boat ramps
 

let's here your boat ramp story.
heres mine. after a great day at the race's late 80's
grand haven,mi apba national event 10' sea's lot's of big air.
the race is over i look to my left and sheri ( girl firend at the time) is green sea sick and ready for land. after working are way in with way to many boats we find are way to the boat ramp. oh great saturday afternoon at the ramp with no one that knows how to use a ramp. pull up to the dock drop the drive off back away, not happening. 12 - 15 boats ahead of us sheri chewing on my ear it's time to make a move. i know my 4 x 4 dualy can pull my old 19' hot rod out of any thing. i go for the dirt next to the ramp. now people are yelling but so is sheri she's had enuff boating for one day. i back in pull the boat threw the weeds and no way can i pull this off. the boat comes off the trailer i put it in gear and i'm stuck with a cheering section. now my wallets $50 bucks short, my oil cooler is full of mud, my ear is chewed off and there is still 12 - 15 ahead of me. i still think about this and laugh my a$$ off.
ok let hear our's
todd

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I actually witnessed a guy and his 17 year old son putting there 21' bayliner in the water. The dad got out and climbed in the boat after he had gotten the boat in the water, the kid put it in reverse by mistake, panicked and ended up jumping out of the truck as the truck and trailer went under water and floated under the dock. The kid was standing on the ramp and the dad was watching from his boat as his truck and trailer sunk. It was kinda funny and sad at the same time, no body was hurt except the kids pride. I'm sure he had some explaining to do to his insurance company.

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priceless!!!!!

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I had been asked by my brother's wife (my brother and I no longer speak) to go with them to a sea trial of a 22 ft. Rinker. It was to be my brother's second boat. We meet at the Nokomis Ramp. Now one thing I've learned in life is "if it ain't yours, don't touch it". Saves a lot of grief.

Anyway as the guy is backing the boat down the ramp, my brother, whose first boat was on a bunk trailer, started to reach to unhook the bow hook. I had noticed that this boat was on a roller trailer. I holler at him, "I wouldn't do that just yet", and he turned around and snapped at me to quit bossing him around. My brother is one of those people who knows everything, if you don't believe him, just ask him. Anyway, I shut up. So my brother unhooks the bow hook, and the boat rolls off the trailer and BANG, it hits about three ft. short of the water line, crunching the skeg and propeller, real good.

From the dock I hollered out "uh, you missed the water", and just walked away shaking my head. Passing my brother I just said "smooth move Exlax", climbed in my truck and drove away leaving him to deal with the extremely irate boat owner.

He bought the boat.

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i try to keep my ramp time limited, boat stays on the lift most of the time.... but i like to watch the show every once and a while... it is always good for a laugh.

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Masher said your the show. :evilb: :D

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If you ever find your way to Ocean City, Maryland, there is a nice public ramp on the commercial fishing harbor in West Ocean City. If you sit across the harbor and eat lunch on the upper deck at Captain's Galley Restaurant, it it a great show. Great crabcakes and free hilarious entertainment!

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I had a scare when I first got my 311. had the drives up and forgot to check them and turned the wheel, kinked one of the hydraulic lines, and the fluid went right out. As I was backing out. put drives down and had no steering. my daughter didnt say a word, she just reached down and put on her life jacket, she was stowing a line as I was backing up. Nothing worse than trying to get close to a dock with no steering. thank god we werent out farther. No damage other than the replaced line. I got one with a bigger end this time. :D

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I think the stupidest thing I ever did was to look at a faster/bigger boat. Those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it! That may be the good side!
Tim T.

Oh, one other time (someone who looked exactly like me with same boat truck etc.) was camping from the boat at a reservoir. Wife and I decided to go to town for a hot meal and supplies so we put the boat back on the trailer with the intention of leaving the boat at the ramp lot and just taking the truck to town. Ever been to one of those mystery spots where everything uphill looks down hill and so? This ramp had trees that were bowed from the wind. The lot was long flat (or so I thought) and smooth. So there I am unhooking the boat from the truck and the coupler gets stuck on the hitch so I jump up and down on the step bumper. Eventually it comes unhooked and I go to step back onto the trailer and it is gone! Parking lot had an ever so slight grade to it, hardly perceptible (after three days of partying). I figure no problem just jump in the boat and grab a wheel chock. Climb up into the boat and toss out a fender or two. Jump out of the boat and place behind the wheel. Well 5600 lbs. Just flattened the fender. No biggy just get the anchor, rolled over that.

