Boat Launch Comedy/Horror Stories

[quadrafire]

I'll bet there are way more " me" stories than are being shared on here

[724wd]

coming into the little goose dock after a day on the snake, dad was in the bow of his '88 Seaswirl.  I was at the wheel.  idling in i try to get the shifter into neutral but it wont go!  I pull and pull and finally just shut the engine off.  we slammed into the dock, the old man yelling at me to reverse!  I explain it wont go into reverse, or neutral for that matter.  He doesn't believe me and tells me to vacate the drivers seat immediately (using more colorful language...  ).  His turn at the wheel and same deal!  we hit the dock!  turns out the Pertronics electronic ignition he put in place of the points was a bad decision!  he did apology for yelling at me    Who knew points would be better in a boat?    Stupid interupters, anyway!

And my first time on long lake we decided to use a private launch/park as we'd never been out before.  Launched my 12' Klamath with my wife with no issue and fished for half a day until it got hot.  Headed back to the dock to find a freakin traffic jam!  20 rigs lined up waiting to put in!      almost EVERY DANGED ONE backed their rig down the ramp before loading their kids/dogs/ice chests/towels/etc rather than while waiting in line!!!  I WAS LIVID!  when it was FINALLY my turn, I back down to retrieve my boat to find a boat parked at the base of the launch at the EMPTY dock.  They were searching for the keys  and wouldn't push the boat to the back of the dock!    So my boat being little, I hopped in drove around their dumb%*^&'s and hightailed it out of there!  Never have been back to that launch! 

[Woodchuck]

coming into the little goose dock after a day on the snake, dad was in the bow of his '88 Seaswirl.  I was at the wheel.  idling in i try to get the shifter into neutral but it wont go!  I pull and pull and finally just shut the engine off.  we slammed into the dock, the old man yelling at me to reverse!  I explain it wont go into reverse, or neutral for that matter.  He doesn't believe me and tells me to vacate the drivers seat immediately (using more colorful language...  ).  His turn at the wheel and same deal!  we hit the dock!  turns out the Pertronics electronic ignition he put in place of the points was a bad decision!  he did apology for yelling at me    Who knew points would be better in a boat?    Stupid interupters, anyway!

And my first time on long lake we decided to use a private launch/park as we'd never been out before.  Launched my 12' Klamath with my wife with no issue and fished for half a day until it got hot.  Headed back to the dock to find a freakin traffic jam!  20 rigs lined up waiting to put in!      almost EVERY DANGED ONE backed their rig down the ramp before loading their kids/dogs/ice chests/towels/etc rather than while waiting in line!!!  I WAS LIVID!  when it was FINALLY my turn, I back down to retrieve my boat to find a boat parked at the base of the launch at the EMPTY dock.  They were searching for the keys  and wouldn't push the boat to the back of the dock!    So my boat being little, I hopped in drove around their dumb%*^&'s and hightailed it out of there!  Never have been back to that launch! 

Your dad use colorful language? Surely you jest...
I worked at resort in northern MN when I was fresh out of the Army. I was working the rental boat dock one day. The resort rented out 14' ers with 25hp motors, enough to get on plane if you gave them enough time. Later in the day, here come two ol boys who had been on the lake all day, boat is wide open, one guy sitting on the bow with the point of the bow between his legs. They start closing in pretty good and I start to think, "he needs to slow down...he needs to slow down right now". Then I scream "SLOW DOWN" as I start to bail like a girl. That guy hit that dock full bore, launched his buddy across the dock and into the empty slip across the dock.  They thought it was the funniest thing ever, and I laugh about it now. They however did not laugh when they saw the damage charge on the ol credit card when they checked out. 

[lokidog]

Last year, my neighbors decided to launch their, roughly 26', cabin cruiser at the county ramp.  Earlier in the day, another neighbor had asked if I would accompany him while he launched his heavy boat.  I strapped onto the front of his truck with mine and we eased him in, no problems.

I drove to the other side of the island to get the old guy and bring him back to his truck, as we round the corner to the ramp, I see the 26' boat pulled up on the beach and the owner kneeling on the hood of his '57 or so vintage pickup, even funnier to see a dinghy pulling up to his front bumper to help him get off the truck.     The crazy thing is that these were folks that have had this boat a while and were certainly not newbies to launching it.  Earlier this summer, they ran that boat aground on Bird Rocks out in the middle of Rosario Strait, apparently on autopilot, totaled it. Maybe they need to retire from the boating life.   

