Beginners luck?

[FELIXTHECAT]

Hi, I just wanted to share with you all our first boating experience yesterday! My husband and I decide to take our boat out for a test spin to see how the motor works on our boat, 1964 Runabout with a 1958 Evinrude 35 hpw. It is a beautiful day in Minnesota, sunny, warm, but very windy? We make nothing of this and proceed to the lake. No problems getting it the lake(good), no problems unloading it (well just a little, but no biggie). We pull it up to the dock and start her up. She pops right off, we sit for a few minutes to see how it idles and make sure that the thermostat isnt getting hot etc. Finally it's time to go! We pull off the dock and are getting a great cruz and my husband decides to shut of the engine. I think he wanted to see how well it would restart, so he starts again, shuts off, starts again, shuts off, starts again, shuts off, st...., st....., st...... Damn battery drained? Hmmmm So we sit for a second, start it again, it starts. So he throws it in forward, it dies! I am panicing, trying to paddle into the current to keep us from beaching ourselves. My husband keeps trying to start the motor but as soon as he puts the throttle forward, or reverse, it dies, and now its running like crap. We by now the wind and current have beached us and as I am looking around at people staring at us (snickering Im sure), I look at the bow and notice that the eye hook rope is no longer bound on the bow. I mention this to my husband as he is trying to figure out what he cant tilt the motor up. Last resort, have to get wet in the cold windy water, he gets out, goes to the motor, and guess what? There is our rope, wrapped around the prop. After sort of laughing about it (at this point very frustrated), I hop out unhook the rope from the eye, we now have to hand walk to the boat out because the current and wind are so strong we cannot paddle our selves out far enough to start the motor. Finnally we get out, and wahlaa, the motor starts, but now wont go into gear. After messing with it he gets into gear and I just yell to him, just get us to the f***** dock, we will do this on a calm day I think. After that all went well. It was a very humiliating experience, but I am glad I found this forum, I now realize that even the most experienced boater runs into problems. <br />Later that day, we decided just to go down to the dock and just observe how people unload, load etc, and while we are there it turns out we had to pull 3 boats in to the dock, that had also dead motors. AT least we took our bad day and helped others. Hopefully next time wont be so bad.

 

[bobber head]

Re: Beginners luck?

Welcome to iboats,<br /><br />Any number of terrible events could have occured, I think that's safe to say for anyone at anytime out on the water, but that no one got hurt, thrown out of the boat, no paddling back from the far side of the lake, and you didn't sink: you two merely had a humble day on the water.<br /><br />People on the bank gotta have something to laugh at so that they don't start crying about not having a boat out there - even a boat that's giving them troubles, right?<br /><br />It's really easy, and common, to forget something while launching your boat in that curious moment of joyous stress. It's also easy to have your train of thought derailed with well meaning questions or the sudden appearence of 20 boaters behind you waiting to launch. <br /><br />We came up with a seperated duty system. One person deals with the boat: plug, back straps, motor bar, etc.. The other person deals with loading the boat: PFD's, sun screen, grub, ice, camera, etc.<br /><br />The real trick is to not start screaming at each other on the rough days. <br />Enjoy, Bobber.

 

[Guido]

Re: Beginners luck?

Hey Felix,<br /><br />Where did you put the boat in? We live up in Ramsey, and are itching to get the boat out!!!<br /><br />Our first time out, the wife forgot to put the motor up when we pulled it out of the water. Just took some metal off the skeg, no biggie. At least the prop was ok. <br /><br />We haven't forgot the plug...yet, I am sure I just jinxed myself.<br /><br />It doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate for awhile.

 

[Tinkerer]

Re: Beginners luck?

