new boater at ramp?

[freeisforme]

Re: new boater at ramp?

From what I've seen, it's the public ramps that have the most problems and scary boaters. I've also seen a few trailers run up on the docks. I watched one guy back right over the end of one dock up at a lake here in PA, he backed up, knocked the railing right off the dock, and proceeded to dump his boat in on it's side when the trailer flipped the dock over. He was pissed off at everyone around him that his boat fell in sideways. He had backed in onto the dock, both tires straddled the dock completely, then when the one tire hit the wider part of the dock, the boat and dock just leaned over and the boat slid right off the trailer sideways, hitting the water on its side. It was only a 16' or so long aluminum boat but there was a family just coming out of the water right at the water's edge, he nearly dumped his boat onto their boat and trailer. He was too impatient to wait his turn, and was probably 20th in line. Several of us walked over and made sure he didn't give anyone else any problems. He was cursing and screaming and blaming everyone else for his mess. A Fish and Game Officer finally came along and took control of the scene. In that case, there was no doubt that alcohol was involved since he was still holding a wine cooler when he got out of his truck, and when the officer arrived.

I can't understand why people get in such a rush at the ramp, especially those without a clue. Of course, a little backing up practice would do some people wonders, but if they won't or can't turn around and look, or don't know how to use mirrors to back up, then we'll continue to be entertained at the ramp.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: new boater at ramp?

I wanna start hanging out with reelfishin because he has the best stories and they always seem to involve someone with a plywood window!!! Love it.

 

[crackedglass]

Re: new boater at ramp?

It must be a Jersey thing, I was in the river last Sat and saw two boats with plywood windows, one was an old trihull with two plywood panels, and some sort of wood seat built across the gunwales with cheap plastic seats attached, the other was a trihull cabin boat with all it's windows filled in with plywood, and painted or tarred over in black. The boat was sort of a dull, dirty blue color and it was smoking up the whole area.

I think the worse things get with the economy, the more of that kind of junk we're going to see. I've seen some real winners at the public ramps lately, running over a dock or just plain clueless drivers seem to be getting more common lately. I watched a guy back his boat in last weekend, he backed up too close to the dock, backed right into one of those wire mesh trash baskets, pushed it right in to the water behind his boat and it dissappeared, he tied off, parked his car, and came back and started the motor. Well the location of the trash basket was suddenly evident, he had to work his motor up and down a few times, something was obviously stuck, but it finally went down, then he started it up, ran it a bit, and when he put it in gear, we all knew where the trash basket was, crushed between the motor and the transom, now hitting the prop blades. He never flinched, he motored away from the dock, prop grinding and banging against the now crushed basket and away he went. He stopped a few yards out, took a look and raised the motor and let the mangled basket sink away, and then continued away never looking back.
I don't know about anyone else, but I think I'd have heard that thing hitting the prop, not to mention I'd have checked to see why the motor wouldn't go down, or at the very least, heard the screaching noice the thing made as he dragged it into the water down the boat ramp. He left behind a shredded array of fast food wrappers, cups, and anything else that was in that basket, now floating down stream.

All I can say is that they live among us, beware!

 

[special_kaye]

Re: new boater at ramp?

It must be a Jersey thing, I was in the river last Sat and saw two boats with plywood windows, one was an old trihull with two plywood panels, and some sort of wood seat built across the gunwales with cheap plastic seats attached, the other was a trihull cabin boat with all it's windows filled in with plywood, and painted or tarred over in black. The boat was sort of a dull, dirty blue color and it was smoking up the whole area.

