Ramp incidents

[dkrusin]

After reading the post "ramp tips" it brought to mind a couple "incidents" I've witnessed. I'm sure many of you have similar ones.

Waiting to put in one early Saturday mourning the guy in front of me had a brand new, never launched 22 foot Four Winns. A beauty of a boat with matching "roller" trailer. As he was backing down the ramp the boat started unloading all by its self, a great feature but he was 20' from the water. As onlookers started yelling at the driver, he did what instinct called for, he hit the brakes!! A very sad sight. Fortunately the lower unit was trim up and not a lot of damage, except pride. The owner said his other boat had a bunk trailer and he just didn't think..

One day I'm at the ramp, unloaded, waiting for my driver and the guy next to me is unloading a older fiberglass boat with a bunk trailer.(I hope I can explain this, and yes, I did offer assistance, but he said he'd done it this way a hundred times. By himself.) The boat and trailer are partially in the water (not far enough) he proceeds to tie the boat securely in several places to the dock. Ya see the concept, now drive the trailer from under the boat, thus leaving the boat securely tied to dock. As I was leaving the dock, he was driving up the ramp with his boat, his trailer and the dock. He had done this a hundred times, so I went fishing...

[Grant Pearson]

wow. that had to hurt.

[Sandmannd]

That would be smarts for sure.

[slipperybob]

Ah HA!

You distracted them!!! Mean trick!

I don't own a boat. If I do manage to borrow one, you'd bet, I need all the help I can get. Appreciate it.

[jwhjr]

Ouch, that had to hurt for sure.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I was at a ramp once where I guy was stuck at the landing... I was on my way to help when he got the idea to unhook his trailer so he could move the tuck further up the landing to get better grip... Wasn't able to stop him in time... boat with trailer backed nicely into the water...

[icehousebob]

I saw an unsecured boat unload when it shouldn't have but it wasn't at a launch. It was a 20 foot glass cruiser and it unloaded at speed on Hwy 101 in Minnetonka. It left scrape marks for over 100 feet before it piled up an a large sign post on the center divider. The truck and trailer was pulled off further up the road and the driver, for some reason, didn't look very happy.

[PRFISHER]

A few years ago while fishing for walleyes on a local lake that is also a very good bass lake, a brand new skeeter bass boat was running and gunning from spot to spot. Rooster tail, stop fish, rooster tail, stop fish and so on. We started to head for the access just when the sun was getting below the trees. Zoom, rooster tail right by us up to the landing. When we got to the landing there was a sight to be seen. The guys that had just loaded their boat were up in the parking lot putting stuff away said that the skeeter was still shooting a rosster tail by the end of the 24 foot dock. The brand new red speckled paint transfer confirmed that the boat had traveled up past the concrete slabs to the gravel parking lot. After making sure everyone was ok we thought that it was kind of funny and had a hard time keeping the laughter to ourselves. The driver of the boat was extremely quiet, evidently it was his first night out with the boat according to his one passenger. It took all 7 people that were at the access and the trailer being unhooked to winch and pry the thing back on the trailer enough to lower it back into the water so that it could be put back on. Once on the guy left without saying a word. Unbelievable....

[Black_Bay]

I saw a guy launch his boat, trailer and Ford Ranger into Lake George.

[MNUser]

My 11 year old and I were out last Friday and I unloaded the boat. My son backs the boat out into the water and waits for me to park the truck and come so he can pick me up at the dock.

A guy shows up to load up as we are unloading. As we finish up another guy cuts in to unload right after us. They started yelling back and forth. I had my kid pick me up and then we sat out in the lake for a bit to watch the action unfold. Yelling and everything else....always fun to watch the action at a landing. A DVD of all the action at a landing would be great. Just blur out the pictures of the guilty parties.

I like to use these examples as what not to do. My son and spoke for a bit and he came to the conclusion that the guy in the water was next.

People need to just slow down.

[JimBuck]

People can be so incredibly impatient. I've ran into the problem of the whole launching/landing pecking order........I usually let the party launching get there rig into the water as they seem to be the most eager to get out. I'm more than willing to wait in my boat and finish an ice cold beverage and pack up the gear before landing. What really erks me is the schmucks who think it's alright to cut in line....man oh man.

[MetroWalleye]

You can learn so much about what NOT to do just be sitting at a landing and observing other people attempt to put boats in or out of the water.

[wannaeye]

The best story I can share was told to me word for word by my cousin. Him and his buddy fished until well after dark, and went to load up. He had a Ranger with a 5 speed manual trans. He got the truck in place with the trailer in the water, parking brake set and tranny in nuetral. As he was starting to load the boat the parking brake cable snapped and the truck slowly rolled into the water. He yelled at his buddy to stop the truck but he was too intoxicated to do anytihng but laugh. He said as the water started to pour in the driver side window the tunes were blarring and the motor gurlgeling. She slowly got quiet and the only thing left on was the lights shinning in the water.

They ended up getting another buddy with a 1 ton dualy to pull the whole rig out, water fish and all!!!

[tisosy11]

Thats brutal...it usually takes me some time to load up with my little truck and such. The patience people show is foolish!

[Sandmannd]

I saw a guy at the bluffs last year that didn't take the straps off the back of the boat. Nice new glass boat too. Had his truck half way in the water before he realized that was the problem. He then laid on the boat and tried to get the cables, only to drop on. Wife asked if I thought he could get, I said I would just buy a new one.

