What Stupid things have you done/seen boating - we can all laugh and learn.

[Duncan]

Good story. Mad me laugh.

And for that..............I will install a secondary super duty bilge pump this spring.

One of the first mods we did on our 2009 RZ2 was upgrade the factory bilge (300 gph?) to a 1200 gph AND ... add two more 1200 gph bilge pumps, one in each rear corner (low point when on surf lean).

Our open bow wake boats are NOT seaworthy. I think everyone should at least upgrade their stock bilge and consider adding more capacity.

[Matt Garcia]

thats one of my favorite sites... guy runs, works his *** off.. wife and kids sit on the dock... watching the "magic" happen.. lol

I will have to admit my wife and I can't stand it when the wives sit and look "pretty". Get off your *** and do something! However, we maybe a little different since my wife can school a lot of men on the ramp with backing down. The ramp we launch at is busy 2 lane, narrow ramp and takes a turn at the top. There have been times when my wife has honestly asked other men if they need help. The men always say no; ego for a man is terrible thing. We just laugh at the reaction of the wife and husband that dont know what they are doing because the husband always gets pissed off at his inability to launch and load the boat which in turn takes it out on the wife.

[Dan and Christy]

I will have to admit my wife and I can't stand it when the wives sit and look "pretty". Get off your *** and do something! However, we maybe a little different since my wife can school a lot of men on the ramp with backing down. The ramp we launch at is busy 2 lane, narrow ramp and takes a turn at the top. There have been times when my wife has honestly asked other men if they need help. The men always say no; ego for a man is terrible thing. We just laugh at the reaction of the wife and husband that dont know what they are doing because the husband always gets pissed off at his inability to launch and load the boat which in turn takes it out on the wife.

Sounds like our wives would get along great! She always has stories when we get everything loaded up as to the idiots on the ramp!

[WakerideN]

Sounds like our wives would get along great! She always has stories when we get everything loaded up as to the idiots on the ramp!

x3... my wife backs I load and unload... she so backs better then most men..... and its awesome to watch... lol

[Heli-Doc]

On our last trip of the year at Lake Powell in 2012, when we were getting off the lake, I had my wife back the trailer down into the water. I pulled up with the boat, got it loaded onto the trailer and then she headed towards the top of the launch ramp. If anyone has been to Wahweap Marina, you know that the ramp is really long. Especially when the water is really low. I also feel that everyone should know that it was a busy time at the launch ramp that day, and there was a lot of noise from boats being launched and retrieved, and people cruising on the lake as well. Anyway, she gets to the top of the ramp, and I started to climb out of the boat when I realized that the engine was still running. I guess it's also a good time to let everyone know that I have an FAE and for the life of me, I did not hear the boat running before my wife pulled me out of the water, and did not hear it running over the noise of my truck pulling it up the ramp. Needless to say, the impeller was changed over this winter.

[Nobody]

Sounds like our wives would get along great! She always has stories when we get everything loaded up as to the idiots on the ramp!

Mrs Nobody hasn't mastered the boat launch and retrieval on her own yet, but she not only "looks pretty" but does it all as well....... while I sit around and look handsome.

Makes lunch, packs cooler, cleans the boat head to toe, scratches my back, and shakes that "thang" all day long to the 6000 watts cruising the inter coastal........MAN I have it good.

[bryce2320]

Mr Nobody hasn't mastered the boat launch and retrieval on his own yet, but he not only "looks pretty" but does it all as well....... while I sit around and look handsome.

Makes lunch, packs cooler, cleans the boat head to toe, scratches my back, and shakes that "p*n*s" all day long to the 6000 watts cruising the inter coastal........MAN I have it good.

I knew it!!!!!!

[rensink]

I have a few good ones for this...working at a marina we get to fix a lot of the mistakes of people rather than see them first hand.

First one was just this previous summer somebody was backing their boat down the ramp and was certainly struggling so I offered to help they declined the offer, it was a mom and sons older with kids. They went way to deep and fired the motor up (i/o) motor trimmed way up but not all the way, this day was rather calm so not sure how this all happened but the next thing I hear is the sound of the prop hitting something so I walk back down the dock check on them they say everything is fine so I walk back up to the truck. The son pulls the truck and trailer off the ramp and I realize that the boat had swing 180 degrees parallel with the boat trailer and the prop chewed up the tail light, fender, and slashed the tire while making contact with the frame so I told the kid they need to check their prop and they said it was fine and take off. I later saw them at a marina getting a new prop. Thought I had a picture somewhere but can't find it now I'll have to check my phone to see if it didn't transfer to my computer.

