Went to the local boat launch today to help a friend and I was truly amazed

[kjsAZ]

Face it, Admirals are always right......

 

[GA_Boater]

Face it, Admirals are always right......

The first rule of married or attached boaters. :smile:

 

[bsmonster]

thank you all for being NORMAL LOL this stuff drives me nuts. I think people lose there manors at the boat ramp...It must be in there upraising just sayin

 

[jayhanig]

I NEVER went boating on a holiday weekend in a cosmopolitan area. Just not worth the experience on or off the water.

I don't boat on weekends at all. Weekends are for sitting at the ramp watching. You can't buy better entertainment than that. I boat during the week.

 

[ajp1977]

lol would be the same difference as going to a bar on new years eve..lol aka. amateur night! neither for me!

 

[Boats-A-lots]

The fun at the boat launch!

 

[Bubbasboat]

XXXXX

 

[Bubbasboat]

XXXXX

 

[Brian 26]

I like offering to help people that are struggling, however sometimes they tell me they don't need help. It's very satisfying when you do get someone that listens intently, I sold a boat to a guy one time and spent probably 15 minutes at the ramp (mid week evening no one was around) going through everything while he took notes on a note pad. We also took the time to have him practice load about 5 times.

 

[redneck joe]

Couple weeks ago I was waiting for my turn and noticed a 18' or do boat getting ready to back down the ramp. Only two bunks and no straps holding the boat on. I flagged him before he got to the steep part of the ramp (very steep part) and he asked it he should and that he's done it the first two times (new boater). I convinced him yes and his wife who was in the boat thanked me she stated she had worried about that. Nice people who appreciated my advice, not always the usual.


Full disclosure; I have launched 10 feet shy of the water, on that very ramp. That story convinced him.

 

[nitsuj]

There's something about boating, and also motorcycling and shooting a gun. A red blooded American male just can't admit he doesn't know how to do these things. I usually try to help, but am often told my help isn't needed. Boat ramps are a great place to see people in over their heads, but completely unwilling to accept help. First clue is usually the guy yelling at his wife. He can back his trailer down a ramp wide enough for 6 boats, and it's her hand signals that are screwing him up. I've often said that boaters should hang out on ramps on weekends trying to help new boaters with the basics. It's a lovely notion, but the sad fact is, you'd likely sit there all day and not have anyone ask for or accept your help. Speaking of Admirals, that's one place they have us beat. When a woman doesn't know something, her ego doesn't prevent her from asking for help or accepting help if it's offered. I used to work part time as a motorcycle instructor. The star pupils were almost always the women of the class. They came in with no notions of already knowing how to ride, and no refusal to accept instruction.

 

[keith2k455]

Well, I must say I appreciate the people who help, like fastatv and others. I've tried to research and learn and still find myself in a bind from time to time. Wednesday was at a new ramp and took 3 tries to get back on trailer. I told one guy beforehand he could go first cause I might take a bit. He said no, and was nice, but when I was done he said I maybe was too slow when loading. Point taken, but that's gonna be tough for me. At least I load in staging areas, lower my drive when its in the water and keep the bow strapped when backing. My worst part is loading cause It's not worth the fights that come from the admiral putting the truck in R...I have to completely load myself. The one thing I noticed is everyone tends to load passengers and gear before launch....is this good or do all you trailer people load people at the courtesy dock so you can be alone for launch?

 

[nitsuj]

It depends on who my passengers are. If they're not experienced boaters, I have them wait on land until I pull up to the dock. I like to have at least two people to launch and retrieve. After I'm ready to launch, I back the boat to the edge of the water, then I hop in the boat and my wife takes the drivers seat in the truck. She doesn't have the confidence to back all the way down the ramp, so I get it to where she just has to go straight the last few feet, then pull the empty trailer out and park. Then I motor over to the dock and wait for her and anyone else. Unless it's busy, then I stay out on the water until my crew is ready to board, then dock. Same thing for pulling out. I dock, go get the truck and get it to the water. Wife gets in truck and dunks the trailer while I line up the boat. She backs the last few feet until I get the boat on and secured. Then she pulls us out of the water. This is all assuming I don't have a friend along that can back a trailer. Which I usually do. Then, he just takes truck duty and I stay on the boat. I like to make sure my wife is well versed in various aspects of the process. She's not comfortable with backing a trailer in front of people. She thinks it will make her nervous and screw up. Truth be told, she's probably quote capable of loading or unloading without me at all. She just won't try. But we work it out.

 

[jestor68]

Some of the best entertainment around is going to the boat launch and watching some of the antics.

It's kinda like watching one of those old Keystone Cops movies. :lol:

 

[kjsAZ]

The one thing I noticed is everyone tends to load passengers and gear before launch....is this good or do all you trailer people load people at the courtesy dock so you can be alone for launch?

