How many boats have YOU towed in???

[jayhanig]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

As a retired RN, it would be in my nature to offer help. As it is, I've not been in a boating situation where it was necessary. When I consider the $500 or so that Sea Tow would charge a nonmember for a tow, it seems to me a $25 gas gift would be quite the bargain for somebody in distress. It's not how much the victim offers, it's how (or if) he offers, that would motivate me.

Unappreciative behavior will get you a radio call to Sea Tow, rather than me trying to go the extra mile. Nothing chaps me more than a sense of entitlement. My years of getting dumped on have ended and I won't tolerate it.

 

[Chef Shawn]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

My advice for anyone needing assistance when out with your family is to have your wife signal for distress and for you to act busy with your head down.

Hahaha, I'll try that next time!

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

None this year but thats due to being pretty busy, last year 2 or 3 and about the same the year before, after that I don't have a clue, I see someone needing help I help, its my nature.

 

[ziggy]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

it figures that most folks that frequent iboats would help a fellow boater out. maybe i should have said mariner.
i'll tow anyone (or render any assistance i can) that needs it, whenever they need it.
only towed one this year, so far. a jet ski. was a strange scenario. me and two other vessels (another boat and the jet ski) on the swim beach. fellas jet ski wouldn't start. the other boater had some cable onboard and was trying to jump him. didn't happen. so while i'm talking with these guys about maybe a towing. the guy with the boat says, oh, i know you (saying this to me). you towed me in last year. . then says something about not towing the guy with the broke down ski. it was sundown too (no after sundown jet skiing ya know). i told the guy with the ski i didn't think he was gonna be successful jumping the ski and that if worse came to worse, i'd tow him in. i left and went back to my boat. sure enough. a few min. later he's walking his ski down towards my boat. the other guy wouldn't tow him. it wasn't even that far to where the ski guy needed to go. i towed him. did get a thankyou from the ski guy. don't know where the other lame boater went off to.
other than i feel it's my responsibility to help a fellow boater out. i figure what come around, goes around.
and yes. i've been towed it at least once in the last few years. generally i'm the tow boat though.

i'd say at my local watering hole that most folks are more than willing to help (baring the guy in the above story (granted he did try to jump him with cables). also, most folks at my watering hole still wave at ea other.

 

[90stingray]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

I towed in a jet ski a few years ago... it was his maiden voyage on his new purchase. Very rough out and the lake was empty of boaters besides us. Guy didn't offer money or a thanks... but it was a little chaotic for him since his jet ski was swamped and trying to get reloaded onto the trailer. No tows last year or so far this year. I hope I always stay on the front of the tow rope!

And around here people will wave if we wave first. Some don't who look busy or whatever. I am teaching my kids that we wave when we see a boat. (They are 5 and 3). Last time the oldest asked why we wave... and I said its what we do because boating folks are nice people.

 

[bobdec]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

Seems at least 1-2 a season, none so far this year, been towed about 3 times myself in the past. Second tow last year, wife and I in a no wake cove having lunch, watching the activity. There's a state ramp across the cove. Couple launches an 18 foot runabout without any lines, boat floats away from ramp, she's on dock, he parks truck & trailer runs down ramp, jumps in and swims to boat. It won't start, but he has a paddle and paddles it to the dock. After a few mins it kicks over, she jumps in and they fly through the no wake zone at full throttle. Guess who we ran into about 1/2 mile out of the cove. He's waving both arms and she's fishing. Pulled them back, she fished all the way in. At least he said thanks, she never muttered a word.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

i know lakes are different, but on the coast, they are the ones best left in the inlet on an outgoing tide, for the sake of the gene pool. Like what the eskimos did with the old folks.

OK I'm kidding

I won't tow a jet ski b/c I don/t know how and I understand if they roll it's huge problems? Is this right?

 

[coolbri70]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

I helped pull an overturned ski years ago, mid 90s, I was sitting on a surfboard off cocoa beach by the breakers waiting for a wave, saw this guy treading water dragging the ski, I paddled over to him and was helping him drag the ski when a very large 7 or 8' shark started swimming around us, checking us out, I got bumped pretty hard, I managed to just keep calm and the shark lost interest and swam away. got the ski into shore, told the other guy what happened, he said it bumped him too and he didn't say anything because he didn't want me to freak out I had done the same. I did not like the feeling of being a floating fish food, hung up my board and have not been in the ocean since.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

which expains the home town in your sig.

 

[DXN]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

paddled mine 4 miles :faint2: and I've towed one, unfortunately we put in at opposite ends of the lake, and I din't have the fuel. I towed them back to my end.
I was going to drive them the 30 minutes to there truck, but i offered to take a look at it. When i opened the hatch he had about 1 1/2 foot of water... and wasn't alarmed didn't even run the bilge! I told him he had bigger problems and might not make it in time with the trailer. Frustrated with his lack of preparedness, err intelligence we parted ways. I still felt bad leaving them on the beach, but hey its better than the ROCKS! where i found them.



A side note my family is never allowed to come out on the first trip in an old boat, they don't like it but they don't really understand how bad things can get quickly.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

we were out in two boats and one broke down--wouldn't start--and since we weren't far from home decided to tow it back to work on it there. I rode in the boat being towed, and started fiddling with it and got it started. They didn't hear me in the other boat, or see, so imagine their surprise when I drove up next to them and waved!

 

[the_anarchy16]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

I usually get 1 or 2 a season. Best part is I have a 14" tin can with a 15. When I tow in a big cuddy its funny as heck. takes forever though. If I don't tow u in (small boat if someone else is more equipped I let them) I at least make sure you are ok and someone else is going to help. My neck of the woods there are 2 very clear types of boaters. Those that care (safe boats, follow rules, wave, stop to help out, say hi, ect) and those that don't.

