12meter joe

It was my very first boat and very first time driving it. 24 baja. I grew up driving my dads boats so I thought I was such a good captain. The marina I bought the boat from was very narrow and my boat was parked in like an L shaped canal. Being I just bought it and is the maiden voyage so all the sales guys and workers were out watching. As soon as I start it the wind naturally starts blowing. Now I have to back this thing down about 30' then Make a 90 degree turn with boats parked all down the side. One of the guys says hey want me to walk you out with a line? Nah, I got this. Started backing out, wind blew the noise directly into the first boat in under 5 seconds. If I ever wanted to just run and hide, that was the day! Luckily no damage to either boats. The guy says you want that hand now? I felt like such an idiot!

I used to get nervous all the time when docking but now I really don't anymore as It is what it is and i always welcome a helping hand now. I just take my time, if it takes two try's, no big deal its better than panicking and slamming boats. Everyone has their bad docking days and if they tell you they don't, they're lieing.

C_Spray

iTrader: (2)

Some neat tricks that I've used here: http://www.seaskills.com/files/SeaSk...sColumnDIY.pdf

waycool marine

pulled into harbor in my triple outboard 2.5 mercs 33 powerplay gas dock with county sherrif getting fuel on left rock wall on right ran out of gas! wind was pushing boat towards rocks , picked up my hand held and called for help! sherrif turned their diesel 43' around with lots of smoke, got me before I was on rocks ,lucky he was there. towed me to the gas dock fully safety check and registration , 3 warning tickets

caseyh

Set out to find the problems on the 91 302 scarab "blood river marina" left the marina knowing the lake was going to be ruff. That's were it started, by the time I made it to sun buns bar in the 55 canal I broke the T-top, the anatas,and a side panel or 2. Whent to dock at the bar. In the 55 canal witch if you have been the current and wind can be a *****. Did about 5 approaches one motor kept dieing, had antenas hanging, 2 panels in the inside fell off and a T-top that was ratchet strapped. Was not cool plus everyone there knew me.

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

Frank Marchone (R.I.P.) was backing a soon to be mine 26' Sonic (was sea-trial for my first boat) into the water across from Red Eyes. He hit the piling backing down the ramp with the back corner of the boat . My remark sitting in the shotgun seat of his truck: "What did you do to your boat?" He was not pleased with my snide remark.

A season or two later, I was coming into a PACKED marina, chock full of bass boats finishing a tournament, all trying to get checked in. It was a complete Charlie Foxtrot inside the breakwall; and I was clearly not wanted. I shut down my very loud (in comparison) motor, climbed onto the bow of my boat; and yelled at the top of my lungs "I just bought this boat, and I have no idea what I am doing!" Those bass bastards scattered like frightened sheep. I hopped back in the cockpit, bee-lined for the dock, tied off like a boss, and was out of the water in about 5 minutes as my truck was in the grass right beside the ramp (out of the way). The only ones that were embarrassed were the couple fishermen that had time to come up to me in the parking lot to admit that they had been had.

And then there was the time I put my props on the wrong sides; and could not figure out why the boat would not idle backwards off the trailer. Hmm, let me give it a little gas... still nothing. Well, let me REALLY give it some gas. I damn near hooked the bow eye on a seatbelt in the backseat of the truck. Fortunately it was a private ramp and my best friend at the time was the only one who saw as he was driving my truck.

I had the boat float a bit "sydwayz" off the trailer once due to a current. I was backed in too deep; and the boat teetered on the fender as I was pulling up the ramp, crushing the fender and looked rather precarious. I hauled ass out of there and tied down at the gas station down the street.

12meter joe

Your avatar is awesome! Lol

sommerfliesby

Docking at certain bars at LOTO can be a bit of a problem, especially if the lake is rough. We went to dock at Shooters 21 with our Fountain, when a bunch of things went wrong at once. I positioned myself to back in, and right as I started, my wife got some dirt or something in her eye. She is rubbing her eye and trying not to knock her contact out, and at the same time trying to ready the lines and grab the dock. I can't reset as I'm already halfway in the slip and waiting to drift over to the dock itself...and out of the corner of my eye, it see a wake coming. I yell to her to hang on, and throw the port motor in forward hoping to get out of the slip before the waves hit us. No dice. The rollers come in, the starboard part of the swim platform goes UNDER the metal dock, then comes back up on the next wave, taking a quarter-sized chuck of red gelcoat out of the boat. I'm yelling, the wife is yelling, finally we get it settled and tied off. Our friends come over after tying off their boat, we are still pissed off that we hurt the boat and she looks like she's crying because I yelled at her...everyone thought a divorce was immanent.

