Let's talk boating & launching/retrieving fails! Share your shame!

Lead Pipe

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Stupidest thing was at Port O' Blarney when I was just out of high school. Decided I was going to take the girl I was seeing out on the lake for the day in my Dad's 1979 19" Century. It was a heavy ass boat and my only car was a 1992 Trans Am so I had to borrow my Dad's "truck". I put that in "" because it was a 1992 Toyota mini-pick up, 2WD 4 cylinder automatic. Well we were late getting up there, I wanted to try to get laid and I had no adult supervision. I committed the #1 cardinal sin of boating and forgot the drain plug. Luckily I noticed it at the launch ramp before moving the truck/trailer and was able to get the boat back on the trailer. The boat took on a decent amount of water so imagine pulling an even heavier boat out with a 4 cylinder. It did it but I don't know how the converter didn't melt. Still got a handy on the boat though so that was ok.

Same ramp at the end of the yeah I pulled out the toon on a busy weekend when the ramp was all wet and that was fun. Basically had to stand on the break, load the trans while slowly releasing the break and creep up till it started to spin, stand back on the break and repeat until I got the rear tires on dry ground.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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I forgot the plug once. center engine closed bow 19' nautique ski boat. looked at the transom, saw a plug, the salesman who's people i was taking out, said that he had checked all the plugs and fired it (rookie mistake trusting that) and it was good to go.... launched the boat, was just about out of watt's on the chain (probably end of october mind you) and the engine started making weird noise. i opened up the engine hatch and it was making noise because the serpentine system was spinning under water. water was at the floor of the boat.

i came back basically on plane throwing like a 3' wall of water through the marina... got the boat on the trailer.. yanked it out, let it dry for a bit... put it back in... took it for a rip and they bought it :rofl:
 

OffshoreDrilling

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The 496 has an automatic vent to get all the water out of the motor. It's got a schrader that connects to some little pneumatic valves that dump it all. Well, they stay open unless you pull the relief.

Dropped the velocity into the IL river and circled around the ramp while someone parked the truck. Boat alarm starts screaming that it's overheating and I suddenly notice it's sitting about 10" too low in the water.... freaked out for a minute and figured out I hadn't let the air out to close the valves. Never forgotten a drain plug before, I always put it in when I hooked up the truck.
 

PANDA

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So I went by [MENTION=112]ktraver97ss[/MENTION] house on Lake Geneva. Drop the waverunner in. Tired it up to his dock. Went out on his boat across the lake to pickup his sailboat. Came back and the waverunner is sitting LOW in the water. Im like SHIT I forgot the plugs. Sure enough the were not tightened. We towed it over to a open waverunner lift and got it in the air to drain out the water. Water was just about to the top of valve cover. I thought I would be making an insurance claim. Called James. He was like mehhhhhhh mehhhhh mehhhh. Told me what I had to-do. Ended up removing plugs and letting it crank over to spit the water out. Removed airfilter. Started it and took it over to launch ramp and took it home to change oil and replace airfilter. Runs fine.

#yamaha
 

Dan00Hawk

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Over at Inland Harbor on Fox Lake, around 2004, they were pulling my friend's 16' Donzi out of the water with their fork lift. The kid running it didn't set the brake right (or it failed), and the whole forklift and trailer went down the ramp and disappeared. Luckily, the trailer strap to his bow popped off, because the front of the boat started going down with the trailer! We had to wait a few hours for them to get the forklift and the trailer out of the water...
 

TCG Member 5219

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Back when I was a kid, my parents had this old tri-hull 16" boat. It was like brown metallic heavy flake, and I think it was a Century. Anyway, the trailer was junk. The rubber rollers were all rotted and flat.

Everytime we tried to pull it out of the water, it would never sit straight on the trailer. It was always high on one side, and it looked like it was going to fall off...lol And when we first got it, my parents held up the launch at the algonquin fox river boat launch for like an hour trying to get it on right. We finally gave up and just tied it down the way it was. People were pissed. We were all stressed out and yelling at eachother. It was a mess.