By this time the boat is going slightly faster and heading for the end of the lot about a ¼ mile away. Lots of time, consider fetching the truck decided against it. Tried skiing behind the trailer, slowed it a little but 101/2 D’s have little effect. Finally forced the tongue of the trailer at a right angle to the incline. Ah, success she is slowing down. Hey isn’t that at dually with a bass boat we are heading for? Push the tongue around the other way, now I am heading for the side of the lot with no curb and a swamp on the other side, **** back the other way! Finally got it stopped, took all of a minute. Thing that really pissed me off was the dozen or bass boaters that just stood by and watched. Never moved their Skool chomping asses to give a hand. Oh well never unhook the safety chains until you are chocked.

Tim T

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i can do a mean little boat ramp dance.... :D

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funniest one I got is I backed my buddy's jet ski. close to the ramp than disconected it to get my boat with my truck. He decided to walk the ski to the edge of the ramp. well apperantly a 150lb. guy with flip flops on can't stop a runaway jet ski down a ramp.(you learn something new every day) so he tripped up and face planted but didn't let go of the trailer tongue and dragged all the way to the water face first, cement ramp, shorts and no shirt. Good thing there weren't any sharks around the ramp. :D

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Was at the ramp this past weekend to help a friend with his boat, noticed a new 17' openbow boat at the ramp, dad,mom, and two girls, (looked like dikes to us) , but anyway putting the boat in the water, backed it in and could not get it off the trailer, finally the girls got in the freezing water with boots on and jeans, and were pushing the boat, would not budge, they then pulled it back out and noticed that the safety straps on the back were still on, removed and back down the ramp the girls and all to hold the boat waist deep in COLD water, just had to sit back and laugh, and then remember to stay as far away from them as possible this summer.

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just remenbed this one. going by a boat ramp in the grand haven channel and we notice our friends boat at the dock. we drive up to see what he is doing. boat is running blige pump is running and he is nowhere to be found. is we take a ride out to the lake on our way back we stop by the ramp again and here he comes running down the dock waving and yelling get your trailer get your trailer. ( which has 10 miles away ) he had got in a fight with has girl friend so when she pulled the truck and trailer out of the ramp she kept on going with the drain plug in the truck.

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I am re-posting this from another thread:
Hopefully it will keep someone from ruining their WHOLE day. . .
.................................................. ................................................
Don't Forget Your Safety Chain . . .
OR your transom tie-downs . . .

OK - they were stacked up at the Ramp like airliners over O'Hare in a snowstorm.
There was a diesel spill in Huntington Harbour.
I need to quick fetch my boat to top it up with street gas. . . seeing the traffic at the Ramp, I want to execute the perfect "dip and go" retrieval. I get the trailer in quick, and the boat on the trailer. PERFECT. As I'm headin up the Ramp, the tongue pops off the ball and the trailer rolls ( STEEP RAMP ) back down toward the water. The trailer safety chains catch, but the bunks are slippery from the diesel spill and the boat slips backwards on the bunks.
The winch-strap then - SNAPPED - at the hook.

The only thing saved me from the resounding crunch of fiberglass on concrete was the safety chain from the bow eye to the trailer. I did not have transom tie-downs. The chain was still vibrating like a banjo-string when I got to it.

LESSON: Don't let the traffic at the Ramp influence your safety check. Take EVERY precaution before starting up the ramp. Because I was in a hurry, I almost waited to connect the safety chain until I was clear of the ramp. Figuring the strap was enough.

IT WASN"T . . .