Felixthecat <br /><br />The first time I took my first boat out I was running an old engine I'd rebuilt so I took it cautiously until I was confident in it, then gave it heaps of throttle for a few minutes, then noticed it was (a)vibrating a lot (b) real hot, like smoke coming off the outside of the exhaust tube where the paint was melting and (c) no water coming out of the pee hole, at which point I shut down. Let 'er cool, finally got her restarted, and nothing happens in gear. Check over transmom. No prop. Gearcase had vibrated itself loose because previous owner had forced wrong size bolts into it and stripped thread, so water pump stopped and heat everywhere. Only spent about three days dragging the bottom about twenty yards off dock before I recovered the gearcase. Good experience on oars. Taught me to wire rowlocks in when I dropped one over side when it got caught in a dragline. Great experience in ignoring interest from onlookers wondering what the idiot in the rowboat is doing throwing metal bar into water and pulling it out all the time and stupid questions about what sort of fish am I after?<br /><br />My neighbour's first outing on his fast ski boat ended a lot earlier than planned when he had to return to shore ASAP because boat was filling up from unknown source. Naturally he'd left drain plugs out.

 

[muskyone]

Re: Beginners luck?

first time out in first boat 1976 17 ft crestliner 140 rude boat wouldn't plane no tilt lifted moter to lower rod and droped it on finger cut a 1/2 in off finger bleed like a pig wow was it hard to get back on trailer for the first time the rest has been easy

 

[neumanns]

Re: Beginners luck?

Felix...welcome aboard, now youll enjoy the flawless days more. Chalk that one up to in the experiences to chuckle about.<br /><br />Muskyone...OUCH, &^&%!!!#, OUCH

 

[FELIXTHECAT]

Re: Beginners luck?

Wow, one thing is for sure, we dont have much to complain about. From what I hear, this was a minor incident! <br /><br />To the Ramsey guy, we were docking at Medicine Lake, French Regional park. We went on Saturday the 12th, did you noticed how windy it was.. yea that was a big mistake trying out a new boat on that windy of a day.. And yea, the weather is the worst. Got us so excited and then took a big s#@$ on us! 89 degrees to 34... good lord! Oh well, gotta sit tight and wait another two weeks. <br /><br />Thanks again, for the kind words everyone, you certainly made me feel better!

 

[Johnshan1]

Re: Beginners luck?

hey muskyone-<br /><br />I too dropped the motor when I was adjusting the tilt and I cut my finger nearly all the way off right before the knuckle. <br /><br />Bone was sticking right out of my finger and the end was just dangling there! This happened in my garage and not on the water or I would have been screwed, they got the finger sewed back on.<br /><br />Watch those motors they act as a chopping block I can still here the thud of that damn motor. came back the next day and there was a fair amount of blood on my new paint job <br /><br />-J

 

[fishfearme]

Re: Beginners luck?

Alls well that ends well I always say. Bobber Head hit it right on the nose. Welcome to the world of boating. My wife and I have a couple of simple rules that always bring us home safely.<br /><br />#1 DON'T GET IN A HURRY. This is the hardest to remember and do. When there are people yelling, pointing, and IN A HURRY, it is very hard to keep your composure, and remain calm and not want to choke the living Sh** outta them. <br /><br />#2 Check and re-check ALL SAFETY GEAR. EVERY TIME, NO EXCEPTIONS. You never know whats going to happen or where your going to end up. Remember the SS Minnow? They were just going for a 3 hour tour. <br /><br />#3 Don't remove empty beer cans at the ramp. Wait till you get home. Nough Said.

 

[fishfearme]

Re: Beginners luck?

Felix, almost forgot the most important.<br /><br />ALWAYS KNOW WHICH DIRECTION THE WIND IS BLOWING. The wind is not your friend, and will cause headaches. <br /><br />And most important, watch the weather closely. And rememeber the 3 biggest lies in the world:<br />#1- Today's forecast, Sunny and Warm<br /><br />#2- They were biting like crazy yesterday, we were killing "em. <br /><br />#3-Fill in your own here.

 

[splugeeman]

Re: Beginners luck?

Thank you! I enjoyed reading about your outting! It brings back memories when my wife and I took out our boat together for the first time! How we love to yell at the ones we love!