Madness at the public boat launch

J

Jeff_380

Member
Aug 4, 2013
38
Point Breeze, NY
Boat Info
380 Sundancer, 2003
RL80CRC
Raynav 300 GPS
Engines
Twin 8.1 Horizon's
So....most Friday evening's my wife and I tie up on the "wall" (boat launch and good restaurant there) and eat dinner on the boat. It's fun watching the boats come and go and it's usually a relaxing time before we get a sunset cruise on the lake. Well last week was awesome. We had ordered dinner and were hanging out for a few minutes while it was being cooked. all of the sudden a woman started screaming and crying, her kid slammed her hand in the van door. It sounded pretty painful and was drawing a bit of attention, her husband found some ice and got out of there quick. A few minutes later as I was walking across the parking lot to the restaurant, some guy got his foot run over by a boat trailer, more screaming. I finally got back to the boat just in time to hear the awesome sound of an outdrive being dragged up a boat launch followed by a long string of swear words and a few more tears. Dinner was good, nice sunset too!
 
I love watching the ramp on a sunny day.

The best was one quiet day watching a single guy about to pull his boat out solo.
(I swear this is true and I saw it with my own eyes)

He has his boat tied to the dock a few fingers away, walks up the dock to back the truck and trailer down the ramp....Backs his rig down the ramp into position. Then, gets out of the truck and walks back to his boat to drive it around to the ramp. Well, while he wasn't watching his truck, it for no good reason starts to roll backwards into the water...faster than you'd think it completely submerged and was GONE!!
He saw none of it! And continued to bring his boat around..when he tied up to the dock right where his truck and trailer should have been waiting for him.....the look on his face was of disbelief......who would have stolen my truck in that short of time?? Lots of head scratching.
Now I'm wanting to untie the boat I was on to get across the channel to assist this poor sole.
He waves down a passing police car that was cruising through the beach area to help....
They now start looking down into the murky water and begin to wonder if the bubbles coming up might have something to do with the mystery....A fire truck shows up! Great but, I kind of doubt fire is likely at this point....but, wait.....they have a diver!!!! Oh boy, this is like watching TV....the diver waited until a tow truck was on scene and walked down the ramp pulling the tow trucks cable with him....didn't take long to winch the whole mess back out of the depths...water pouring out of the open windows...the guys able to retrieve any personal items out of the truck before driving off in his boat!

Never seen anything like it, it was not funny but, very entertaining from the flybridge I was perched in with friends enjoying a few cold ones.

Learn from other people's mistakes....chocks on the launch ramp are your friend!
 
Mark, your tale reminds me of a similar incident I saw in Homer, AK many years ago. A couple was launching a ~26' cabin cruiser using their brand spanking new Dodge pickup. Hubby backed it down the ramp to where the boat was almost in the water. He then got out and climbed aboard the boat with instructions to his wife on how far to back down, etc.

He apparently forgot to tell her something because as she was about to pull the truck up the ramp he yelled to her. She put it in park and got out to hear what he was saying. Well, guess what happened. Yup, the truck (with the boat still on the trailer) rolled back down into the water. Oh, and did I mention it was salt water? And the truck was running when it went under. And this was in the winter months and the water was not far from freezing.

Hubby had a fit as the truck submerged. The boat started to swing to the side (did I mention it was still attached to the trailer?) but there was no way to stop that. Hubby had to jump in the water and swim to shore.

A wrecker was called to pull the whole mess out of the water, but the wrecker driver wouldn't go in the water to hook up the cable. Yup, hubby had to get in the water again, pulling the cable behind him so he could hook it to the truck. It took him a couple of dives to get it hooked up but, unfortunately when he did, he hooked it to the front bumper. As the truck/trailer/boat started to come up the ramp the front bumper let loose and everything slid back down the ramp.

Hubby again had to go in the water and finally got the cable hooked around something more substantial. The wrecker driver pulled the whole mess up the ramp and then towed it somewhere.

In the midst of all this an ambulance had been called to keep a close eye on hubby for hypothermia, but he was so stinking mad at his wife that being cold was not on his mind.
 
I've been watching boat ramp exploits since I was 8 years old. Always entertaining. Fights, yelling, screaming, sunken cars, boats that bounce on concrete, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.
 
Was talking to some marina employees last week on our lake. They said a father and son brought a 28 foot cruiser to the ramp to launch on it's roller trailer.

Long story short it managed to roll off of the trailer and land on the concrete ramp. Broke the outdrive off, but I suppose they learned not to untie it, until it's in the water.
 
A few years ago I watched a young couple launch their 19 or so bow rider. The water at the lake was way down and they were having trouble getting the boat to float off. The husband decided he would get some speed going down the ramp, slam on his brakes and force the boat off the trailer. The wife, loudly, told him of her concerns about the procedure which did nothing but convince him it would work. What did she know, right? With a little to much speed and being a little late on the brakes the whole rig went into the water. The boat did come off the trailer, still secured by the bow line, and floated right above the truck and trailer.
Maybe she had a point?
 