We maybe used the boat 4 times in the two years we had it. They gave up on boating at that point, and sold it to one of my friends. He gutted it and turned it into a hunting boat with a full blind on board. Looked kind of cool actually. I wish I had pics of it.

Looked like this one, but the boat was almost completely brown metallic flake.

vp860097_1.jpg
 

rowekmr

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I've made a few memorable dumb mistakes that I can share...

I picked up a 26' Regal/trailer and drove it home on the Dan Ryan and when I got home realized I didn't lock the tongue. The expressway has it shares of potholes and I didn't always follow the speed limit. If that tongue would have popped off and jammed into one of those pot holes it could have gotten ugly. I was rushing to get it out of the Marina and forgot to check. Lesson #1 never rush and double check everything.

Driving home another day with same boat/trailer on city streets and hit a turn pretty fast and just happen to look in the side view mirror and saw the boat tilt in the trailer like it was beginning to come out. Luckily didn't panic and hit brakes (causing more tilt) just eased out of the turn/let off gas and boat settled back on trailer. It was my 2nd boat/trailer combo but since first one (27' Sea Ray) didn't think have them didn't know they were important until then. Lesson #2 stop speeding and repeat lesson #1 double check everything incl transom straps.

Launching the same on the river solo I noticed someone watching me with disbelief that I can launch solo so my ego took over and as I was backing in the truck I came in a little faster than usual then stopped trying to put on a show but when I went out to grab the line of the boat it was going back much faster than usual so I had to run and slide down to grab the bow line just as it was about to fall off the pier. If I was a second late the boat would have drifted out/down the river with both engines idling. Lesson #3 always operate like you got some sense!
 

FESTER665

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boat/boating peeve of mine? #rich17thursdays

anytime anyone gives people shit for a truck going into the drink when launching/retrieving a boat.

that shit is no joke... it can happen so quick and could really happen to anyone. ive been on some ramps before that some slip and slides had more traction then... ive pushed trucks & trailers out with boats before they slid in. shit happens. i hate reading the posts " NEVER HEARD OF AN EBRAKE?! " hey fuck face, e-brakes don't do shit when your rear tires are on algae that you couldn't ice skate on cuz it's so slippery. i've launched probably a few hundred times and retrieved similar numbers, ive had a few sketchy encounters but luckily never had water inside the door. i had plenty of coworkers though get pretty wet.

Total boat noob here, never had to launch one, but was curious if the launches that people talk about sucking, is that just a maintenance type issue, and who's responsibility is it to maintain the launches?

I would think if you were the owner of a launch or the area the launch was located it would be in your best interest to have it be as nice as possible?
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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Total boat noob here, never had to launch one, but was curious if the launches that people talk about sucking, is that just a maintenance type issue, and who's responsibility is it to maintain the launches?

I would think if you were the owner of a launch or the area the launch was located it would be in your best interest to have it be as nice as possible?

maintenance, they are also not too easy to maintain really. if you're in an area that gets a lot of algae, you're goin to have a bad time.

you'd think it'd be in the best interest to have it nice, but really no motivation for some places to do that.
 

1quick

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About the worst thing I've done on the boat ramp was ding a prop when the river was low and I had my drive down too far driving it on the trailer, I also forgot my drain plug once but I always open the engine hatch when I put the boat in to make sure the engine is not puking some sort of fluid, so I caught it before I pulled off the trailer
 

rowekmr

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Nope I start them once it is in the water. Gives them time to warm up while I park the truck/trailer so when I get back I can get out of the way of the waiting boater. I stop when backing in to start engines and to remove the bow strap once it is sufficiently in the water but still on the bunks. I like to float it off the bunks not drag it off with power. I only do it this way when solo otherwise I have people holding the lines and remove bow strap on the ramp and float boat off in one move.
So let me get this straight.... you started the engines with the boat out the the water before backing boat into the water??
 
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