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I was working at a marina in NH and a guy and his girlfriend pulled up in a Saab with a 14 Blow boat in tow. He couldn't back the trailer down the ramp so he thought he could unhook the trailer and walk it down the ramp. He went over the lip at the top and it was all down hill. Just before the water he jacked the trailer one way and hit the stone wall on the side of the ramp. Then we went over to help.

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Always a show goin on at the ol boat ramp! :D

One day summer I park in the main lot at one end of the marina around noon. I'm heading to the dock when I see a crowd gathered at the public ramps at the far end of the marina. Big red heavy rescue vehicle from the fire dept got my attention so I walk down to see what is happnin.

Four old black guys with verrry long faces are standing on the ramp dock near a 30 year old tri-hull somethingwhiteandgreen... There's a big honking wrecker on the ramp with it's lights flashing. It belongs to my buddy, JM. He owns the local Exxon station, the wrecker service, NAPA store and the taxi service. Very small town. He is a real life Boss Hogg. Most everyone in the crowd knows him.

A diver has just surfaced from putting the hook to something on down the ramp... about two or three feet under the surface. It is red. It is large. It is a Cadillac. As this dawns on me I look more closely and it becomes obvious which one of the black dudes owns the car and probably the boat. He looks like he has been cryin. Just a day of fishin and beer with his buddies-- and now, this... JM hits the winch to take the slack out of the cable and the crowd goes quiet. He pulls the car just far enough for the hood emblem to clear the surface... he has a smile a mile wide on his face- he's really enjoying the attention. He taps the switch a couple of times and the hood emblem moves and sends ripples out. The crowd cracks up. Even the old black guys manage to smile. At least I think they were smiling...

Ya hadda be there- it was hilarious.

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:D :D :D :D :D

THAT'S fooking funny!

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Very funny. No freaking way I could smile.
I am teaching the wife how to back the trailer and I think I say "do get freaked out and forget to put into park and set the "E" brake" about 350 times per training session. My worst fear is seeing it all slip below the water line.
Last July 4th the boat was broken (call me Cuda) and we rode our bicycles over to a busy local ramp (Bay Pines for the locals) and watched the fun. Quite entertaining to see how pis%ed off people get while enjoying their "hobby". I gotta love the guys that back to the water, then load everything for the day and tie up the ramp for 10 minutes. I saw a guy in a center console cleaning his fish while the boat was tied to the dock blocking a ramp..that almost was a fight.

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i had a 18 ft jet boat, and one of the bodymen at the car dealership i worked for welded a trai;er hitch on my car. as i pull onto the highway from the boat ramp, traffic was heavy so i nailed and the tires spun a bit till i hit the asphalt. it hooked up hard on the tarmac ripping the entire trailer hitch assm from the car. the boat passed me on the left running right down the centerline of the road with cars passing it on both sides it turned slightly left and the fender caught a no parking sign and the boat did a 180 and came to a stop without a scratch... i found a better welder the next day

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Wanted to reply to this last week, but couldn't log on. My best story, pulling up to the ramp after day at beach, and we saw something just above water line that we couldn't figure out what it was. As we got closer, realized it was the t-top to a trans am! Turns out he had backed the car down the ramp towing a jet ski. The trailer jack knifed and the TA got stuck. The driver proceeded to straighten out the trailer, and with that the whole rig rolled into the drink. It was a 4 speed and he forgot to set the emergency brake! Too bad, it was a beautifully restored '68. The guy was heartbroken.

Also saw a jerk back his Bayliner down the ramp, and for some reason stopped at the water's edge. He proceeded to un-hitch the trailer from the ball, and boat and trailer roll down the ramp into the water. LMAO!

One more - a guy in a small boat is screwing around with his boat in the water, blocking the ramp. It's windy and a little wavy at the ramp, with waves breaking over the stern of this a$%hole's boat. All of a sudden, we start seeing cushions, life jackets, cooler, etc. floating away! He was so pre-occupied with what he was doing, he didn't realize his boat was sinking right at the ramp!

I couldn't resist responding to this, I've seen it all.

