to put the trailer in, the two wallies in front of him each use boat lanes of the ramp and take forever to load, thought our buddy was going to loose it. The other was this past Saturday and not the first time it has happen, we pull over to load the gear, people, etc. into the boat before getting in line for the ramp. Wally in a huge I/O goes past us backs down the ramp, basically parks on the ramp, another suv of people pulls up blocking the turn around on the ramp and proceeds to unload gear and them selves onto the boat. The two people in front of us at the ramp, a boat, then a trailer with two jet skis and us had unloaded and the I/O Wally was still sitting on the ramp.

[Baddog]

About a week ago, I went for a ride over to the coast to get some seafood, and the place I go has a public boat ramp. I made sure I got there before dusk to watch some boat ramp fun. I was not dissappointed. The first people to load went like this:

Guy backs his trailer down the ramp. This is a big boat with dual V-8 outboards, probably around 27 feet or so. His wife, to her credit, idles the boat up the trailer very well, properly centered, good speed, etc. She gives it a little juice and the bow eye of the boat comes to rest maybe 18" or so away from the front v-guide, at which point she kills the engines and starts to trim up the motors. I thought she did a great job.

Well her husband, not being happy with having to winch a foot or so, starts yelling at her to come up the trailer more. So she lowers the engines, cranks them up and starts adding power but the boats not moving. I guess she got sick of listening to hubby scream at her at a public ramp so she guns it. The boat made it to the v-guide, then proceeded to bend the whole beam the guide was attached to forward by about a foot, the very front of the boat almost making contact with his tailgate, him jumping out of the way as he was standing on the trailer and almost got pinned.

AS they pulled up to the tie down area, still screaming at each other, I saw the temporary tag on the trailer...

Scary stuff here. It boggles the mind how stupid, stupid people can be. Both of them in that case.

[trace]

the worst one i've seen was a couple years ago, and went like this...

two guys were loading up a late-90's Sport Nautique. i guess the guy that went for the trailer did so because the other guy couldn't back a trailer, but maybe they didn't discuss driving the boat. the ramps at this place have little piers between each side of each lane going out into the water (it was the 360 bridge, if you're local). boat guy comes in literally ON PLANE, going about 20 mph. trailer guy starts screaming & freaking out when boat guy's intentions become clear to him. boat guy responds by flooring it in reverse, the back of the boat swings around and hits the end of the pier HARD on the port side, ripping a ~1' square hole completely thru the side of the hull, just above the waterline. there's a chunk of hull about the size of a floor tile dangling by the sticker.

trailer guy looks like he's crying at this point. boat guy idles out in front of the ramps to regroup, and goes over to the port side to inspect the damage. he looks from behind where the damage is and down the side of the boat towards the rear, so he doesn't see the giant hole. he stands up and theatrically wipes his brow like "WHEW!"

i've also pulled a Honda and a Camaro out of the lake (towing PWCs), after they were in up to the doors.

[BlastRlxi]

the worst one i've seen was a couple years ago, and went like this...

two guys were loading up a late-90's Sport Nautique. i guess the guy that went for the trailer did so because the other guy couldn't back a trailer, but maybe they didn't discuss driving the boat. the ramps at this place have little piers between each side of each lane going out into the water (it was the 360 bridge, if you're local). boat guy comes in literally ON PLANE, going about 20 mph. trailer guy starts screaming & freaking out when boat guy's intentions become clear to him. boat guy responds by flooring it in reverse, the back of the boat swings around and hits the end of the pier HARD on the port side, ripping a ~1' square hole completely thru the side of the hull, just above the waterline. there's a chunk of hull about the size of a floor tile dangling by the sticker.

trailer guy looks like he's crying at this point. boat guy idles out in front of the ramps to regroup, and goes over to the port side to inspect the damage. he looks from behind where the damage is and down the side of the boat towards the rear, so he doesn't see the giant hole. he stands up and theatrically wipes his brow like "WHEW!"

i've also pulled a Honda and a Camaro out of the lake (towing PWCs), after they were in up to the doors.

I'm surprised he didn't break the transmission.

[stusumm]

I witnessed a first for me yesterday. Surfing behind a I/O, and it didn't even have any kind of platform. Yikes!

[Polock]

What great timing, this just happened this weekend....

