Ramp accidents have you had one?

[68Slalom]

Great posts, I learned a bunch today

[ron]

Dammm.... Makes me want to leave my new BU on the trailer all season. to much risk to put a nice new boat any where near a boat landing !

actually taking the trailer back to house my wife did not realize the rear of trailer takes a short cut on a turn and put the rear of trailer solidly into a massive tree at end of driveway. bent the fender real good.

[Molarbu]

Okay, I have to add one to this. I've spent way too much time on this site, but I was able to glean a ton of good info. One thing I had read about was to put pledge on the trailer bunks to facilitate loading/unloading. I really had a hard time getting the boat off the trailer without practically submerging everything about 8-12" from the top of the guideposts so I added a full can of pledge to those babies. Well, the next time I went I put the trailer about 1/3 the way into the water and unhooked the bow strap. I got back in the suburban and put it in reverse and the small jerk of the transmission caused the boat to launch! A buddy of mine had the rope so it didn't go far, but I'm so lucky it didn't bottom out coming off the trailer. That was one of those pucker incidents, especially with like the 3rd launch of a brand new boat. Bottom line: don't underestimate the pledge.

[JAGMAN]

Another example of why you should never unhook the boat before it is time to launch! Glad you didn't hurt your Bu...

[Faceplant409]

The only thing I'd call a near miss is we went to the Delta to Tower Park. They put the trailer in the water for me to drive up on and it was real windy, I was nervous (forgot to put the bimini down-sail) as I had to make an "S" turn against the current and wind with REAAAL expensive day cruisers tied up all around me. And it was real tight... Yep, I blew it. Had the boat sideways to the trailer. and almost hit a brand new Donzi with the swim deck... Eventually ended up throwing a rope to the guy at my trailer to get me turned around. A crappy ending to a great day. I guess it wasn't that bad, I did not hit anything...

P

[srud]

Have I had a boat ramp accident. Hmmm let's see.....

Forgot to put drain plug, and forgot to raise the stern drive on my Glastron which resulted in a scratched and bent skeg. I ground up my prop on a really crappy ramp (again on the Glastron). Last one was 2 years ago when put a 5 foot scratch on my vRide 2 weeks after I took delivery when trying to load on a windy day. Learning sure is expensive! Now I let my CFO drive the boat on the trailer.

[LS-One]

See the fins above the tailight ? I remember my dad (when I was about seven) putting one of those through the side of his brand new flatbottom about CF number height while doing a u-turn. Boy was he pi$$ed.

[bu2007vlx]

I used to do it with my sanger, but after I saw a family lose its load at the ramp everything changed. I take off the transom tie downs but leave the bow on until in the water. We have too much money vested in our bu's

Edited June 5, 2007 by bu2007vlx

[jetskipro550]

We had a sort of close one the other day. My dad was driving the boat (in his defense he hadn't loaded/driven the boat yet this season) on the trailer and was coming in at too steep of an angle. Because of the current, and the launch being on a point, you have to drive the boat on the trailer at a 35-45 degree angle and right before you get to the guide poles straighten out the boat. Well he came in too steep and thought he would miss the guide pole, so he gave it a little reverse. Right before he put it in reverse I yelled, "No, don't put..." It was too late. The second he put it in reverse he was screwed. The dock is about 10ft. from the starboard side of the boat, and the fast moving current will throw you against the dock if you miss the trailer, to make matters worse there was a boat sitting up against the dock.

I could see my dad starting to freak a little so I yelled for him to give it enough gas to keep him from hitting the dock/boat at the dock (which was perpendicular to the boat at the time) but not enough gas to hit the trailer. I ran up to the car, jumped in and pulled the trailer out just in time for him to swing the arse of the boat around and get away from the dock. Then he came around again and made another attempt to put the boat on the trailer. This time however, he under compensated and didn't angle the boat enough and the current started to take him into the dock. I yelled for him to floor it and he just looked at me. I yelled again and he did it, and just barely got the boat wedged onto the trailer sideways. I had to go out in the water and push and pull the boat off the bunks and get it aligned and straight

To make matters worse, I had just been up in the parking lot talking with another guy in line, making fun of people that can't drive their boats (it was a busy day and the idiots were out in full force) and he stood their in amazement watching our whole ordeal. I pulled the boat out of the water and didn't stop in the parking lot, but drove about a 1/2 mile down the road out of sheer humiliation.

