luv2b0at
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2009
- Messages
- 176
ABout 15 years ago (dang I'm getting old!) some friends of ours got a new little boat. I don't remember brand or anything, but it was about a 16' bow rider with an inboard 4 cylinder. It was the first boat for them as a couple and the husband was new to boating. We went to Lake Mead near where I was stationed in Las Vegas, NV. I worked at Lake Mead in my spare time as an EMT and had done a lot of boat rescue training and boating training at the lake. When we put the boat in the water, I asked if he wanted me to pilot the boat until he had the truck parked. The wife said she would do it as she had a lot of experience boating. No problem. I didn't know she had been around boats and I am not chauvinistic in the least. She got the boat started and we pushed off from the dock to wait for him to park his tow vehicle and come back. As we floated about in the VERY shallow water, I suggested she trim the motor up a bit. The experienced pilot didn't know what that meant and before I got to the trim switch, the boat started to shake a bit. She thought the engine was about to die so she gave it some gas. I had to tell her that the shaking was coming from the prop hitting the cement ramp. I turned the motor off and pushed us to deeper water with a pole. At the same time I asked her to tilt the motor so we could check the prop, she started it back up. Her feeling was, the boat is still moving so it'll be OK. I was pretty nervous most of the time we were out, especially when I wasn't at the helm towing her on the knee board. I finally got to look at the prop when we pulled the boat out at the end of the day and it was banged up a little, but not all that bad really. I told him he should get it repaired. I don't know if they ever did, but we never went out with them again.
