Has your wife ever surprised you with boat skills?

[oldjeep]

And it's all in the approach. My wife doesn't back the trailer but on a slow day at the ramp I garauntee that we would have some laughs. There wouldn't be any stress etc.... Busy day though wouldn't be the day to teach my wife.

I've never had the guts to try to teach my wife to back a trailer. She hates driving the truck as it is. She did actually pull the empty trailer a few miles one time because it was preferable to crossing one of the big areas of lake vermillion in a wind storm.

[Kmart25]

My wife drives the boat, I have trailer duty. She never drives the tow vehicle. When I am with my pals I make them drive the tow rig and I drive the boat.

I learned my lesson in letting someone drive your tow rig.... Dude backs the trailer in spot on, I drive it up on it, we hook her up, he goes to pull us out and the moron didn't set the parking break and had all the weight sitting on the tranny. Rather than telling me the issue and letting me take the boat off the trailer he forces it into drive and breaks the linkage right in the middle of the launch.

My fiance can back my double axle down my driveway about 50' alongside my house. The boat trailer is like 9' wide and the gate is like 9' 8"

Take the guide posts off and there is seriously like 3-4 inches on each side the whole 50' back.... First time she did it though it took an hour and 45 minutes and I'm pretty sure the neighbors thought there was about to be some domestic violence in the street. The guy right next door came out after about a hour with some beers.... he got a pretty good kick out of it. lol

[Technicallyabu]

Broke the linkage? Never heard of that happening. My wife never uses the parking brake (I've stopped asking her to use it) but no issue yet luckily. You must drive a dodge or chev? A Toyota or Nissan wouldn't have pulled it up the ramp at all so I know its not one of those.

I jest.

Edited August 25, 2015 by Technicallyabu

[oldjeep]

I've never used the parking brake at a ramp either. That must be a heck of a steep ramp or weak park pawl.

[85 Barefoot]

even still, why put all that weight on it? I always go reverse, neutral, park brake, foot off brake, let vehicle "rest" on the brake, go to park, then do boat, then go to drive, then drop parking break. The sounds are certainly more acceptable!

[RTS]

^^^^ That's how I've always done it.

[RTS]

You two must throw some great parties! You know, free samples n all.

Ha! No sampling much anymore...but back when she first got started she repped a cough syrup with Codiene in it. Had a garage full of the stuff in little tiny bottles. So much so that I could only get 2 cars in a three car garage. If anyone would have known what was in those 100's of boxes, we would have been robbed twice a week...at least. Couldn't even be shipped UPS or Fedex...had to come via some specialized carrier. Then she drove around all day with a trunk full of the stuff to hand out to Docs. I think it was what the youngsters need to make Sizzurp...or whatever that is.

We are both glad the drug sampling days are behind her.

Edited August 26, 2015 by RTS

[danieljohsnon]

My girl friend pulls me all the time. I only have 2 other guys who can pull me surfing or wakeboarding but they are not always able to make it. Unfortunately, everytime she has to drive is with 5+ new boaters chattering and not paying attention to the rider.. I still unload and load the boat but Im getting close to letting her try, it would make the process a lot easier and quicker. It is easy to get mad at her when I fall or she doubles around to pick me up but then I remember driving a boat is 10X harder than driving a car. Unless you drive a boat you will never know.. wind, current, wakes all play a factor esp with 1200LBS sacs.

[ndahlberg12]

My wife is a champ. She never backed ANY trailer until we bought our boat 2 1/2 years ago. She knew she had 2 choices, back the trailer or load the boat. She won't load the boat but man she learned how to back a trailer in a hurry. She slams that trailer into some tight ramps like threading a needle. Several times we have been in line to load and she has hoped out of our truck and into someone else's to back the trailer in cause they can't get it. She has out several men to shame.

We can load in 2 minutes flat.

She backs in, hops out and gets the winch ready, I Drive the boat on and she finishes winching it up and pulls out. If it's a slow ramp day she will always stop so I can pull the drain plug and let it drain while it's on an incline.

[cowwboy]

My wife is amazing, she is the one who normally drives the truck / trailer. She is great on the boat side also.

I am a very lucky husband for sure.

Out of my group of friends we have quite a few wives that really can handle the boats / trucks.

She and her girlfriends have taken it out by themselves before for girls trips with no issues.

[Joeprunc]

Pictures or it didn't happen

Nice one!