We were staying at my buddies lake house which is right next to the launch ramp (absolutely great to eat dinner on the patio and watch all the knuckleheads)!!! Anyways, his friend came up Saturday morning with his brand new Centurion as a first time boat owner. My friend went to go give him a hand and since I was slightly more hungover than him I thought that I would just sit on the patio and watch. The boat owner backs the boat down the single lane ramp pretty good. My friend was driving the boat and couldn't get it to start, after a few minutes of bickering back and forth the bilge pump starts to pump water out and my friend asked the owner if he put the plug in. The guy was like oh sh@t and ran to pull the trailor up. At this point I'm about to fall off the balcony laughing and talking as much smack to them as humanly possible. After a few minutes they backed it back down for a second run at it. The boat starts and the owner un-hooked the front. He tried to push the nose of the boat off but it didn't move. He told my friend to back it off and he was like "I am!!!!". They start arguing back and forth and telling each other that they don't know what they're doing. I just kept stirring the pot from the balcony telling them that their problem is on the side of the boat... it says Centurion and not Malibu!!!!! Then they noticed that the boat and trailer started to float toward the dock and the owner did the "oh sh@t, highway straps are still on!!!!" I literally fell on the ground laughing. When they were tying it up to the dock I brought them a couple of beers to congratulate them on their hard work

[River Rat]

I have a friend that is a Formula dealer and he recounts a tale that happened a couple of years ago. A customer came in and bought a brand new 27 foot twin engine Formula and made arrangements to pick it up a couple of days later. When the customer came back for the boat, he was driving a brand new Suburban. The dealer went with the guy to the local ramp to go over launching and trailering info, but only over the customer's objections. My buddy said that he was "required" to do it--something about insurance, etc., when really he knew that the customer would ruin the new boat...

They had the sea trial and the customer checked out ok with operating the boat. The dealer made arrangements to meet him back at the ramp after a day on the water to assist with loading.

My buddy got a call about an hour before the scheduled meeting time and the customer asked him to come down to the ramp to help. When he got there, he found the Formula sitting on the top of the Suburban, still sitting on the ramp with the trailer in the water. The dealer said that this gives new meaning to the phrase "drive on trailer". Apparantly he hit the throttle to "coax" the boat up onto the trailer. I just wish he had taken a picture!! It was about $100k trashed between the boat and truck...

[tgaugh]

My new neighbor came over today and told me a story about a couple women who purchased a new boat from a local Nautique dealer (my neighbords friend is the dealer).

The ladies called from the lake after delivery complaining that the boat would not get up over 15mph. The dealer went down to the lake and met them at the launch to understand what was happening and help. He proceded to remove the boat from the trailer and show them how to launch the boat. Apparently the ladies unhooked the trailer from the truck and proceeded to drive around the lake with the boat attached to the trailer via transom straps.

I have no picture, and nothing to prove factual aside from my neighbor who got the story first hand from the dealer. I was dying laughin picturing how you would even pull that off let alone think this there is anything correct about disconnecting the trailer from the truck and not the boat.

* While we are busy making fun of everyone else....Last summer mid-season, I was so excited to get back out one afternoon that I tried to launch and forgot to unhook the bow eye. Must have took me a minute to realize and a couple really deep back-ins on the trailer thinking I wasn't deep enough and the bunks were dry. What a moron!

[lake_bum83]

This thread made my day... funny stuff.

If there was a TV station that had live feeds of boat ramps... I would watch that thing all the time.

[Orange&MaliBlue]

Last summer...

On a very crowded ramp, with trailers lined up waiting their turn, an obviously drunk boater was trying to get his souped up speed boat (the kind with the very loud open air engine with the huge exhaust pipes sticking out the back) onto his trailer. He was out of his boat in about waist deep water trying to maneuver his boat on the trailer by hand. He decides the best way to do this is to reach over the gunnel, turn the key on and give it a little gas. Well, he turns it on and the throttle was WIDE open. The boat, cranks up, revvs way up and shoots over his trailer, which acts like a ramp, gets airborne and lands inside the guy's pickup truck bed. How it didnt kill his buddy who was working on the winch is a miracle.

The really funny part is when he cranked the motor wide open, it was extremely loud and got everyone's attention who was at the ramp. Everyone, including the on duty Sherrif' s Deputy saw what happened. After the SD checked to see if his buddy was OK, he promptly walked over and cuffed the guy right there and put him in the back of a squad car.

[Lakenut]

Those speed boats are worse than PWCs in my opinion.

