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^^^^^^ OMG, that is funnier than ship! Kmart was ahead of the curve on mail order, too bad they did not survive.

Not surprised to hear a lot of single engine stories popping up. Much more difficult than twins. I’ve done many of the reverse of shame to get out of a bind. Luckily have only put a few rashes on my boat.

Have noticed that a bigger prop and external steering affects the singles a lot. My buddy’s 25OL with a 23p prop and no external steering handles docking much better than my 266 with external and a 29p prop. Must be turning radius and less slip at idle.

Happens to the best of us.

Oh gee...did the same thing. I slipped off the dock, got wedged between the boat and the dock, took my right shoulder and ripped everything inside it, I looked like Drew from Deliverance after the rapids scene. Right arm was useless, tried to swim with one arm, couldn't get out of the water, finally managed to get the swim ladder down from the boat (which are POS's with Pursuits) and had to reach over to grab the grab handle on the side on the injured side, not easy...took at least 10 minutes, nobody around, the thought of drowning did cross my mind as I was getting tired.

Finally got out with a bloody knee like yours, got to the car and with my luck I took my manual shift Mustang to the boat that day which I never do, had to steer and shift with my left hand to get to help.

Surgery and months of therapy. I'd have rather pooped my pants like ICDEDPPL.

Apex,

I lost a small amount of steering throw when I did the hydraulic steering conversion this winter. I can tell when I'm making my spin-around approach to retrieve the CFO, but it's not so much I can't learn and accommodate. I just have to approach at a slightly lesser angle and start my swing a bit earlier.

Thanks. Brad.

I had an embarrassing moment a few seasons back in my 29 Fountain. Pulled the boat off the trailer and docked it so I could park the truck. Family and guests boarded the boat and when I got back, I jumped in started the engs and untied the dock lines.

There was a strong cross wind right to left and I had docked the starboard side against the dock. I was expecting the wind to blow me away from the dock so all I had to worry abt was backing up then use the shifters to spin the bow to the starboard once I cleared the dock and pull away.

When I put both engs in reverse, the boat started going backwards. I was expecting the wind to push the boat to the left but it seemed it was moving to the left faster than I was expecting. To my left abt 50' was another private dock only used for the party boats. After I cleared my dock, I put port eng into fwd and the starboard eng in reverse to swing the bow to the right into the wind. To my surprise, the bow didn't swing to the starboard. Instead the boat just seemed to be accelerating to the left. Tried going back to both engs in reverse so I would at least clear the neighbors dock, but that just made things worse. Finally realized I was going to hit the neighbors dock where there were 2 party boats were tied-up. Put both engs into neutral and ran back to try and cushion the collision. Wasn't able to climb over people fast enough and smacked into the dock broadside. Both party boat captains heard the thud and came up from below yelling at me to "slow-down".

About this time, I finally realized the steering wheel was turned fully to the left. Apparently someone was playing with the steering wheel while I was parking the truck.
Luckily. the rub rail absorbed the impact and there was no damage to the boat, just my pride.. I just barely missed hitting one of the party boats.

Since that day, I try to get a visual on the drives from the dock and verify they are straight before jumping in the boat.