Stuckonstupid

This summer we were anchoring at our usual beach spot on a windy day, everyone goes in stern first, so I'm on the bow of my boat with the anchor while my wife is on the stern, she throws her anchor on the beach and me, not looking where I am throwing my anchor, heave it with all my might right at some poor girls kayak, it's a very sobering feeling when you hear a bang and a scream instead of a splash. In the end, the girl was fine, her kayak was fine and everyone on the beach laughed about it all day and I only had a bruised ego.

Sabres Fan

Docking during Canal Fest on the Erie Canal can be a nightmare. Everybody with a boat is out not to mention the paddle bike things that are everywhere. It was windy and I went to tie the Slingshot off my friends Carver. A gap opened up where I could cut across the canal and pull right up to the boat. I yelled to my wife who is on the bow that with the wind I'm coming in hot so get ready. We are a few feet from the Carver when the port motor dies. The wind grabs the bow and pulls us away from the boat. The boat is now sideways in the canal f'ing everything up and I am trying to get the motor started when I look up and my wife is gone. I look at the other shoreline and people are pointing in my direction. I turn around to find my wife is hanging off the Carvers bow rail with her feet dangling. I fired up the motor and came around to get her. When we finally got tied up about 20 people started to clap. I can't believe she held on until I was able to get back!

Smarty

These are some funny experiences, keep em coming. I like hearing from other what we all go through in boating, or may yet to experience, that day may yet come to fruition - The Bad Day When Docking, Launching at the Ramp, or Reloading at the Ramp.

One day I will never forget was when were arrived at a boat ramp on the Salem River, in Salem, NJ. As always since the 1990's my father had to have the boat at the ramp at mid-level tide or high tide or otherwise there would not be enough ramp-water to float the boat for launching, the tide was mid-level and going out so window of opportunity to launch that day was limited, and with tide going out an now ramps within a 40 mile drive this was the time to launch. So we got to the ramp and just as we are backing down small runabout races-crashes into the dock, the driver of the boat jumps out without securing the boat and races to his truck and trailer.

I run down to the dock to start my tirade about we were next, and to help this idiot out and to tell him he would have to wait, but as soon as I approach the boat, I realize the boat is taking on water and about to sink on the ramp, thus screwing me and my father or the opportunity to launch our boat, the Hairy Canary that day. I jump into action get the runabout's drunken ass passenger's off of the boat, help the drunken runabout owner back down the ramp, as I turn my back the son-of-b*tch is not paying attention continues backing down not listening to my EXACT instruction and runs me over; I get knocked down as he continues to back up as I was trying to connect the cable hook to the bow-eye, I was momentarily stuck between trailer, boat, and ramp. I pried myself free and started to crank the over-weighted boat on the trailer, with at least an extra 2000lbs of water-weight.

Problem #1: The piece of sh*t runabout had so much water in it, I thought the tires on the trailer would blow out, or a trailer would just collapse.

Problem #2: I suggested waiting five minutes to bail water, turn on bilge pump, before the full load of boat and water would be put on the trailer when pulling up the ramp, but this boat owner was all kinda f&cked up (drunk).

Problem #3: The tide was still going out, I so finally said enough is enough, the boat owner was extremely embarrassed, so he drove the boat up the ramp and just kept going. No thank you to me for my help and he just drove off leaving one of his passengers behind mistakenly, or maybe on purpose behind, she wasn't coming boating with me because she was neither a skank nor pig, she was a f*cking hippo who would have cost us in top-end speed due her 350 lb frame, no fatties! She was sh*t out of luck.

Just a ridiculous experience before we started our boating day, I was physically exhausted, frustrated, and the day did not even begin.

By the way the reason the doofus boat started sinking was due to the fact he never ever put the drain plug in, dumb-ass. Here is a picture of the boat my father used own, I like pictures in a thread.