ARE YOU BOAT LAUNCH STUPID? I am and have the T-shirt to prove it.
Recently I was going through an old box of memories and found evidence of my family's love for me. It was an old t-shirt my family presented to me after a certain boating incident. On the back in bold letters it says, BOAT LAUNCH STUPID. Underneath is a picture of a boat, trailer, and car sitting in the water at the end of a boat ramp. While I won't claim that I don't deserve the title I do take exception to the picture. Here is what really happened.
It was a cold morning in early March and too cold for boating. My younger sister, however, had insisted that we take a ride to celebrate the purchase of my new/used 18' boat with 50hp outboard. I was 23. My sister was 14.
As I backed down the ramp the rear wheels hit the slime and began to slide. Though I stood on the brake the car continued to slide until the trailer wheels dropped off of the end of the ramp. I put the car in park, put on the emergency brake, and made my sister slide over behind the wheel, put her foot on the brake, and stop screaming.
Slipping and sliding I made my way back to the winch and unhooked the boat expecting it to float free. Unfortunately I had forgotten to remove the strap attaching the boat to the trailer. I expected to fix that little problem quickly but discovered that the strap was now stretched so tight that I could not get it loose. Meanwhile, every couple of minutes the car would slide another six inches or so. Each time my sister would let out a horrible scream.
To save the car I managed to unhook the trailer from the hitch and let it go with the boat still attached. I told my sister to sit tight while I ran up the street to a neighbor?s to get help. This did not sit well with my sister and she told me so. I could still hear her telling me so when I was a block away.
With rope in hand my neighbor and I returned to the ramp in his truck. By now the rear wheels of the car were about to go over the edge of the ramp and waves were washing over the trunk. My sister's screams had turned to one long wail. I attached the rope to the car and we pulled it back up to dry land.
The boat with trailer attached had lodged itself under a pier about 40 feet away. Taking a knife to cut the strap I waded through the cold water to the boat. After separating the boat and trailer I walked the trailer back over to the ramp and we managed to get it back to dry land.
I waded back to the boat intending to get in, crank it up, and drive it back to the ramp. Unfortunately I had forgotten to put the plug in the drain hole and the boat was half full of water. My first inclination was to climb over the side into the boat so I could find the plug. However, when I put weight on the side all the water in the boat rushed to that side to help me get aboard. I narrowly avoided swamping the boat altogether. Climbing up on the pier I then dropped into the boat and, staying near the centerline, found and inserted the plug. After that it was a simple matter of bailing out the boat, pulling it back to the ramp and, with the neighbors help, getting it back on the trailer. My sister was anxious to get home and tell the story. Suddenly it was the funniest thing she had ever experienced. That family story begins with, "Remember when your brother launched the car?" The story is inaccurate. The car was never launched. But it does me no good to say so. Either way I guess I can't dispute the fact that I earned the T-Shirt.
Recently I was going through an old box of memories and found evidence of my family's love for me. It was an old t-shirt my family presented to me after a certain boating incident. On the back in bold letters it says, BOAT LAUNCH STUPID. Underneath is a picture of a boat, trailer, and car sitting in the water at the end of a boat ramp. While I won't claim that I don't deserve the title I do take exception to the picture. Here is what really happened.
It was a cold morning in early March and too cold for boating. My younger sister, however, had insisted that we take a ride to celebrate the purchase of my new/used 18' boat with 50hp outboard. I was 23. My sister was 14.
As I backed down the ramp the rear wheels hit the slime and began to slide. Though I stood on the brake the car continued to slide until the trailer wheels dropped off of the end of the ramp. I put the car in park, put on the emergency brake, and made my sister slide over behind the wheel, put her foot on the brake, and stop screaming.
Slipping and sliding I made my way back to the winch and unhooked the boat expecting it to float free. Unfortunately I had forgotten to remove the strap attaching the boat to the trailer. I expected to fix that little problem quickly but discovered that the strap was now stretched so tight that I could not get it loose. Meanwhile, every couple of minutes the car would slide another six inches or so. Each time my sister would let out a horrible scream.
To save the car I managed to unhook the trailer from the hitch and let it go with the boat still attached. I told my sister to sit tight while I ran up the street to a neighbor?s to get help. This did not sit well with my sister and she told me so. I could still hear her telling me so when I was a block away.
With rope in hand my neighbor and I returned to the ramp in his truck. By now the rear wheels of the car were about to go over the edge of the ramp and waves were washing over the trunk. My sister's screams had turned to one long wail. I attached the rope to the car and we pulled it back up to dry land.
The boat with trailer attached had lodged itself under a pier about 40 feet away. Taking a knife to cut the strap I waded through the cold water to the boat. After separating the boat and trailer I walked the trailer back over to the ramp and we managed to get it back to dry land.
I waded back to the boat intending to get in, crank it up, and drive it back to the ramp. Unfortunately I had forgotten to put the plug in the drain hole and the boat was half full of water. My first inclination was to climb over the side into the boat so I could find the plug. However, when I put weight on the side all the water in the boat rushed to that side to help me get aboard. I narrowly avoided swamping the boat altogether. Climbing up on the pier I then dropped into the boat and, staying near the centerline, found and inserted the plug. After that it was a simple matter of bailing out the boat, pulling it back to the ramp and, with the neighbors help, getting it back on the trailer. My sister was anxious to get home and tell the story. Suddenly it was the funniest thing she had ever experienced. That family story begins with, "Remember when your brother launched the car?" The story is inaccurate. The car was never launched. But it does me no good to say so. Either way I guess I can't dispute the fact that I earned the T-Shirt.
...... good thing it was still early in the season and you did not have a big audience.