I got out of the car and asked my dad what happened, and he had no idea. I kind of felt bad, cause he has NEVER had a problem loading/unloading the boat, and it must have just been a total brain fart...but twice in a row We lucked out cause he could have smashed up our boat and the one on the dock pretty good, but thankfully we escaped with nothing more then some scratches on the hull and a hurt pride.

[robert12]

NEVER try to grab the winch handle if it is spining fast my nabor un hooked the boat released the winch and when the boat took off and the handle was spining about 10000rpm he tried to grab it and it almost riped his finger off HE NEVER DID THAT AGAIN and naither will i (after seeing the scares)

[mrothwell]

NEVER try to grab the winch handle if it is spining fast my nabor un hooked the boat released the winch and when the boat took off and the handle was spining about 10000rpm he tried to grab it and it almost riped his finger off HE NEVER DID THAT AGAIN and naither will i (after seeing the scares)

Ouch - I'll file that under the "don't try and stop the boat, rolling down the driveway, from hitting your truck with your hand"

[tgaugh]

Ouch - I'll file that under the "don't try and stop the boat, rolling down the driveway, from hitting your truck with your hand"

Entirely too damn funny, I was just browsin' around and literally spit out my drink....HAHAHAHA

[NorCaliBu]

Ouch - I'll file that under the "don't try and stop the boat, rolling down the driveway, from hitting your truck with your hand"

Entirely too damn funny, I was just browsin' around and literally spit out my drink....HAHAHAHA

Alright you two, knock it off.

Got to admit it was funny though.

[vlxjeff]

Not exactly a launch ramp accident, but near a launch ramp....

This happened at Oroville last weekend. It happened on the north end near Lime Saddle Marina.

Here's the full story...

Paradise Post

[BlastRlxi]

I bet he dinged his prop on that big rock.

[srud]

Thank God it ended it run there! I could have been on a busy swimming beach. Looks like a clear cut case of extremely poor judgement on the drivers part.

[NorCaliBu]

The boat's estimated worth is between $150,000 to $250,000.

Should read "The boat's estimated worth was between..." You can't fix stupid.

Hey D-GOOSE - See you're not the only one who has hit shore.

Edited June 7, 2007 by NorCaliBu

[jayjoans]

NEVER try to grab the winch handle if it is spining fast my nabor un hooked the boat released the winch and when the boat took off and the handle was spining about 10000rpm he tried to grab it and it almost riped his finger off HE NEVER DID THAT AGAIN and naither will i (after seeing the scares)

spinning, neighbor, unhooked, spinning, ripped, neither, I, scars.

(14% of the entire post)

[gooddog]

He is lucky he landed in that draw...if he had been left or right 50 feet it would have made a much bigger impact.

[O man]

I unhook the back when I check to make sure I have the plug in. When backing down the ramp I leave the front strap on tight with the safety chain on as well.

[naughty girl]

we witnessed this yesterday while waiting to pull out at New Melones.

[bigD]

What the heck was going on there,some sort of U turn ? idiots.

[naughty girl]

What the heck was going on there,some sort of U turn ? idiots.

nope - so they let the rear ropes go, fire up the engine with the propeller not lowered - sorry, i'm not savvy in my terminology so you're getting the girls version. i'm sure my hubby can chime in with the boys terminology that will probably make more sense so once they fired it up, the wind starts moving back and then sideways. we're yelling at them to lower the prop and they're yelling back "we know". the last pic is of the know it all girl jumping from the tuna boat to avoid striking the other docked boat. all we could do is take pictures. can't let a photo opp like that by

[SacRiverRat]

What was the dude in the White truck doing? Backing up to pick up that HB?

[naughty girl]

What was the dude in the White truck doing? Backing up to pick up that HB?

no - that's our truck and our buddy was waiting to pick us up. this whole wally fiasco transpired as our buddy was making the u-turn on the ramp so he just sat there and waited for the wally ship to get out of the way.