No one besides me and all the "gear" is in the boat when we launch. Admiral backs the boat into the water, I head out and all enter the boat from the courtesy dock when she's back from the parking lot. Just in reverse for retrieving.
That's how we started it 16 years ago as the Admiral doesn't want to deal with all the PWC's and bass boats which have to run high speed circles directly behind the ramp in the no-wake zone (until the rangers show up )

 

[jdag]

It depends on who my passengers are. If they're not experienced boaters, I have them wait on land until I pull up to the dock. I like to have at least two people to launch and retrieve. After I'm ready to launch, I back the boat to the edge of the water, then I hop in the boat and my wife takes the drivers seat in the truck. She doesn't have the confidence to back all the way down the ramp, so I get it to where she just has to go straight the last few feet, then pull the empty trailer out and park. Then I motor over to the dock and wait for her and anyone else. Unless it's busy, then I stay out on the water until my crew is ready to board, then dock. Same thing for pulling out. I dock, go get the truck and get it to the water. Wife gets in truck and dunks the trailer while I line up the boat. She backs the last few feet until I get the boat on and secured. Then she pulls us out of the water. This is all assuming I don't have a friend along that can back a trailer. Which I usually do. Then, he just takes truck duty and I stay on the boat. I like to make sure my wife is well versed in various aspects of the process. She's not comfortable with backing a trailer in front of people. She thinks it will make her nervous and screw up. Truth be told, she's probably quote capable of loading or unloading without me at all. She just won't try. But we work it out.

This is similar to my process, although I cannot get my wife to do anything but drive straight away after retrieving the boat. We are still plenty fast, and usually in-and-out faster than people that arrive before us.

When we have people with us, my 1st rule...stay away. I ask them politely not to help! I don't want them doing anything, otherwise it is more likely that I will forget a step. For instance, a couple of weeks ago we had people with us. 1 guest was up on the swim platform unbuttoning the canvas, and I placed the cooler on the platform. I just assumed (yes, mistake) that he'd put the cooler in the boat. Nope...he left it on the swim platform and I drove away to the launch (it didn't fall off luckily, so no harm). If I was doing my normal routine, I would have never left the cooler there.

As for a "beginner" story (and trust me I made my share of mistakes in the past)...yesterday we were launching and there was an obvious beginner. In fact, found out after watching him try to zig-zag-backup into the ramp 4-5x that it wasn't even his boat, but his brothers. Anyhow, after trying several times to back up straight, he finally tole me to go ahead. I launched my boat, parked the SUV/trailer, and made my way back to the boat just as he was finally backing into the water. I asked if I could help, and noticed that he only had a bow line attached, which was being held by his wife, a child in the boat, and no stern line. The winds were about 12-15 mph yesterday. I told him that he needed to tie another line to the stern, that he could use 1 of my lines, and that I would even get 1 of my boat hooks in the event the boat floated away from the dock. He would not take my advice. He ended up getting the boat launched, along with wet over his waist as he had to get pretty deep into the water.

Oh...it was a 14' aluminum boat...so not exactly a huge vessel to manage!

 

[SigSaurP229]

I fixed that problem and now have a private launch at my disposal, everyone there are experienced boaters, and I have seen 5 boats launched on a single lane launch in 15 minutes truly a thing of beauty. Ohhh and yes I am from East Tennessee and used to regularly launch at Douglas Dam. I still to this day can't figure out why everyone launching there insists on backing to the blind side.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I can launch my boat with or without the family in about 120 seconds. that includes removal of the transom straps, backing in the boat, unhooking the safety floating the boat, then walking it to the end of the dock and getting back in the truck to clear the ramp.

retrieving is a bit longer if the current or wind is strong as I usually need to adjust the boat to the trailer at least once.

 

[Fastatv]

There was another experience that I did not mention in the original post. There was a young couple and two 10 and 11 year old ( or so ) children that launched an old boat, first time they had done it. It was a 17.5 footer, 4.3 L Cobra out drive. Anyway, they launched, they did well, and I took the rope and moved the boat out of the launch area so others could continue launching. When I pulled on the boat, I was really surprised how difficult is was to move, I mean it was a strain.....LOL. Anyway, thought well, this is one well built boat. The man comes back after parking his truck, can't start the boat. He pulls the engine cover to have a look, and you could hear the water running in the boat, already had 8 or 10 inches of water in it. He turned on the bilge pump, thankfully it worked, water started going away. It was at that point I realized a couple of things....1, the boat was probably very water logged, 2, at the rate the water was coming in, and as mentioned, you could hear it, in reality the boat was probably unsafe. I told him he may have a leaking bellows of some sort. He thanked me, got it started with a little help from me, then went on his way. I just wasn't sure what to say to him. When I saw him drive away with his wife and little kids, tho I didn't know them, I felt a bit of worry, and maybe a little sadness. Again, I really enjoyed helping all the folks, but I just didn't know what to say to this man....Looking back, I'm thinking I might should have told him that his boat was unsafe! I think if I ever experience this again, I might pull the man off to the side and kindly mention that the boat may not be safe to operate. I guess it was none of my business.....I just don't know.

 

[Brian 26]

One time on memorial day waiting in a long line I hear the guy in front of me talking about how his battery is dead. I was in a fishing boat at the time that had 3 batteries. I told him he could borrow one of my trolling motor batteries and my jumper cables. I disconnected one of my batteries and lifted it up to his swim platform where he let it sit during his launch on a very steep river ramp, evening spinning his tires back up the ramp to readjust.

After he and I launched I had to track him down out in the middle of the river and get my stuff back, battery still sitting on the smooth swim deck. How it didn't fall off into the river is beyond me. I don't think I even got a thank you out of the deal, I still wonder to this day if that battery would have fallen off and into the depths of the Mississippi would he have offered to pay for it.....