[wakechick3]

I am guilty of not unhooking the transom straps!

years ago with our cobalt i had gotten some transom straps, well first time out for the season i forgot to unhook them.....my husband couldnt get the boat off, so i backed in deeper...still no luck...then i notice the trailer floating!....bout 15 min. later i figure what it is, so i pull her up and take care of it. Our friends who are trolling around in thier boat are dying laughing at us......

so we finally get out of the no wake zone and hit the throttle and my husbands hat blows off, so we slow and turn around to get it, and something knocks the accidental kill swith. so after we fish the hat out, we cant get her started....another 15 min. with our friends trying to figure out what is wrong...one of us finally figured it out.....we were exasperated when we finally got going.

so now i have the new 'bu....2nd time out im by myself and forget about the transom straps...but i knew right away the prob. Later trying to put her on the trailer, she just wouldnt go on strait so i kept backing up, i did give a little bump to the dock but the 'bu is a little different than driving my i/o on, but i got it now.

I had a good laugh at myself!

[vlxjeff]

I am guilty of not unhooking the transom straps!

Yep, I'm guilty as well, but I was smart enough to do it the same day that I forgot to put the transom plug in.

But my excuse to all this was back in my wally days with the I/O.

[GoldschlagerVT]

I am guilty of not unhooking the transom straps!

Yep, I'm guilty as well, but I was smart enough to do it the same day that I forgot to put the transom plug in.

But my excuse to all this was back in my wally days with the I/O.

I had one incident with our I/O where it was on our lift, and I didn't know anybody pulled the plug. So I lowered it, went up to the house, came back down an hour later to find the boat sitting on the lift again... just a little wet. Luckily I didn't lower the lift that far under it, we just raised the lift slowly, letting the water drain, and let the boat dry out. It started right up later that night.

[hobell]

Lot of great stories about the "other guy," not so funny when the "walley" is me and the boat is my future father-in-laws. It been almost a year now, think I am ready to bear all...

Just dropped the fiance and our buddy off at Lake Billy Chinook for a beautiful mid-week, evening ski set. Drove to the top of the ramp (about 100 yrds) and jumped out of my truck to grab my State Park day pass from the machine all-the-while whistling a jolly tune (for it's not every-day I can take a take a half-day off from work AND get the father-in laws prostar 190). So I turn, kick-step with delight, only to find my truck and trailing missing? Long and short of it, the e-brake foot lever gave out (manual trans) sending my truck and trailer speeding down the ramp. The only thing that stopped it from submersing itself to the bottom of the lake was a rather large dumpster, and upon impact with said dumpster, the trailer jack knifes so far around that the guide bars (at the rear of the trailer) smash my driver side door! Best part is, when another boat drove out to tell my fiance what I had just done, she was just not the least bit suprised, "yeah, that sounds 'bout right for him..."

Edited April 25, 2006 by hobell

[RiverRunner]

Lot of great stories about the "other guy," not so funny when the "walley" is me and the boat is my future father-in-laws. It been almost a year now, think I am ready to bear all...

Just dropped the fiance and our buddy off at Lake Billy Chinook for a beautiful mid-week, evening ski set. Drove to the top of the ramp (about 100 yrds) and jumped out of my truck to grab my State Park day pass from the machine all-the while whistling a jolly tune (for it's not every-day I can take a take a half-day off from work AND get the father-in laws prostar 190). So I turn, kick-step with delight, only to find my truck and trailing missing? Long and short of it, the e-brake foot lever gave out (manual trans) sending my truck and trailer speeding down the ramp. The only that stopped it from submersing itself to the bottom of the lake was a rather large dumpster, and upon impact with said dumpster, the trailer jack knifes so far around that the guide bars (at the rear of the trailer) smash my driver side door! Best part is, when another boat drove out to tell my fiance what I had just done, she was just not the least bit suprised, "yeah, that sounds 'bout right for him..."

Is this Slider? seems I remember hearing a story like this...

[hobell]

Lot of great stories about the "other guy," not so funny when the "walley" is me and the boat is my future father-in-laws. It been almost a year now, think I am ready to bear all...

