why chains and boats don't mix

[ratracer]

My cousin's husband is one of those brain-damaged types that for some reason just doesn't get it sometimes. He's responsible for several incidents worthy of inclusion here, I'll just list one of them for now - this wasn't his first stupidity-induced mishap. <br /><br />Cousin and hubby decide to take their 19' Glastron onto Sebago Lake here in Maine with 2 of his buddies and their wives/kids for a day of water skiing, crusing around, and just general fun. <br /><br />In their rush to get to the lake, they remembered the tow rope for water skiing, but discovered when prepping the boat for launch that they had forgotten the harness to connect it to both sides of the transom. Instead of taking the 2 hr round trip to go home and get it, going go to a local marina, or even swinging by my place to borrow mine they decided to use a piece of chain that one of his buddies had in the back of his truck and headed out. <br /><br />Everything is fine and everybody is having a great time until it's time to go water skiing and they rig up the tow rope. Said chain of course sinks down , and when cousin's husband shifts into gear and hits the throttle the chain conveniently wraps itself around the prop and pops the shaft, which leaves the 3 guys stuck on the water a few hundred feet offshore. The worst part was that the wives and kids were now stuck on a beach that was only accessible by boat.<br /><br />I found out about it when my father came over with my uncle asking if I could take my boat out and go pick up the women and kids at the beach. My poor uncle was nearly in tears because of the kids. My only mistake was bringing my father with me; he insisted I head to a spot on the beach where I knew there were submerged tree stumps and I gave in to shut him up. He WAS unusually quiet while I was changing the now-damaged prop. <br /><br />I don't know how hubby and his 2 friends got the boat back; I just made sure that the women and kids all made it safely back to my uncle's house. I do know that they didn't have the use of the boat for the rest of that summer.

 

[EZLoader]

Re: why chains and boats don't mix

Today so many people I meet have no common or mechanical sense whatsoever. You'd think one of these 3 guys would have enough sense to figure out that the chain was going to hang off and hit the prop when they first hooked it up.<br /><br />I would have made a rope harness with some kind of float (even a piece of wood). Just hooking the ski rope off to one side of the boat would have been ok too? A 19' boat shouldn't get pulled around that badly by just one skier. If it does then that makes it all the more fun to drive.<br /><br />As a high schooler, my buddies and I would take my Dad's boat out water skiing beginning in March on the Willamette River. We had a 1967 16' Larson All American with an 80 hp Merc. March is still winter in Oregon and we didn't have wetsuits so we just did dry beach starts and tried not to fall. We'd ski back onto the beach where we had a big bonfire going to warm up. Great times!<br /><br />I guess I got my common sense from my Dad and Grandfather who had no qualms about pointing out stupid mistakes they saw other people making whenever we went places. Not wanting to be ridiculed by those two kept me alert to always keep my wits about myself whenever I was doing something. I learned to always be alert and to think first before doing anything. It's worked out pretty good so far...with a few embarrasing lapses, but we'll save those for another posting.

 

[ratracer]

Re: why chains and boats don't mix

This same guy has always had to learn stuff the hard way; he's the type where nobody can tell him anything. He didn't believe us the first fall he had this (his first) boat when we told him he needed to winterize the engine. Supposedly a friend of his who was an expert on such things told him it wasn't necessary.<br /><br />But that's a stupid human trick story for another time, I think most of you who have ever lived in the northern US can do the math here. <br /><br />My father was never shy about pointing out my upcoming stupid mistakes, either. He wasn't wrong very often.