Now, for myself.  I bought a 14 1/2 Seaswirl bowrider and fixed it up.  The first mishap was taking it to a lake to see if and how it ran.  Crossing one of the little RR bridges in Centralia, the tow rope broke and it rolled 2/3 of the way off the trailer before I could stop.  Luckily, I was able to retie the hook and roll it back on with minimal fiberglass left on the road.  Of course, multiple *censored*s had to go by yelling at me instead of seeing if they could help... like I was intentionally trying to ruin their day.     After fixing everything, I took the family to a lake to go fishing, my son was less than 6 months old and my daughter was about 7.  They all climbed in and then I unhooked and backed down the ramp.  Can you see where this is going? Having never had a trailer with rollers, this had never been an issue before. Roll, roll, roll your boat, gently down the trailer, ker plop, clunk onto the ramp we go....  Luckily no damage done, other than to my daughter's trust in her dad backing a boat trailer into the water (she has never rode in any boat down the ramp since    ).  Thankfully, several people rushed over to help get it back on the trailer and off to fishing we went.

[Gobble Doc]

Back in the mid-80's my then to be father-in-law had a 13' Boston Whaler.  They were gone for the weekend but let me stay at their place and fish lingcod.  I invited a friend up and we both decided to fish out by Turn Rock.  We headed out and were fishing and the currents there could be really funky.  As we were fishing a large sailboat decided to cut between Turn Island and Turn Rock headed NW.  At the time it looked dubious because the tide was running hard, there was a breeze, and it just didn't look right but I just kept on fishing.  For some reason it looked like the guy just panicked and made a hard turn which ended up putting him up on Turn Rock.  Now the tide was going out and the waves were starting to bounce him on the rocks.  He waved us over and wanted us to take his anchor out so that he could try to winch himself off the rocks.  Complete futility.  Not knowing any better we tried to get close but almost got wrapped up in his anchor line and in the process of getting close to him also dinged up the prop on my father-in-law's boat.  At this point we told him to we were going to go get help as he refused to call for help on his radio.  We knew the guy that ran the rescue boat at F.H. and later heard that the guy in the sailboat tried to negotiate for a lower price while he was getting knocked around on the rocks.  Sailboat guy was lucky he didn't just get left on the rock as Kenny, the rescue guy, wasn't a big negotiator.  Guy ended up getting talked into buying us a new prop.   

[Jonathan_S]

Back in the mid-80's my then to be father-in-law had a 13' Boston Whaler.  They were gone for the weekend but let me stay at their place and fish lingcod.  I invited a friend up and we both decided to fish out by Turn Rock.  We headed out and were fishing and the currents there could be really funky.  As we were fishing a large sailboat decided to cut between Turn Island and Turn Rock headed NW.  At the time it looked dubious because the tide was running hard, there was a breeze, and it just didn't look right but I just kept on fishing.  For some reason it looked like the guy just panicked and made a hard turn which ended up putting him up on Turn Rock.  Now the tide was going out and the waves were starting to bounce him on the rocks.  He waved us over and wanted us to take his anchor out so that he could try to winch himself off the rocks.  Complete futility.  Not knowing any better we tried to get close but almost got wrapped up in his anchor line and in the process of getting close to him also dinged up the prop on my father-in-law's boat.  At this point we told him to we were going to go get help as he refused to call for help on his radio.  We knew the guy that ran the rescue boat at F.H. and later heard that the guy in the sailboat tried to negotiate for a lower price while he was getting knocked around on the rocks.  Sailboat guy was lucky he didn't just get left on the rock as Kenny, the rescue guy, wasn't a big negotiator.  Guy ended up getting talked into buying us a new prop.   

  crazy story.

Bad time to negotiate

[Stein]

I put my prop in the mud twice on the same day - both times watching the new fangled GPS plotter that disagreed with the water depth.

At B10, we saw a guy launch and take off out of Hammond without the plug - he came back awful fast at full throttle and landed back on the launch.

[Brad Harshman]

Opening day for trout, my buddy and I launched my 16ft Fiberglass ebbtide.  In my haste I forgot install the drain olug.  I noticed right away, but the launch being super busy my buddy had to park 1/2 mile away. There was no place to beach or time, I grabbed the plug leaned over the transom and spun that brass lifesaver into place.  My buddy wasn't happy when he finely reached the ramp and I explained I didn't have a bilge and that he needed to back and get the truck and trailer so we could drain the boat.  It took on a lot of water...

[j_h_nimrod]

Opening day for trout, my buddy and I launched my 16ft Fiberglass ebbtide.  In my haste I forgot install the drain olug.  I noticed right away, but the launch being super busy my buddy had to park 1/2 mile away. There was no place to beach or time, I grabbed the plug leaned over the transom and spun that brass lifesaver into place.  My buddy wasn't happy when he finely reached the ramp and I explained I didn't have a bilge and that he needed to back and get the truck and trailer so we could drain the boat.  It took on a lot of water...

If you can still get on step just run the water out before you put the plug back in.