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The first boat we bought (many moons ago) was a 17' runabout, and we accompanied the current owner to the lake for the sea trial prior to purchase. We jumped in the boat, he backed it down the ramp into the water, and we held it next to the dock while he went to park his rig. We heard some bubbling, and then noticed the bilge was filling up with water...he'd forgotten to put the drain plug in! :eek: We looked everywhere for the plug, couldn't find it, and we're yelling at him as he's walking towards us after parking the car. He finally got close enough to hear what we were saying, and then took off running for his rig to back the trailer down and pull the sinking boat out of the water. Turns out there was no way to put the plug in without jumping in the water (it was cold), so he had to pull it out. Fortunately, he managed to get it out of the water before the water level got to anything important. Long story short, the boat was fine and we ended up buying it.

I'll never forget the look on his face when he was walking towards us and realized what was going on... :D

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Here's a lesson to all of us who have been boating for years and get so frustrated by the morons at the ramp....

This summer, I pulled my boat from Connecticut back to the lake I grew up on in upstate NY. By the time I arrived, it was around 8pm - just in time for every fisherman and fair weather boater to be putting their boats back on the trailer. I patiently pulled into the staging area, pulled my boat cover off, made sure the battery was charged etc. etc. I then pulled forward and waited for a spot to clear at the ramp between one of the two docks. One by one, a boat would get put on the trailer (usually after a rediculous amount of time including one fisherman who had to pull his fish out and show another fisherman each and every one as he blocked the ramp) and immediately, another boat would pull in from the lake. My blood pressure was starting to rise as not a single boater seemed to have any sense that there were a couple of us trying to get in the water. Plus, I could be in the water and gone in a minute, versus the 15 minutes most of these characters took to even figure out how to put their boat on the trailer. I had now waited about 30 minutes, and as a dock finally opened, I swung around started to back in.....only to have another fisherman open his boat wide open to wedge himself into the ramp before I could get my boat all the way in. I waved him off, to which he shrugged, tied the boat off, lit a cigarette and started talking to another boater. At this point I absolutely lost it. I pulled forward, backed my boat in between both boats currently at the docks at either side of the ramp (leaving inches between them and me on either side) and climbed onto the bow from the back of my pickup. I figured the hell with being polite, I'd back off between these guys and be on my way while my girlfriend took the truck and trailer. Now this lake is a quiet, 15 mile lake without many big powerboats - so to these people, my 25 Checkmate was a real object of interest. I fired it up with the usual racket of through hull exhaust, and as everyone watched both due to the noise as well as my mid ramp launching technique I realized that in my fit of rage I'd forgotten to take off the rear tie downs from my trip from Connecticut. I killed the boat, jumped in the truck, and pulled the boat back out with everyone now wondering what I was up to. I slammed the brakes on, jumped out and stormed to the back of the boat only to discover that I hadn't pulled out far enough and the back of the boat was still in the water. I was so pissed now, that I raged into the water, fully clothed in work clothes - (khakis and button down shirt), tore the tie downs off, disconnected the bow eye and jumped back in the truck. Truck in reverse, back between the two boats (who of course were still trying to figure out how the winch on their trailer worked), slammed on the brakes....and uh oh....there went the boat. I jumped back out of the truck, into the water (still fully clothed) and started swimming after the boat, again with the entire ramp as an audience. By some miracle of the Gods, the boat didn't hit either boat to my side and floated straight back. I was able to grab onto the bow eye, swim the boat out a bit further, and climb aboard as everyone on shore watched. I don't think my boat has ever made a hastier retreat for the distance than it did that day.
:D

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No matter what, NEVER lose your cool or get impatient while launching or retrieving your boat. It can only get worse.However it happens to all of us sooner or later.