Reading this thread brings back some funny memories. I also enjoy watching the ramp. With my last boat, I was stuck in the mess sometimes. You could almost feel the tension in the air on a busy day.... This is one of the things I love about being in a slip now. No more of the chaos, unless I want to watch it!
 
The town ramp in Plymouth Ma. Is a really good place to watch mass hysteria unfold. Everyone is in a rush as it is a very busy ramp and the only one around. Boats off of the jeti was very common. Trucks slipping on the slippery ramp with no traction at low tide was very funny to watch. It used to be a good place to sit with an ice cream and watch when I was younger. I don't make it down that way too often anymore.
 
We live close to our local town landing. Our mooring and dock have a pretty good view of the spot and its hard not to see the proceedings. I have to say that our local trailer boaters are pretty tame compared to some of these stories. About the only excitement we had came a couple years ago when a fellow launching a can-bote got too close to one of the ramp side walls and punched a hole in one of the pontoons. He continued with his launch and tied the boat up to one of the floating docks. The only problem was he did not tie the damaged side against the float, so the boat sank on the out side.

Henry
 
I could tell you a great boat ramp story but it was me that was the idiot responsible………….
I'm too new to the forum to share.
 
We arrived at the ramp one day, to see a guy with a boat that he had forgotten to put the bungs in, and it was filling quickly with water.

His answer to this was to tie the boat to the back of the trailer, and tow it up the ramp, the scraping and tearing noise was not good.!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
I'm guilty:smt021. When we were in our teens I had two episodes at a boat launch. One was forgetting the plug and already having parked the trailer and in the process of pulling away from the dock before I noticed. The launch was bordered on one side by a bar with a patio so the resulting performance rendered a standing ovation (laughing and pointing included). The second one was with someone's old home made roller type trailer and a 16 ft run about. One of the roller arms didn't line up and got jammed underneath the boat when we were hauling it out. When I got to the apex of the ramp the roller caught the pavement and flipped the boat sideways off the trailer. Damn kids and their beater vehicles eh?:smt021
 
Many years ago, I launched my 21' by myself, had my dog with me, just going out for the day to hang out. Walked boat off trailer, tied up at dock, parked rig, came back, got dog aboard.
Started up engine, pulled out after short warmup.
Getting to edge of no-wake area by marina, I noticed I was a little a$$-heavy.

When I opened the engine cover I discovered why: bilge full of water starting to come up to where the starter was :wow:

And the screw-in bilge plug was still in the glove box :smt021

I had been too busy getting to the ramp, and there was no wait at all, but then someone behind me, so i was in a hurry to get launched that I overlooked that one little detail.

Turned on the bilge pump, and dove in with the plug in my hand.

I was never so nervous as I was screwing in that plug, hoping I didn't fumble it literally away.

Afterward, I sat there a good 20 minutes, letting the bilge pump it dry.

Very fortunately, there had been some debris in the plug hole that partially blocked it, so the influx of water was a fraction of what it would have normally been. Otherwise, I'd have noticed after parking the rig.

All said, one of Boating's Great Lessons Learned: No matter what else, Stick with Your Procedures.
 
I'll admit I've done the "forgot to put in the plug" adventure before. I did learn something from my dad though (who had also done it). This sounds like an insane maneuver to try, but it works... when I did it and the bilge filled up, I hit the throttle to wide open. At speed on plane, the water in the bilge is sucked out by the vacuum behind the stern of the moving boat. Once the bilge emptied it gave me enough time to quickly stop the boat, dive in, and insert the plug. I know that going full speed with a plug out sounds insane, but it works.

BTW, I did learn my lesson though, and with a cruiser that I trailer (many systems) there is a checklist (similar to an aircraft pilot's checklist) that I now use every time I launch. Confirming the plug is on that list.
 
Last edited:
GJarrett said:
I'll admit I've done the "forgot to put in the plug" adventure before. I did learn something from my dad though (who had also done it). This sounds like an insane maneuver to try, but it works... when I did it and the bilge filled up, I hit the throttle to wide open. At speed on plane, the water in the bilge is sucked out by the vacuum behind the stern of the moving boat. Once the bilge emptied it gave me enough time to quickly stop the boat, dive in, and insert the plug. I know that going full speed with a plug out sounds insane, but it works.

BTW, I did learn my lesson though, and with a cruiser that I trailer (many systems) there is a checklist (similar to an aircraft pilot's checklist) that I now use every time I launch. Confirming the plug is on that list.
Click to expand...

Thats how I drain my dingy. More fun than pumping.
 
Yep, done that in small aluminum boats forever. In fact, we put the plug in backwards (facing into the boat) so that we could take it out and drain the water while moving.
 
Gjarret, you are exactly correct. I had launched my 240DA without the plug in. My brother in law and sister were with me and he had backed me down the ramp. Eeveryone was on board and we were cruising out of the area when I noticed a big stream of water coming out of the side of the boat. I immediately new what I had forgot to do!! I hit the gas and cruised across the lake to the beach area where I was able to put the plug in. Cruising on plane drained he water out the boat. Now I make sure the plug is in before I pull out of the driveway!!
 
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