Just dropped the fiance and our buddy off at Lake Billy Chinook for a beautiful mid-week, evening ski set. Drove to the top of the ramp (about 100 yrds) and jumped out of my truck to grab my State Park day pass from the machine all-the while whistling a jolly tune (for it's not every-day I can take a take a half-day off from work AND get the father-in laws prostar 190). So I turn, kick-step with delight, only to find my truck and trailing missing? Long and short of it, the e-brake foot lever gave out (manual trans) sending my truck and trailer speeding down the ramp. The only that stopped it from submersing itself to the bottom of the lake was a rather large dumpster, and upon impact with said dumpster, the trailer jack knifes so far around that the guide bars (at the rear of the trailer) smash my driver side door! Best part is, when another boat drove out to tell my fiance what I had just done, she was just not the least bit suprised, "yeah, that sounds 'bout right for him..."

Is this Slider? seems I remember hearing a story like this...

No, no. Slider is my fiance's cousin and my boss - not sure I am OK with him getting laughs at my expsense though, hmm

[skistud1]

Don't know if I should be putting this on here. Probably not. One day I'm putting in the bu' at the state park ramp and I can't figure out why the boat isn't sliding off the trailer. Well, in my excitement to start the season, I neglected to take off the transom tie downs. Always learning from mistakes, I try to put in my boat as quickly / safely as possible. Arrive prepared, don't hold up the line.

[lake_bum83]

2 years ago we sold our old boat to a friend of ours that had started coming back to the lake at our dock and was looking to upgrade his boat. He bought our boat in the late fall after the season was over and took it out once or twice before he put it up. So, he has the boat winterized and all and next summer he is coming up the first weekend with his family. By just happen chance me and my brother are walking to our slip and see them on the ramp, really struggling to get the boat unloaded so we go to help. (In all fairness, our ramp is a little tricky to back down and unload). Anyway, I end up sitting in the truck helping his son back down and my brother gets in the boat with his dad and the rest of the family to kind of help em off and get em going. Luckily, we were the only ones on the ramp. So, we let em off the trailer and they start putting around and I'm pulling off the ramp and kinda watching em to make sure they start and get going before I pull all the way off. They crank up and start off and start driving away. As I turn to go park I hear my brother start screaming to come back. Basically, as they got off the trailer and start putting away, my brother sitting in the observer seat, heard the bilge kick. Water is just shooting out the side. So he tells the guy to hold up and lifts the engine. The plug is out and water is pouring in. The guys says don't worry, the bag just leaks a little, the bilge will take care of it. My brother is frantically trying to convince him he needs to load his boat and he is just like "Nah, its fine, its just the bag". Then water starts coming in the back of the boat as well. Turns out all the plugs were out from the winterizing. At this point my brother just yells for me to come back and the funny thing is the guy was still arguing that it was the bag the whole time til we loaded the boat and my brother showed him all the plug holes and we found the plugs in the glovebox. It was just crazy. I guess he wouldn't have been convinced until they were hull up that it wasn't just he bag leaking. It was hilarious.

[vlxjeff]

I found this article in Houseboat Magazine and this survey applies to this thread.

There's some interesting results here.

Houseboat Magazine

[sgtsandbagger]

These stories are too funny They almost don't seem real. This is what happened to me on Sunday.

When I took my boat out to the public ramp for it's 3rd time in the water, I was rushing things a little and always have to look like I know what I'm doing. (Even though I don't with this boat)

I have the boat trailer lifted about 4 inches higher than normal to help with ground clearance, so when I went to quickly step over the side so my wife could back in, I almost left the family jewels on top of the gunnels. I was fighting off passing out so the 38 ft Baja owner next to me with the blonde girls wouldn't notice. My wife could only see me in the truck's rear view mirror and she could tell from the lack of color in my face that I was hurt. It still hurts!

To cap it all off I've already fell off that thing a couple of times too.

[srud]

That smarts. You're suppose to grab your ankle when you do that in mixed company.

[Baddog]

That smarts. You're suppose to grab your ankle when you do that in mixed company.

Or start yelling at the wife about anything. Deflect, deceive, derive; whatever it takes to get the pressure off of you.

[sgtsandbagger]

That smarts. You're suppose to grab your ankle when you do that in mixed company.

Or start yelling at the wife about anything. Deflect, deceive, derive; whatever it takes to get the pressure off of you.

I'm already making the wife a little too uptight about the new boat as it is. If I would've deflected to much towards her I would've been riding all the way back home in the boat while she just turned up the CD player in the truck.

I almost did the same thing crawling out of the boat today while cleaning it. I'm going to make some scaffolding to go around this thing!