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Watched this old guy every weekend as a kid launch his boat. He would do it the same way every time, and so did a lot of other Dumb A$$E$. He would unhook the boat put the car in reverse nail it till he got the trailer in the water and slam the brakes and the boat would float off with his wife holding the bow line. Well this one or should I say last time I saw him, he did the same thing he always does BUT he was about ten feet from the water. Need I say more :drool: :stupid: :crazy: His wife did her job she never let go of that bow line. :p My father still loves to tell people that story :D :D and he still laughs just as hard as he did that day. :evilb:

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Races were over and lots of boats are ramping out at the place we used to use as the wet pits. There is a certain racer that was dealing boats at the time and had a demo boat getting broken in on the course(racing). So this guys worker backs a RWD dually down the ramp to pick up the boat. But the ramp is all wet so after they hook the boat to the trailer the dually just sits there and spins. Racer is still standing in the boat yelling instructions but the kid is not gonna get the truck and trailer up the ramp. All of a sudden the boat rumbles to life (both engines). Racer yells "HIT IT" and kid gasses the truck-at the same time racer gasses the boat-BIG TIME. The props get a bite and the whole setup comes flying up the ramp at about 20 MPH. Tires smokin, boat screaming, props spraying everyone in a 100 foot radius. Gotta love racing :D And someone bought that boat as new :eek:

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JROMY.....That's hilarious!!!!
Partly because I had to do something similar. When launching that day, we had left something on and had killed the battery the week before. Got the boat turned around at the launch ramp and some nice couple gave us a jump.
At the end of the day I parked to boat out of the way and went to get the empty trailer. Boats kept coming in and blocking the ramp (lie you experienced) Finally I backed down between the 2 boats sitting there ran and got my boat and hit the trailer at 1/2 plane. boat came right up to the stop, I shut it down, hooked the front and climbed down the front to get in the truck. A cop had been sitting there watching all of this and had a few things to say to me. (The boats on either side of me still didn't have the trucks at the ramp yet!) anyway, the boat to my right was the couple that gave me the jump that morning.......

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t500hps - LOL! Your story would be about my luck also! Definately worth taking that extra deep breath before causing a scene.

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On a rare trip to the lake when I didnt take my boat, I rode with a friend and a girl he was dating in his boat. On our way back to the ramp after a long day of sun, suds and fun we began telling the girl the many stories of inconsiderate and sometimes stupid boat ramp behavior we had witnessed in the past. Of course we bragged about how quick we could load in and out. He drops me off at the dock and I get in line with his truck and trailer. Now remember, he's trying to impress this girl and quickly drives the boat perfectly onto the trailer. Now you might think I forgot the part of the story when I backed his truck and trailer down the ramp, but I didn't - because I hadn't yet! Yea, he put his boat on someone elses trailer. The look on the other trailer owners face was priceless. My buddy smiled, apologized, and backed off the trailer. Smooth move. She was really impressed.

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how many suds ?????

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That was hysterical. It's true however - after 19 years of trailering, I learned that no matter how angry you get, it seems to only make the a$$holes go even slower to spite you. And it's true, fisherman are the WORST! They are either cleaning their catch (right on the dock), screwing with tackle, or BS'ing. :mad: I decided it aint worth it. I park my rig, have a beer and try to relax. The only time I might try squeezing between boats is if it's raining (or about to).

Why are people such idiots!

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On our big boating weekend, May 24th I decided instead of dropping off a boat at the moorings and picking up in the work truck we could pickup in my boat. The last thing that I said was, make sure that the plug was in. The next thing that I see is my Velocity 22 with 2 200's running in circles and back to the trailer. I make a cell call and find out that the boat is sinking, no drain plug. We got the boat on the trailer and put in the plug. The solution is to fire the mechanic the next week. The worst part is that we couldn't catch the Velocity in the Scarab down North Shore for anything. In the two years that we have owned the boatyard the ONLY boat that has gone overboard has been MINE.

Cheers

Andy

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Buddy with 2 day old Powerquest 29. Had rack storage at the marina but wanted to take her home for some upgades. I offered to take the trailer to the ramp but he could'nt wait another hour. I go by his place and its in on the trailer in the driveway. He is inside with a towel around his leg. Told me he pulled the boat up on the trailer and pulled into the parking lot to towel it down but forgot to shut the motors off! :D Tore a deep gash 10 in long in his leg on the trailer trying to get up into the boat to shut them off.