So I was down at Lake Havasu in Arizona for my spring break with my brother, cousins, and a couple friends. Well my brother had bought a boat and we took it out... did ok for a while then ended up overheating just as we'd finished idling through the channel. We got a tow into a close marina, tied up to the courtesy 15 min dock (real long dock along the shore). We tied up on the end as we were gonna be there a while and didn't want to be in people's way. Well my brother eventually got a taxi back to the car and brought it to this ramp, but in the meantime we were sitting at this dock for roughly 3 hours. Let me tell you... we saw some fun stuff.
We're all in our 20's, and new to boating (with the exception of myself) so we hadn't been around the dock much, didn't know what to expect really. Well, there was a dude that backs his 25-27' powerboat in on his dubbed out new escalade. Backs it down the ramp, gets it into the water, gets on the boat, trims down, throws a rope to his kid to pull it towards the dock once it started floating, etc. Normal stuff. Well, this wasn't so normal. This guy had started his boat and thought it was in neutral. Great sounding boat... throaty through hull exhaust, low profile, nice paint job. Sweet boat, I wouldn't pass it off if it was given to me by any means. Well this dude backs the trailer in a little more to get the thing to float off, motor running mind you, and all of a sudden the boat takes off from the trailer in reverse completely unmanned. The wheel was turned a little bit so the thing heads straight towards the dock with its rear end in a gradual turning motion. Well, when it got close enough to the dock the kid jumped on board since it was moving on its own... the proceeded to ATTEMPT at putting it in neutral, but in his haste he slams the thing even further into reverse speeding the thing up considerably. Im watching this whole thing happen, then realize this numbnut's boat is heading straight towards ours. So... I just out of the boat and get ready to brace myself on the dock cause this thing wasnt coming slow. Between myself, two of my buddies, and the kid in the boat we were able to manually stop the darn thing only inches before it ran into our boat.. mind you its not a pretty boat, but still dont want this dude's thing rolling into it at mach1.
Needless to say the guy was pretty happy we helped him out, and went inside the marina and gave us a case of beer for our troubles.
I guess its worth helping him out, but still... who wouldn't MAKE SURE your boat isnt in neutral or at least leave the motor off till you have someone in the darn thing? Sigh....
We're all in our 20's, and new to boating (with the exception of myself) so we hadn't been around the dock much, didn't know what to expect really. Well, there was a dude that backs his 25-27' powerboat in on his dubbed out new escalade. Backs it down the ramp, gets it into the water, gets on the boat, trims down, throws a rope to his kid to pull it towards the dock once it started floating, etc. Normal stuff. Well, this wasn't so normal. This guy had started his boat and thought it was in neutral. Great sounding boat... throaty through hull exhaust, low profile, nice paint job. Sweet boat, I wouldn't pass it off if it was given to me by any means. Well this dude backs the trailer in a little more to get the thing to float off, motor running mind you, and all of a sudden the boat takes off from the trailer in reverse completely unmanned. The wheel was turned a little bit so the thing heads straight towards the dock with its rear end in a gradual turning motion. Well, when it got close enough to the dock the kid jumped on board since it was moving on its own... the proceeded to ATTEMPT at putting it in neutral, but in his haste he slams the thing even further into reverse speeding the thing up considerably. Im watching this whole thing happen, then realize this numbnut's boat is heading straight towards ours. So... I just out of the boat and get ready to brace myself on the dock cause this thing wasnt coming slow. Between myself, two of my buddies, and the kid in the boat we were able to manually stop the darn thing only inches before it ran into our boat.. mind you its not a pretty boat, but still dont want this dude's thing rolling into it at mach1.
Needless to say the guy was pretty happy we helped him out, and went inside the marina and gave us a case of beer for our troubles.
I guess its worth helping him out, but still... who wouldn't MAKE SURE your boat isnt in neutral or at least leave the motor off till you have someone in the darn thing? Sigh....
