Urban Myth?

[DTro]

I'm sure most of us have heard the story about a guy that buys his first boat and after taking it out for the first time discovers that the performace is sub-par. He has a mechanic come out and the mechanic finds the trailer still attached.

Urban Myth?

It could actually happen. I just finished watching the program Myth Busters, where they tested this. They took a 14ft Boston Whaler with a 25hp merc. They tested top speed before (23 mph) and after (4.7 mph) the boat floated almost normally. So maybe, just maybe if the person was naive enough.....it could happen.

Has anyone actually confirmed that this has ever happened?

[Northlander]

Saw it myself on Island Lake. I would go into detail on this but I dont want to offend anybody.

At first it was very puzzling but after it was funny as he double hockey sticks.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

In order for that to happen the person would have to unhook the trialer from the vehicle. I would think they would realise what they were doing, especially if they pulled out of the launch with no trailer attached.

[Tom Wilson]

Sorry to disappoint you man, but I have seen this first hand as well. Lake Minnetonka--brand new 17 foot crestliner. they were trying to get it back out of the water when I arrived at the gray's bay launch. I talked with a guy who saw the whole thing from the start until the time that I arrived. He said they backed up put the wheel jack down, lifted it right up off the ball and let her go. He said he yelled at them, but they didn't even respond. This could have been because apparently not a one of them could speak english (not that it had anything to do with it--stupidity comes in all forms)

By the time I got there they had the rope tied to the car and about six people--I am assuming that it was the six people who were going to be fishing in the boat, were in and around it in the water guiding it and using the truck to pull it out. It was highly entertaining. Never hurt nothing, but I bet they felt really stupid that day.

[Northlander]

Tom Im starting to think that our stories have some simularities. These people were also new to the country. They also would have had a boat load.

[Slyster]

I saw that Mythbusters! Great episode!

[Dennis Steele]

I have something like that happen.

I was launching at Waconia a few years ago and saw it happen with a pontoon.

They were new boat owners and the guys wife thought that the trailer was part of the boat.

When he asked to unhook the boat, she unhooked the trailer and the whole works rolled into the lake.

Those poor folks....The guy was making sure EVERYONE knew it wasn't his fault! Embarrasing for the both.

[woodview]

I"VE DONE IT.... MANY TIMES!

Actually I do have a pontoon with the trailer attached. Pull a pin and crank up the wheels and trailer tongue.

First time I put it in the water to see if it floated (got it very used) there was a couple just pulling out - as they were strapping everything down the guy starts "whispering" 'oh my god, look at this guy, wait till he realizes what he's doing. How can anyone be that f(^%*& dumb?'

Whisper here means loud enough that the fish in 40' could hear him.

I couldn't resist that; so after pulling the truck up and parking it I walked past them (he's red in the face and ear to ear grin). Asked how the fishing was for them and what was working. He told me they were biting, but I might have trouble getting to the right depth and finally couldn't stand it cause he was leaning on the boat laughing hard enough I was waiting for a puddle to accumulate!

Got down to the boat, looked up at them and asked "hey what do I do now". Guy actually staggered away from me laughing and choking. His wife was a little more discreet and came down to help explain what I was doing wrong. When I finally started cranking it up she started laughing as hard as her husband (who wouldn't look down there even when she started hollering for him to "come see this" - he just sat in the drivers seat and when she yelled again that he had to come down there he laughed even harder and just layed on the horn while looking at the ceiling of his cab squealing like a girl he was laughing so hard).

Ended up having a good laugh about it.

Every so often I can't resist playing it up a bit when I see that someone has noticed me unhook the hitch - I've seen people literally walk in to dock posts 'trying not to look at me'.

Not to many others can get their pontoon loaded in gail-force winds all by themselves - slick little setup (even if it is one ugly little boat... thus the name 'floating toad' or as Theresa has named it 'the float-n-towed')

[Deitz Dittrich]

woodview.. you got pictures of this thing.. I would love to see it?

[shamalex72]

I've never seen it, but a friend of mine has. It was at Mille Lacs, they were getting ready to launch as a boat full of people headed for the dock. He noticed it was riding very low in the water. They get to the dock, one goes for the truck and backs down with no trailer. The rest of the guys hop in the water to lift the tongue, they hook it up and pull it out. I didn't know whether or not to believe him, but after other people have seen it, now I do.

[woodview]

Deitz Dittrich ,

Actually I was just talking about the fact that I needed to get some pics of the toad that show it well.. will have to get it on the water very soon for that.

Between full time job, college, new bird dog and 3 boys + Theresa life's pretty full so it might be a bit.

shamalex72

I've personally only been on the pond with it once (S.W. bay and that was by myself - was playing hooky from just about everything listed above so my dog was the only one I trusted to keep the secret ) Haven't seen another one on the water but I've heard there's a couple around.

Have programmed in 6+ languages and want to get into some gis/gps programming, but haven't ever burned a dvd & don't know how to post pics yet - that'll have to be next weeks study I think

[ZapBranigan]

I saw a bunch of people witness this because it happened to me. Except we didn't have the strap attached on the back and the one at the front wasn't attached. What happened was while backing my brother in law was in the boat. The trailer broke where it would pivot or break away. So the wheels and back half of the trailer went with the boat. The tounge went back up with the truck dragging along. Quite crazy really.

We were able to tie the trailer back together and get it back to town to be repaired. Came back later to get my brother in law and the boat. At least he didn't miss any fishing time. Quite a crowd around when it happened. Some guy who was at the beach in swim trunks was nice enough to retreive the back half of the trailer and pull it back up for me.

This happened at the Birch Lake Landing outside of Babbitt Mn maybe someone saw this. Ha easy to laugh about it now.

[Bobb-o]

saw what happened to zap happen on the rainy river this march