I think the worse things get with the economy, the more of that kind of junk we're going to see. I've seen some real winners at the public ramps lately, running over a dock or just plain clueless drivers seem to be getting more common lately. I watched a guy back his boat in last weekend, he backed up too close to the dock, backed right into one of those wire mesh trash baskets, pushed it right in to the water behind his boat and it dissappeared, he tied off, parked his car, and came back and started the motor. Well the location of the trash basket was suddenly evident, he had to work his motor up and down a few times, something was obviously stuck, but it finally went down, then he started it up, ran it a bit, and when he put it in gear, we all knew where the trash basket was, crushed between the motor and the transom, now hitting the prop blades. He never flinched, he motored away from the dock, prop grinding and banging against the now crushed basket and away he went. He stopped a few yards out, took a look and raised the motor and let the mangled basket sink away, and then continued away never looking back.
I don't know about anyone else, but I think I'd have heard that thing hitting the prop, not to mention I'd have checked to see why the motor wouldn't go down, or at the very least, heard the screaching noice the thing made as he dragged it into the water down the boat ramp. He left behind a shredded array of fast food wrappers, cups, and anything else that was in that basket, now floating down stream.

All I can say is that they live among us, beware!

Oh my. And, I'd be the schmuck picking up the trash. After that, the only thing I might leave on the ground would be a shotgun shell. And that wouldn't be there for long.

With one friend, when ever we drop off plane when going someplace, we all know, it's to retrieve someone's trash. Scoop it up, and away we go....

 

[crackedglass]

Re: new boater at ramp?

I hear ya about picking up all the trash but I certainly wasn't going to relaunch and chase all the debris downstream.

The water was moving pretty good and most of it just sort of followed him as he drove away. The basket is probably still on the bottom of the river in about 10' of water or so, if it didn't wash into the main current. It will probably turn up tangled in someone's anchor rope over the next year or so. I doubt if its sitting shallow enough to get hit by a prop there.

The part that got me was how many times before had he launched like that, he looked more determined than clueless. I just sort of figured the guy had slipped a cog or something, so we stayed away.

 

[special_kaye]

Re: new boater at ramp?

I hear ya about picking up all the trash but I certainly wasn't going to relaunch and chase all the debris downstream.

The water was moving pretty good and most of it just sort of followed him as he drove away. The basket is probably still on the bottom of the river in about 10' of water or so, if it didn't wash into the main current. It will probably turn up tangled in someone's anchor rope over the next year or so. I doubt if its sitting shallow enough to get hit by a prop there.

The part that got me was how many times before had he launched like that, he looked more determined than clueless. I just sort of figured the guy had slipped a cog or something, so we stayed away.

Just a couple more Hazards to Navigation.

 

[freeisforme]

Re: new boater at ramp?

I was back at the same ramp this morning, trying to beat the rain to test out a new boat and motor combo. There was two guys in front of me and one ramp was blocked by someone fishing on a lawnchair, who wouldn't move.
The first guy backed in, slid his boat in, tied off and parked his truck, walked back, drifted away from the dock, started the motor and was gone, the next guy took no less than 40 minutes to find the ramp with his trailer, then another 15 minutes to untie, and 10 or more tries to get the boat off the half roller, half bunk trailer. Then instead of pulling his boat to the end of the docks and parking his truck, he sits there, starts the boat, lets it warm up while his truck is on the ramp. He then lets it idle, and parks the truck, meanwhile the motor stalls and wouldn't restart. Meanwhile I back in, dump my boat, park the truck and am gone.

Anyway, talking about navagational hazards, I go no more than a 1/4 mile from the ramp, down river, and see something floating in the river, I slow up and investigate and find a rather large section of yellow poly rope floating at the surface. I grab hold of it, give a pull, thinking that it's probably a crab or eel trap that drifted into the channel. What I find is that I can barely move what ever it's tied too. I pulled it loose, and slowly worked it toward shallow water off to the one bank, what I found was a section of log, totally water logged, with three boat anchors firmly embedded into it. The yellow rope was attached to a a 20+ pound anchor, and there were two smaller fluke type anchors in it as well. I banged them free and claimed them for my own, the log drifted into a cove.

I take it that it had drifted with the current some ways and must have broken free with the last heavy rain. The current was unusually strong today as well. I went on to test run the boat and do some fine tuning, and came home with three free anchors and about 30' of heavy poly rope. The anchors came in handy in adding some bow weight since I was the sole passenger in the boat today.

 

[David Greer]

Re: new boater at ramp?

a good deed rewarded!