Re: towed a 19' sea ray with my 14' lund
I was out on a local river here about 5 years ago on my then 14' trihull. I passed by a guy who had apparently drifted into the marsh area with a 24' Sea Ray. He was waving his arms and hollering for help, I pulled over and asked what was up and found that they ran out of gas and had no anchor, they had drifted almost a mile before coming to rest in the reeds. They wanted me to give them half the gas in my tank, that wasn't going to happen and I doubt their 454 would have run well on 2 stroke mix. I was running an older Mercury 400. It was a windy day, sort of chilly and it was getting dark, they wanted me to tow them to a marina almost 12 miles away. I wasn't putting my boat through that much abuse, I offered to tow them to the nearest marina with gas, about 4 miles upstream. They finally agreed after I said it was that or I'll call Sea Tow for you. They didn't have any towing coverage so they opted for my offer of a tow upstream a ways for gas. I hooked up their boat using a ski line they had onboard, connecting the V part of the rope to my two rear tie down eyes on the transom, and the other end to their bow eye.
I told the guy to set the steering straight ahead, and do nothing until I bring him up along side the dock. About a minute into the tow the guy puts up his bimini top, on a windy day, then he's fooling around trying to crank up his engine, then he's moving about rocking the boat right and left. The wind was kicking up about 10 knots and his bimini top was catching the wind like a sail. I hollered back to the guy to put the top down, he refused, I finally stopped and told him that the top has to be down, and to sit still as the boat was pulling left and right as he moved about. I could tell he wasn't real happy about having to sit still and put the top down. I continued to tow him another mile or so and I look and he's putting the top back up. I again stopped, he took it down. Again a mile later he's putting the top up, this time I just pulled towards a private dock along the river and tied his bow line off to a piling. I told the guy that if he couldn't do as I asked, he could paddle home or walk. His wife never stopped complaining, she called me every name in the book. Neither were very young, probably in their 60's, which is what made me stop in the first place. It was too windy for me to try to tow that thing in with the top up, it was bad enough with it down. The top stuck up above the boat about 3'. With it up, his boat tracked almost sideways against both the current and the wind. I left him at some private dock, called the marina upstream on my cell phone and told them where he was and that he was out of gas or maybe worse. I also warned them about his attitude.
I went on back to the ramp and went home. Where they were stuck in the first place, they'd have been there til daybreak since they're boat was drifted into the tall reeds. It was a cuddy cabin boat so they had shelter, if they were smart enough to use it. They were out on the water, with no anchor, no radio, no phone, and not enough gas to get home too though.
