BAproject
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2009
- Messages
- 276
This is the story of my first launch.....I know some of you will find endless amusement in my experience.
Finally splashed my 91 Capri for the first time since buying it last years (it sat idle for the prior 5 years before I bought it).
It was beautiful Friday afternoon, and I was like a kid on the first day of school....nervous, excited and impatient. I pull the boat down the launch ramp. so far so good. Keep in mind this boat has sat on the bunks for 6 years an is in essence glued to the trailer. I have a friend with me top help out (thank god)!
I'm in the boat, drop the drive into the water and fire her up, split second and she's purring. I'm thinking, well, that went smoother than I thought. Here comes the un-gluing, it takes 10 minutes to free the boat from the trailer. Finally she's in the water! And luckyily for me completely stuck in reverse gear.....I try neutral, nothing, forward, nothing. I am slowly backing towards another boat tied to the dock....cutting the wheel hard it was a near miss, I mean less than an inch....my heart is pounding as I am still trolling backwards in reverse.
I can't cut the engine because I really wasn't looking forward to drifting into the yacht right behind me. As I am doing donuts in reverse, my buddy yells "what's that bungee cord on the back for!?!" Ugg, I bungee the drive to the metal bars in the back for transport and forgot to take it off.
I un-bungee it, everything straightens out, but still no neutral. There's 10 people on the dock watching me do this...so now I am embarrassed and wondering what the hell to do. One guy on the dock yells, I think you're still in reveres.....My response "yes I am aware of that"....thinking what an as%$#@! Another guy reaches out one of those hook poles and tries top bring me in....didn't work, pole is attached to the front rail as I drift back away from the dock...the harbormaster roles bye, looks at me and says "looks like a an f'ed up unicorn"....very helpful comment IMHO.
Finally I get to the next dock over. kill the engine and calmly drift in. Mind you I still want to get her going, so I grab my tools, mess around with throttle a bit and get her working again. My friend is holding the boat, and keep this in mind for later in the story, he also has a pile of stuff on the dock, including my truck keys (he pulled the trailer up the ramp for me).
Finally we are sea-bound, trolling through the harbor, running great. Get past the breakers and slowly open it up, the stress off the past 25 minutes melts away as I fly 40+ on the open water, felt amazing, a year of work finally giving something back. 2 Minutes later, engine jumps to 200 degrees, ug, dropped it down and wouldn't cool. I shut it off. Sat there for about 10 minutes and restarted, figured I would troll back to the ramp and bring her home...nope, overheating still....shut it off again. Lift the doghouse and she's hot to the touch, look down in the bilge and see that I have a small screw sized hole in there squirting water. Now I have a wonky throttle, overheated engine and a hole in the boat. So I did what anyone would do. Put the cover back on went to the cooler and grabbed a beer for my buddy and I.
We hang for a 1/2 hour, turning the bilge pump on from time to time and I go to fire it back up....click....click....click. Time to calls Seat Tow, I get thru, they tell me my membership is expired....mind you I started the membership on Monday of that week....I unleashed the fury of hell on this poor women because I had finally had it, less than 10 minutes later I am being towed back to the dock.
We get back and I ask my friend for the truck keys, nothing, they're gone, most likely sitting in the bottom of the harbor somewhere. I have the tow boat pinning me against the dock while we search for the keys like lost puppy dogs, nothing. Have to call the wife and have her drive 45 minutes with a spare set of keys, so i can get the beast out of the water.
Finally have trailer int the water, tow boat is long gone...no power still. My buddy pushes the boat to me from the dock (appx 15 feet away), I am literally standing on the trailer like a punter waiting for the football. Boat comes over and pushes me right off the trailer into the water....I am soaked, lost a flip flop and look like an absolute moron trying to hand maneuver the boat perfectly onto the trailer....It works.....I pull away from the launch.
After all of that, my friend looks at me and says, I quote "That could have gone much worse", I laughed as I got in the truck and pulled away.
Finally splashed my 91 Capri for the first time since buying it last years (it sat idle for the prior 5 years before I bought it).
It was beautiful Friday afternoon, and I was like a kid on the first day of school....nervous, excited and impatient. I pull the boat down the launch ramp. so far so good. Keep in mind this boat has sat on the bunks for 6 years an is in essence glued to the trailer. I have a friend with me top help out (thank god)!
I'm in the boat, drop the drive into the water and fire her up, split second and she's purring. I'm thinking, well, that went smoother than I thought. Here comes the un-gluing, it takes 10 minutes to free the boat from the trailer. Finally she's in the water! And luckyily for me completely stuck in reverse gear.....I try neutral, nothing, forward, nothing. I am slowly backing towards another boat tied to the dock....cutting the wheel hard it was a near miss, I mean less than an inch....my heart is pounding as I am still trolling backwards in reverse.
I can't cut the engine because I really wasn't looking forward to drifting into the yacht right behind me. As I am doing donuts in reverse, my buddy yells "what's that bungee cord on the back for!?!" Ugg, I bungee the drive to the metal bars in the back for transport and forgot to take it off.
I un-bungee it, everything straightens out, but still no neutral. There's 10 people on the dock watching me do this...so now I am embarrassed and wondering what the hell to do. One guy on the dock yells, I think you're still in reveres.....My response "yes I am aware of that"....thinking what an as%$#@! Another guy reaches out one of those hook poles and tries top bring me in....didn't work, pole is attached to the front rail as I drift back away from the dock...the harbormaster roles bye, looks at me and says "looks like a an f'ed up unicorn"....very helpful comment IMHO.
Finally I get to the next dock over. kill the engine and calmly drift in. Mind you I still want to get her going, so I grab my tools, mess around with throttle a bit and get her working again. My friend is holding the boat, and keep this in mind for later in the story, he also has a pile of stuff on the dock, including my truck keys (he pulled the trailer up the ramp for me).
Finally we are sea-bound, trolling through the harbor, running great. Get past the breakers and slowly open it up, the stress off the past 25 minutes melts away as I fly 40+ on the open water, felt amazing, a year of work finally giving something back. 2 Minutes later, engine jumps to 200 degrees, ug, dropped it down and wouldn't cool. I shut it off. Sat there for about 10 minutes and restarted, figured I would troll back to the ramp and bring her home...nope, overheating still....shut it off again. Lift the doghouse and she's hot to the touch, look down in the bilge and see that I have a small screw sized hole in there squirting water. Now I have a wonky throttle, overheated engine and a hole in the boat. So I did what anyone would do. Put the cover back on went to the cooler and grabbed a beer for my buddy and I.
We hang for a 1/2 hour, turning the bilge pump on from time to time and I go to fire it back up....click....click....click. Time to calls Seat Tow, I get thru, they tell me my membership is expired....mind you I started the membership on Monday of that week....I unleashed the fury of hell on this poor women because I had finally had it, less than 10 minutes later I am being towed back to the dock.
We get back and I ask my friend for the truck keys, nothing, they're gone, most likely sitting in the bottom of the harbor somewhere. I have the tow boat pinning me against the dock while we search for the keys like lost puppy dogs, nothing. Have to call the wife and have her drive 45 minutes with a spare set of keys, so i can get the beast out of the water.
Finally have trailer int the water, tow boat is long gone...no power still. My buddy pushes the boat to me from the dock (appx 15 feet away), I am literally standing on the trailer like a punter waiting for the football. Boat comes over and pushes me right off the trailer into the water....I am soaked, lost a flip flop and look like an absolute moron trying to hand maneuver the boat perfectly onto the trailer....It works.....I pull away from the launch.
After all of that, my friend looks at me and says, I quote "That could have gone much worse", I laughed as I got in the truck and pulled away.