Another after work we often walk across to a restaurant to have a few beers and watch the traffic and lack of judgment that is located on the lake between the two bridges on our lake that connects the two West and East. We often get the classic come in super fast and throw it in reverse to prevent hitting the dock and throwing people over the bow but another memorable one somebody came in and got way crooked and floated into the beach with an i/o and we could hear the u-joint out drive just grinding and chattering from being trimmed up and digging in the mud/revving up. Long story short the motor got stuck up and we went down to help him but I do have a picture of this one, along with the classic come in shut the boat off and try and wrestle it in by hand.

Wrestling it in by hand

This is the one that the guy horsetied and got beached twice and got pulled out twice because it was so stuck and we had to help.

[Ruger761]

Its amazing what people do on the water, ramps, and docking. Our ramp (single lane) is pretty calm except for holidays so people like to sit in the middle of the ramp and fish. Then they get p*ssed when you make them move so you can put your boat in the water. And what makes a pontoon owner think its ok to pull his boat up about 20ft out of the water, still on the ramp to finish strapping it down vs pulling out of the way, I'll never understand. In 12 yeas of owning a boat I've dinged 1 prop and only caught the rope twice due to new people telling me it was clear when it wasn't. My fault for trusting them those times. Now I will admit we stay at our lake and dont travel very often, so I know the bottom conditions pretty well.

[rensink]

My biggest pet peeve when at ramps is people who pull the boat out but then only go 20ft as Ruger said and strap their boat down and clean stuff out etc. I don't mind people that don't know what they are doing just because we all started somewhere, unless they are absolutely stupid about stuff and don't think then I get irritated with them.

[Duncan]

Different perspective re pulling up on ramp. We trailer launch each Saturday and Sunday at Rend Lake, IL. Very popular fishing lake. When we pull the boat on Sunday, my wife stops part way up the one lane of the double ramp and I hop down to pull the plug and let it drain. Takes less than 5 minutes and the sharp angle gets a lot more water out. We have received some looks, mostly from fisherman. But every other part of our launch/retrieve routine is fast so I have no guilt for those few minutes. After draining, then we pull out to the prep area to get things ordered for the short trip back to the campground.

Many fisherman I think are the worst on the ramp because they do it so often, are very good at it, and many have zero patience for others. I do not care if some dude with a bass boat and overpowered motor can back his truck/trailer down the ramp at 15 mph and have the boat loaded in 30 seconds and be pulling back out. Empty ramp, no people around, fine...risk your boat by zooming around. But not when kids and families are there and other skilled but not "perfect" boaters are using the ramps zooming around puts everyone at risk, no matter how skilled the zoomer.

[Ruger761]

I dont mind the quick draining of the boat as your describing. Its just most spend more time doing other stuff and never even pull the plug until the very end which by that time is over 5 minutes.

[ChrisBarnes05-12-84]

Last year while out on the lake I saw a guy do the stupidest thing i've ever seen on the lake, and I have seen plenty of stupid stuff. I was at the dock waiting on a friend to get in the boat. While waiting some mexican guy was pulling up to the dock on an old bayliner if memory serves correctly. He was going at least 10 miles per hour and im sitting there thinking man this guy is hauling *** up to the dock. Instead of reversing the boat to slow it down the retard throws his boat into neutral and runs to the front of the bow and throws his hands out to try and catch the dock. Needless to say his boat crashes into the dock and sends him flying over the dock and into the water. His boat went around a quarter of the way up on the dock then slid back down into the water. I started dying laughing. This guy climbs onto the dock and yells something in spanish to his friend that was waiting for him, and then they drive off. I cannot remember a time when I laughed this hard. My stomach hurt the rest of the day at the lake from dying laughing for an hour straight.

[FacePlant]

I let a buddy borrow my old Cobia once. It had a 140hp Johnson outboard with VRO and he decided to add oil for me. 10W30 that is. Took me a few to figure that one out....

[thtrog]

I know the guy that witnessed and filmed this mishap....