 

[johnson89]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

only 1 and that was over 20 years ago,but about 10 years ago while out in gulf of mexico I heard a call for sea tow,I could tell he was very close and saw 1 boat about mile away,so I swung by...he could not give sea tow a good fix,didn't have a GPS so I pulled up next to him and talked to sea tow....he was about 18 miles out...I stayed in the area till sea tow showed up..I would have pulled him if need be.......

 

[snowman48047]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

I have towed a few. The last one was a September and a couple was broken down and had anchored where I was going to goose hunt. I saw her first, cute blonde standing on the bow in a bikini waving her arms...hair blowing on the breeze...:love_heart: he came up from the cabin after we had tied the towline on...:facepalm:

I was towed once, when my boat was new and the fuel gage/sending unit was not working, and I had forgotten my spare gas tank. I now make sure I have 2 fuel sources, 2 motors that work, and 2 fully charged batteries.

 

[Wind dog]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

I've towed one guy in, we were in a 12' Mirro Craft, the towee was a 18/20' something or the other with an inop. motor. Luckily we were right out side of the Monterey Harbor and towed them to the dock with no problem. I would not have attempted it if we were to far outside the harbor due to sea conditions.
This was not a tow but brings up a good point. Last week I was Bass fishing Coyote Lake near Gilroy California. The wind was up around 14/15 w/ gusts to 20 (MPH). Now this lake runs north to south mostly, the west side is a county park, the east side is privately owned cattle ranch. I'm fishing a cove on the east side ( Anchored up) when I notice a couple teenage boys yelling at me, asking for a ride back to the camp ground (They had taken a hike around the lake) Now my first reaction was no Fn' way, you walked here now walk back, I said this to myself. But then I decide to do the "right thing" & help them out. So after I get the anchor up ( Took a bit cause it was stuck) I pull up to the shore, they jump in, I then had to ask one of them to puch me off. When we get over to the camp ground I find it's pretty shallow & rocky, ( i hit one bolder with the out board on the way in, good thing I unlocked it so it just kicked up.)
So I get to shore & the kids jump out, again had to ask for a push off, he gives me a little push & they disappear. Now the wind is blowing side on shore, I spend the next twenty minutes with my boat being blown down a rocky shore, bouncing off rocks & taking water over the transom with me alternating between jumping in the water & trying to push the boat off the shore and jumping back in to get the motor started & in to deeper water.
So my good deed cost me, a few more dents in my boat, a dinged up mostly new prop, a ride home in soaking wet clothes, and a bruised ego.
Would I do it again? Yes but they'd get dropped off at the dock.

 

[greenbush future]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

I've been towed and have towed a few in my day, but the concern about folks just not helping is a sign of the times I think. I think many are concerned about liability to be honest, but many are also just too selfish to offer help or don't know any better. If there's a medical issue, I think it's a no brainer on what to do. I would tow anyone in if they asked, maybe not to their home port, but for sure to safety so they can arrange to get the job done. I think today's boaters are much less educated and just don't think it's part of responsible boating to offer help, but if you pay it forward, only good things can come from that. Lead by example and hope others get it.

 

[hostage]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

I was on my boat w/ my wife and we were drifting, about a couple hundred feet away there was a guy and woman who was about twice the size of me. They were trying to get back onto their very small jet ski. We thought nothing of it and they eventually waved us down. We didn't need to tow them in as the jetski was working as attended. We let them use our swim platform to get onto their jet ski. It was like a hippo on a moped, they were so top heavy that jet ski was not designed to carry that much weight of two people.

My wife loves to relax and drift around on the boat. When I was a kid I asked my grandfather why we never drifted. He told he tried to do it on his pontoon before. After about 3 people stopped to offer him assistance in the first hour he gave up. I guess people aren't as they use to be, on a plus side we haven't had anyone offer us help when we drift. It could be a generation thing or a Texas thing. I now boat in NY. I don't recall seeing people "drift" in the Texas lakes, unless they were fishing. Everyone else was skiing. I see a lot more drifting up in NY.

 

[Vegas Naturist]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

I was only towed in once. It was only the second time we had Skinnydipper out on the lake and I made the mistake of trusting the gas gauge. :facepalm: We were, unfortunately, about 10 or 12 miles to the nearest marina, so it was a long, slow tow. I did offer the nice couple some fuel money, but they declined. They just told me to pay it forward. I've been doing that ever since and have towed in I don't know how many other over the years. If I see someone in distress, I always check to see if they need assistance. It's just the right thing to do. Never really had anyone not be appreciative, but I'm sure it will eventually happen. If/when it does I might be ticked, but I'll know that I did the right thing regardless.

John

 

[Mel Taylor]

Re: How many boats have YOU towed in???

Back in the late 1980s my dad, who was then almost eighty years old, and I were 15 miles or so up the Yaqui river from our house at Lake Novillo in Sonora Mexico when the lower unit crapped out on our 25 horse electric start, tiller, Evinrude on a 14ft tinnie. I started using the trolling motor and a paddle to try to get back home but the wind was against us and I was making scant headway. A couple of guys (gringos) came by on their way to going fishing upstream, asked what the problem was and offered to tow us home after they got done with their fishing for the day. We waited and, sho' 'nuff in a couple of hours they were back and towed us in. We thanked them and offered to pay for the tow. They refused. We had an extra 25 horse rope start Evinrude with us on that trip as a spare so other than no pushbutton start we weren't seriously inconvenienced.

Fast forward two days. The guys who gave us a tow had departed for the states the day before. We were way the he11 and gone up the Yaqui again and came across two other gringos whose motor had crapped out. Repeat performance with us doing the towing this time. They offered to pay. We refused but told them to pass it on when the opportunity came up. That's about the fastest I was ever able to pay off a moral debt.