Some folks just a clueless. I'm one of them sometimes so just learn to laugh. But the worst I do is forget the plug.

[JimBuck]

That's a good point. I wish when I first purchased my boat that someone would have given me such advice. So much to be learned by observing a boat launch. The dudes yelling at the wives, the schmucks cutting in line.....the drunks. Oh what fun this season will be! Patience is a virtue.

[walleyewild]

wannaeye that happend to me at a small resort on Mille Lacs with a very steep ramp. Truck was off and in 1st gear Parking brake set and wheel chocked, drive the boat up on the trailer and the next thing I knew was that the truck and boat were floating.

Best one I say was 2 guys in a large boat backed up to the ramp on Big Birch, I am assuming that they had stopped at a bar before they decided to launch the boat, one guy at the helm the other backing the boat in at the launch.

once in the water the boat driver throttles up the boat and tries to back off the trailer, the water making quite a large wake up onto the ramp and the boat and truck start moving farther out into the lake. The boat driver shuts down the boat and tells the truck guy to pull out a ways, boat guy runs to the front of the boat to make sure it was unhooked from the winch, which it was, tells truck guy to back into the water when he thinks he is deep enough fires the boat up again and tries to back off the trailer again(we know where this is going).

Tells truck guy that he's not deep enough, so truck guy backs in farther, boat guy guns motor still no movement, mutters something profane under his breath, I have my boat on the trailer by this time and am loading gear in the truck( not one that went swimming a different one). By this time I can hardly contain myself I tell boat guy to shut off motor, tell truck guy to pull up far enough so I can get at the transom, they are both looking at me with a [PoorWordUsage] look, I walk behind the boat remove the transom straps and throw them up to boat guy and say you should be good to go. I am glad I was getting off the lake with these two rocket scientists on the lake, needless to say I laughed about it all the way home.

[dkrusin]

Went to the ramp to load, witnessed an SUV with about 6" of the top showing with 2 jet skis floating above.

Onlookers said..wife was backing in...husband was on jet skis, yelling and screaming while she's backing up...wife claimed foot slipped off brake and hit gas.

I think she'd had enough and decided to s*&% can the whole works...Patience, patience patience!!!

[davesfriend]

It is very important you are ready before you launch, but not too ready. I saw an elderly gentilman backing up with his wife in the boat. He figured that wasn't the way to go. He has her back the truck up. He really knows how to do this so he unhooks the 18 and 1/2 smokercraft from the trailer. She begins backing up. First bump between cement thingies on the ground the boat starts to unload. He shouts to stop, she does. She responded rather quickly I might add. Fast enough to drop that boat on the ground three feet shy of water. He really tried to pull it up with the winch. Could not budge it. So he pulls forward to flatten the incline or something. The noise that boat made hitting those cement thingies, scch wham scch wham scch wham!. I can still hear it today..

[katoguy]

A guy shows up to load up as we are unloading. As we finish up another guy cuts in to unload right after us.

My son and spoke for a bit and he came to the conclusion that the guy in the water was next.

I disagree with you and your son.

I am a firm believer in that the line forms on-shore (at the vehicle and trailer line). The other guy loading should have beached his boat or used a courtesy dock (or had his fishing partner go get the vehicle). I can't tell you how many times it is my turn to load or unload after waiting for quite a while patiently and somebody pulls their boat right up to the dock blocking the access.

[HOT SPOT]

WAS OUR FISHING SUNDAY BY MYSELF, AND BEECHED THE BOAT. BACKED THE TRUCK AND PUSHED THE BOAT OUT TO LOAD IT, SURE ENOUGH I MUST HAVE HAD THE BOAT IN GEAR, I TRYED STARTING IT BUT OBVEOUSLY IT WAS IN GEAR. I DID NOT THINK OF THAT IN TIME. SURE ENOUGH THE CURENT PUSHED MY BOAT RIGHT INTO A BRIDGE PILLAR. NOT A GOOD THING. BROUGHT IT TO THE DEALERSHIP TO SEE WHAT THEY WOULD SAY AND THEY SAID THE INSURACE WILL MORE THAN LIKELY TOTAL IT. AND IF THEWY DO FIX IT IT TAKES 5- 12 WEEKS. TALK ABOUT A BAD MOMENT. THAT BOAT WAS MY PRIDE AND JOY. AND WORSE YETTHERE GOES MY FISHING FOR THE SUMMER

[Tom7227]

Finally, someone that's honest. It was always the other guy in the other posts.

To bad Hot, but at least you'll get a new rig some day.

[MuskieJunkie]

I can't tell you how many times it is my turn to load or unload after waiting for quite a while patiently and somebody pulls their boat right up to the dock blocking the access.

People blocking the access is the worst, how about when they launch and then leaves the wife to hold the boat (or tie it up) on the dock floating above the ramp clogging up the whole works as he drives off to park the truck. Never mind that they could have moved to the non ramp side of the dock or go to the other dock away from the ramp and that there are signs up saying "do not leave boat on this side of dock."

That one gets me everytime, come on, have a little courtosey and some common sense.

[ozzie]

how fast did you hit the pillar....must have been moving pretty good in the current?....that sucks..........

[ozzie]

I go to a lake that people park there truck/trailers in the turn around area so you can't turn around and they take up all the spaces......even though the spaces aren't marked it doesn't take a genius to know that other people have a tough time getting turned around or parking for that matter the way they park, but everytime at this landing there is at least one one-who-thinks-I-am-silly blocking the turn around!! Common sense isn't that common anymore!!