Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

[Franki]

got this at the end of an email from a friend.<br /><br />Last summer, down on Lake Isabella, <br />located in the high desert, an hour east of Bakersfield, Cal. some folks, new <br />to boating, were having a problem. No matter how hard they tried, they <br />couldn't get their brand new 22 ft boat going. It was very sluggish in almost <br />every maneuver, no matter how much power was applied. After about an hour of <br />trying to make it go, they putted to a nearby marina, thinking someone there <br />could tell them what was wrong. A thorough top side check revealed everything <br />in perfect working condition. The engine ran fine, the out drive went up and <br />down, and the propeller was the correct size and pitch. So, one of the marina <br />guys jumped in the water to check underneath. He came up choking on water, he <br />was laughing so hard. <br />NOW REMEMBER.. THIS IS TRUE Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, <br />was the trailer. <br /><br />I dunno if its true or not.. but from some of the things I have seen rich newbies do.. I'd believe it.<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

The story I'd heard is that a woman of some years launched her boat a few years after her husband's passing. He always took care of evertyhing. Hooked-up the trailer, launched, parked, and whisked his wife off for a day of boating pleasure.<br /><br />She had the boat maintained at the local marina they always frequented, but didn't use it the first summer after her husband's death. So she called after her first solo. It just wouldn't go fast like she remembered. So they told her about trimming the motor and to try it the next time she went out.<br /><br />She did, and still it didn't go fast like she remembered. So she took the boat to the marina to have them check it. Everything checked out fine. So the marina called her and said to come pick it up...no charge. She did and immediately headed for the landing.<br /><br />A couple of the mechanics from the marina happened to be at the ramp. They realized her problem when they noticed the lady back the rig into the water and begin to unhitch the trailer from the car.<br /><br />The winter after I heard this, one of the mechanics in a service school I attended claimed to be one of the mechanics. A mechanic he was there with corroborated the story, but he wasn't there at the ramp. They were from northeastern Illinois just below the Wisconsin border.

 

[Trent]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

Folklore....These stories have been around for several years.

 

[neumanns]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

Did you hear the one about the snakes. I wasn't there but a good friend of mine witnessed it. There was some kids gonna go swimming and......

 

[gaugeguy]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that story, I wouldn't be rich, but I could buy my hunting/fishing liscenses for this year

 

[jtexas]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

...so the mechanic started the motor, and the customer says, "what's that noise?"

 

[deofc]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

First read this in Readers Digest..10..0r 15..or 20 years ago.

 

[ZmOz]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

I've allways wondered what would happen if you unhitched the trailer in the water...

 

[Bco128]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

here is my take on the trailer still being attached.if this had happened most smaller boats, would likely sink to the bottom or at least be dangerously low in the water beacuse lets face it trailers atent generally feather light ya know.bigger boat maybe but not on a smaller one.now for my 2nd point. how are you going to retrieve your boat from the water?would the boat get far enouph up the ramp to get to the ball hitch and if it did would it stay there while you went to got get your truck.or would it roll back itno the water since ramps are normally sloped.and any other boat owner nearby would likely see the problem quickly,or at least the extream laughter coming from nearby shuld be a clue.just my 2 cents

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

I've seen boats on trailers on the shores of a river where I used to work. Owners would launch the boat in the spring with the trailer attached and motor to their property, then launch and land with a garden tractor attached during the season. Sort of a Poor Man's Trolley.

 

[Tinkerer2]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

It could work only if the transom straps were still fixed and the bow eye was still attached to the safety chain or winch cable, otherwise one or both ends of the trailer would drop at the ramp and foul something so the boat couldn't leave. <br /><br />I have a bit of trouble accepting the launch in the various versions of this story because I've never seen anyone back a trailer in far enough to float much more than the stern, if that, and there's a fair bit of human or motor power often applied to get the boat off the trailer. To float a big boat like the 22 footer in the first post you'd need to be able to lift the trailer off the tow ball and carry (no jockey wheel) and push it a fair way down the ramp before it would have any hope of floating the boat, let alone the trailer.<br /><br />You'd hit the car barrier on a lot of ramps before you could float it.<br /><br />I've heard this countless times, just like I've heard the headless motorcylist story. The basic version has a motorcylist being decapitated by a sheet of iron coming off a truck. The de luxe version has him coming headless past the truck and causing the truck driver to have a heart attack. I've heard it all over the place, and maybe once there was a grain of truth in it, but it still sounds like BS to me, just like the trailer still unintentionally attached to the boat.

 

[Franki]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

I know a real story that sounds abit like that motorcycle story you must mentioned Tinkerer2.<br /><br />back when I was a kid in Queensland, and in highschool, we all had dirt bikes...<br /><br />One day one of the guys didn't show up at school, in fact he was gone for over a month.. when he finially came back, he had a massive scar across his throat.. <br /><br />It seems most of him went though a wire fence.. the bike snapped the bottom wires, his throat came very close to being snapped by the top one..<br /><br />Talk about being lucky to be alive..<br /><br />I've done that myself actually, rode a bike through a wire fence.. was on a cattle property.. been there for 2 years, gate was never shut.. so one day I'm screaming down that strech of track,, and to late discovered they must have been routing cattle or something, because the gate was shut..<br /><br />I got lucky though, was abit sagged in the middle and none of the wires got over the handlebars..<br /><br />by the same token I was unlucky too, because none of the wires snapped untill after i went over the handlebars and 20 meters further up the track then the bike... (got a pretty nasty bit of gravel rash from that one.)<br /><br />Always checked the gates goin slow after that, so I guess a lesson was learned.<br /><br />I have always thought it was a miricle I reached adulthood.. a sentiment that my doctors over the years have agreed with. <br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

Same story as Franki here. I have snapped several barbwire fences. I prefered the tight ones because they would pop instead of flipping the bike on top of me.

 

[Bco128]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

round here we dont callem road rash or gravel rash.to us it all dummy rash.

 

[armysfcret]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

According to Snopes , a leader in defining urban legends, it is true. See the following:<br /> Boat and Trailer <br /><br />This is a great web site to cofirm or deny all those great stories were see on the internet and other places as well.

 

[Clams Canino]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

Originally posted by Kenneth Brown:<br />Same story as Franki here. I have snapped several barbwire fences. I prefered the tight ones because they would pop instead of flipping the bike on top of me.

Yep, I've snapped a few acidentally to. It helps to have enough notice to get the front wheel up.<br /><br />Only obsticle that ever "got me good" was a muffler that fell off a 4 wheel drive truck laying right in the middle of the trail. I come screaming around a corner and see it when theres no time to change lines or get a wheel up or anything.<br /><br />As I was flying through the air, one of the thousand thoughts that goes through your mind in an instant was - "I'm gonna pay a lot for this muffler"<br /><br />I think the ground hurt a little less due to the snicker.<br /><br />-W

 

[jtexas]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

Hey, boat ramps in Austrailia got "car barriers?" <br /><br />I have yet to encounter a ramp in Texas that my boat wouldn't float off of before the exhaust pipe touched the water (unless the water level is down significantly). The boat drafts about 11 inches.

 

[Franki]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

Nope, no car barriers I've seen.. <br /><br />we have some really sad ramps around here... The council guys responsible for putting them in seem to have no idea at all.. they are not all like that, but enough of them are where I am.. makes for interesting watching when newbies put their boats in for the first time..<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Franki

 

[muskyone]

Re: Stupidest thing I've heard a person do.

bill dance did it it's on he's bloopers dvd the pin came out of the hitch and he boated off aways till his driver told him