axeslinger1957
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2008
- Messages
- 157
My boat made its "maiden voyage" under my ownership on Saturday morning. All the important things went well. Launch, motor start, motor stop, motor restart, lake navigation, docking and recovery all went well. The fish weren't biting, but that's another story...
There were issues, but they were slight:
1) We had life jackets, but got caught up in the minutiae of the staging area checklist and forgot to put the &%#$ things on! Well, that won't happen again!
2) When I parked the truck and trailer, I forgot to close and lock the tailgate and the cap window (fortunately, everything was undisturbed). That won't happen again either!
3) Backing up to that ramp was arduous! It's obvious I need more practice. I admit backing is not my strong point, and I was surprised at the distance required to back up to even get to the ramp. Fortunately, nobody else was waiting...
4) During recovery, I don't think I backed in QUITE far enough. It was a little difficult to center the boat on the trailer's rollers so I could winch it on. I did, however, with a little effort.
5) I broke one of the transom rope "straps". When one breaks, the other can't be far behind. Guess I'd better replace THOSE babies!
6) The worst thing, if you can call it that, is that there seems to be an electrical problem on the trailer. The left turn signal went on, but didn't flash. Of course, I didn't discover this until I arrived at the lake...
7) Like I said earlier, the fish weren't biting. I guess I should have been able to figure that out because we had that third of the lake to ourselves. The only other fishing going on was on the other side of the lake. Sigh... Oh, well. A fish finder from Fleabay will take care of that.
I'm hoping for one more excursion before I store it for the winter.
There were issues, but they were slight:
1) We had life jackets, but got caught up in the minutiae of the staging area checklist and forgot to put the &%#$ things on! Well, that won't happen again!
2) When I parked the truck and trailer, I forgot to close and lock the tailgate and the cap window (fortunately, everything was undisturbed). That won't happen again either!
3) Backing up to that ramp was arduous! It's obvious I need more practice. I admit backing is not my strong point, and I was surprised at the distance required to back up to even get to the ramp. Fortunately, nobody else was waiting...
4) During recovery, I don't think I backed in QUITE far enough. It was a little difficult to center the boat on the trailer's rollers so I could winch it on. I did, however, with a little effort.
5) I broke one of the transom rope "straps". When one breaks, the other can't be far behind. Guess I'd better replace THOSE babies!
6) The worst thing, if you can call it that, is that there seems to be an electrical problem on the trailer. The left turn signal went on, but didn't flash. Of course, I didn't discover this until I arrived at the lake...
7) Like I said earlier, the fish weren't biting. I guess I should have been able to figure that out because we had that third of the lake to ourselves. The only other fishing going on was on the other side of the lake. Sigh... Oh, well. A fish finder from Fleabay will take care of that.
I'm hoping for one more excursion before I store it for the winter.