My wife impresses me every time out and especially on the ramp. Yesterday I dropped her off at the crowded ramp and could tell she was getting watched by several spectators. For one, she's still quite a looker in her bikini and two, could tell they thought there was about to be cluster on the ramp with all the traffic already and she would add to it. She pulled around, threaded the needle with the trailer in between several rigs, backed down perfectly straight, dunked bunks, pulled up to the perfect depth, I winched on, boom. You coulda picked up several jaws. Her new tow rig was probably contributing as well.

My ex was a decent boat driver, she could pull me through the course, but didn't like to. As for parking the boat all I have is a hoist, so no boat ramp shenanigans in my daily boating.

I've been teaching my new girlfriend, but she seems to get very nervous and anxious when things get hectic. So for now to get a pull through the course I need someone else.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Joeprunc

[chris4x4gill2]

Mine is a good boat driver, but relunctant to do so most of the time. If there are any other drivers on board, she will let them drive rather than doing so herself, but when she does drive she does it well.

Where she really shine is with the truck and trailer. I'll put her up against jsut about anyone in that catogory. We ended up at a busy public ramp - 2 lane, small courtesy dock - during a holiday weekend a few years back. Complete cluster...... people going all directions and parking in front of the ramp to prep trailers and whatever else. I nose in to the only open space of the dock, she steps off and I circle out of the way. She backs the Quad Cab F250 through an "S" maze of other trailers and into the water and we are loaded and gone in less than 60 seconds. Plenty of befuddled looks from the masses.

[williemon]

Yep! That's all I can say about that. Oh yea, she also pulls me pretty good on slalom or wakeboard. Still getting used to just how much throttle to give it while pulling me up on slalom but we are getting there. We both prefer that I cover backing the trailer and docking. I am lucky to have a private club ramp on our lake so it's not busy. I can back trailer and load the boat since no one is waiting. I don't like to drive the boat on the trailer so I walk it on. I can do it no problem but with the prop having limited clearance on the trailer I'd rather not take a chance. Years ago we practiced with our I/o with her backing the trailer. These days we don't have time like we used to what with kids and all. We are both getting used to the docking on this inboard.

[Michigan boarder]

We were at our kids' soccer game Tuesday night and I took a minute to look at her and say "Hey.........(pause while she looks at me, so I know I have her full attention).....thanks for being so awesome with the boat. You know how much I love getting out there, and you being able to do all the driving, docking, etc. just makes it so much nicer. So thank you". I think she appreciated that.

[sledandski]

My wife always backs our rig in. I pull the boat off and wait for her. When we get back I drop her off and drive the boat on once she backs the trailer in. Last time at the launch a guy parked his Harley along the side of her line so she did not have a straight approach to the ramp and she had another guy temporarily park his rig on the right side of her line but 50ft in front of the Harley. Needless to say it was not an easy backing up job and she did in perfectly!! Its always fun watching her back a trailer in better than many of the guys she is backing in next too (4 lane ramp).

Will have to work on her driving the boat onto the trailer next, she does an awesome job driving when were riding.

[mainekneeboarder]

My girlfriend does well but takes some "pushing" some times. She still wont drive the boat on the trailer saying shes afraid of damaging it. She does back off the trailer. Does ok backing the trailer down when no one is around. Used to drive long trips with the boat in tow, wont drive our big camper/boat trailer yet. Does well pulling me slalom free skiing and pulling up to me when im in the water, and just pulled me thru the course for the first time a couple weekends ago and did well. And she does help with all the cleaning, wiping down, covering the boat! She hates our Bimini which we usually only use at the big lake we visit and I take it off the boat when we are not there and back on when we are there, she even helps do that all thou telling me she hates the thing multiple times while doing it!

We have a camp on the opposite side of the pond as the boat launch is, so if we unload off the big camper trailer she takes the boat over while I drive the camper around which is down an almost two mile dirt road. She used to float around and wait for me to get to camp and on the dock to help here pull up to it. Now she is on the dock tied up when I get there.

[Baddog]

My wife doesn't:

Tow the boat.

Back up the trailer.

Pull the trailer out.

Drive the boat.

Pull a skier. Boarder. Whatever.

Even go out on the boat but maybe once every two years.

She will drive the truck only, but only if I get it out of the garage and put it back in. For some reason when driving the truck, she feels she can only listen to country.

I love her anyway.

[itznowonder]

My daughter surprised me today. I needed help just because water level is too low to put in where I normally would and the other ramp is farther away and I would have to walk back and forth to put in / take out by myself. After driving boat off the trailer she docked perfectly - her first time ever! She then, after riding all day and her doing her part of the driving which she always does really well, she drove the boat onto the trailer like a seasoned veteran, again her first try!