Mid-day Sunday, Hanging at the Launch Ramp

minuteman62-64

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Apr 12, 2011
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Had to go to West on Point Loma today. As usual, swung by the Shelter Island Launch Ramp to scope out boats/trailers/people/etc.

Some notable items from about 15 minutes of hanging:

Lots of activity. Makes me glad I can do my boating on non-holiday week days. Don't want to rub it in, but, damn, it is good to be retired :)

Trailers in the lot. As usual, ranged from immaculate high tech aluminum to "how'd he ever tow that bucket of rust down here" models.

The deep back-in. Guy with a Bayliner type IO, and a kid in the boat, backed in till his rear bumper was submerged and slammed on the brakes. Apparently the kid didn't know how to operate the boat because once the boat slid off the trailer his job was to throw a line to his buddy on the dock to pull the boat over. Five tries and "mission accomplished." In the meantime, dad got in the SUV, shifted into drive, had the rig slide back another foot and then pulled up the ramp. "Damn, I can't figure out why my tail lights stopped working. And what's all this rust under my rear bumper."

The "Old Faithful" power launch. Guy with a big OB had backed in with the motor tilted up. Ended up with the prop about half submerged. He fired up the motor and tried to power off his trailer. Sent a water spout about 15 feet into the air. Awhile after the overheat alarm went off he finally shut it down (or maybe it shut down by itself??) and pulled back up the ramp. Never saw him again. Maybe he pushed the button to lower the motor and it wasn't working. Note to self: turn around and look at the motor in the water before firing it up.

The plug. Hadn't seen this one for quite awhile. Guy in a nice 18 footer with a big E-Tech launched and pulled over to the pier. Went back and got his rig and drove down to park. Was gone awhile because most of the near slots were filled. Came back, hopped on his boat and waves started washing across his floor boards. Oops. Did something to power up the bilge pump. Dove down into the forward compartment, threw a bunch of stuff out came charging out with a plug, which he then installed. He was laying stuff out on the dock to dry when I left.

All in all, a very entertaining 15 minutes :)
 

gm280

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Jun 26, 2011
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Never ever shortage of fun and interesting things to see at the boat ramps...
 

Frank Acampora

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My best was an older fellow with a rust bucket F150 FWD. Rusty trailer and an old wooden 16 foot runabout with about a 35 outboard. Clothesline for winch rope. Large, about 3 feet diameter-- pothole in the ramp He loaded the boat (with difficulty and taking a lot of time) and connected the so called winch rope to the bow eye. He came barreling up the ramp in FWD at at least 20 MPH. Truck hit the pothole and jumped, trailer hit the pothole and bounced. The boat was not tied down. The winch rope broke and the boat went completely off the trailer. I turned to the guy next to me who was waiting somewhat impatiently to load and said" Some people pay money to see a show like this."
 

robert graham

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Often thought of producing/filming a movie call: Ramp Fever"....like you say, never a shortage of action....
 

MTboatguy

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I am so glad, I live where I do, never have to deal with traffic on the ramp, they are always clear!
 

Watermann

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Some of most memorable moments come from the boat launch. The mad wife scenario is always entertaining. Especially fun is the bellowing knot head type know it all that blames all his follies on the little woman. Then there's the non boating dock clutter people who take lawn chairs, coolers and toss a fishing line out where boaters are trying to come in.

I had an old bat dock clutter type staring at me like she wanted to thump my head and when I got closer to her she cackled out that it was a non smoking area. I had a nice fat hand rolled cigar in my chops that wasn't even lit yet. I replied oh don't worry it's not an outboard and then fired up the stogie anyway. :lol:

Never seen a non smoking lake before?
 

GA_Boater

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I had an old bat dock clutter type staring at me like she wanted to thump my head and when I got closer to her she cackled out that it was a non smoking area. I had a nice fat hand rolled cigar in my chops that wasn't even lit yet. I replied oh don't worry it's not an outboard and then fired up the stogie anyway. :lol:

Never seen a non smoking lake before?

Sure - Electric only. Unless the wiring smokes. :D
 

minuteman62-64

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The two incidents I best remember go way back. The first, I remember as the "oh sh*t" comedy (comedy to me, at least). Guy tied a beautiful inboard ski boat to the dock and was standing next to someone talking. Realized his plug wasn't in. Exclaimed "oh sh*t. Whipped off the bow line, jumped in the boat and goosed the throttle - forgetting the stern line was still attached. Realized his error, throttled down and removed the stern line. Then, goosed the throttle again and drove his beautiful glass hull about 2/3 its length up on the rough concrete launch ramp surface.

Other one, a guy was trying to back his boat into the water. Had a guy on one side and a woman on the other side at the rear, guiding him. Guy on the left was circling his arm counterclockwise. Woman on the right circling her arm clockwise. The tow vehicle and trailer were doing this great zig-zag maneuver till he ended up parallel to the shoreline. I never did give a name to that one :)
 

Outsider

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A boat ramp is the cheapest entertainment left today. They should charge for spectators on Sunday afternoons between 4 and 6:00 ... :lol:
 

airshot

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The best one I can remember happened a few years back, the family and I had just came back to the ramp from a july 4th outing when we noticed a smaller runabout heading for the ramp at wide open throttle. The guy was standing behind the convertible top hollering at the top of his lungs some type of instructions to his poor wife who was at the controls. Obviously she was scared and flustered and could not understand what he was yelling about but....by then they were coming up the concrete ramp....yep wide open!! good thing everyone cleared out of the way, boat ran up ramp about 100 ft, guy was launched over the convertible top, over the bow and onto the asphalt drive seriously taking the skin off and the wife just sat there crying with her hands over her face. I reached inside the boat and shut off the motor (yes it was still running) then ran over to the gent and ask if he wanted us to call 911 for medical help. Were told to go F*** ourselves and mind our own business so we climbed into our vehicle and towed our boat back home. We still talk of the july 4th day when ever we get together.
 

QC

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Mar 22, 2005
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A boat ramp is the cheapest entertainment left today
Agree that. I have gone down to a couple of seriously busy ramps on Memorial Day. I used to do it just for fun, but how's this for crazy behavior? I go to help now :eek: I have a really good time grabbing a decent tool box and heading down there with a chair, watching for impending disasters and helping people out. You have to be really careful about how you approach people, and I am sure I am opening myself up to all types of risk, but WTH? It's fun, and actually rewarding.

There used to be a really decent web cam at one of the busiest Havasu Ramps. Now that was fun and I din't have to leave the house.
 

bspeth

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Aug 30, 2013
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756
So this youngster backs his brand new never made a payment Sea Doo into the water and ties it up to the dock and parks the Jeep. Then he goes up to the payphone at the general store to call up some friends when all of a sudden yells OH &^%$ and starts running across the ramp,jumps in the jeep and pulls it out full of water.I have havent forgotten the plug in the 15 years since then, but I never say never.
 
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cptrick3

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Apr 11, 2015
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I once forgot the plug. That was 30 years ago and that's all I want to say about that.
 
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