What boating mistakes have you made?

AZBoatDreamer

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
1,100
Hit floating Log= Spun and Bent Prop.

Anchore Let loose = Got stuck in Shallow Water.

Scrap Boat on Dock = A slight Mark on Boat but was able to remove.

Left Depth Finder turned on = Dead Battery

Used Lower than recommended Octane fuel by mistake = Didn't seem to bother the motor.

Ran motor on Muffs with the Drive Up = Boat shook some be was ok after lowering.



This was during the First Year of owning my Boat. We will see what year two brings.
 

Home Cookin'

Fleet Admiral
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
9,715
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Of all the boating mistakes, over the last 45 years of boating, I have probably made most of them once, a few of them twice, and the mistakes I haven't made, I either almost made, or am about to sometime in the next 45 years.

I find that most of the mistakes come from being in a hurry and trying to do too many things at once.
 

rndn

Commander
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
2,323
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

On a fiberglass fishing boat I used to have, I left a downrigger ball just a foot or so in the water while fighting a king salmon. Landed the salmon and took off to show the fish to my bother who was nearby in his boat. The 8 pound downrigger weight went flying and hit the corner of my boat removing some gel coat. It could have been so much worse.
 

emilsr

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Dec 16, 2010
Messages
774
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Buying one. :rolleyes:
 

sswheeler

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Messages
48
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I hate to admit it but I drug the skeg up the ramp last year. Luckily no damage. Duh
 

soggy_feet

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Messages
713
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Buying one. :rolleyes:


Ha, well, as they say, the 2 happiest days in a boat owners life is the day he buys it, and the day he sells it.... ;)


I've chronicled a couple of things in the SHTWB section, but long story short, being new to boating, and starting with a houseboat, I didn't set the anchor well, and it got interesting...

I was upwind on a windy day from my friends 28' Silverton. Set anchor maybe 75 yards from him, changed my shorts to pants since it was chilly, and stepped out the back door. I could have underhand tossed a ball to him I was so close.

By the time I got back to the controls and started the boat again, I was along side him. I figured... correctly... that my outdrive was probably going to catch his mooring line, so I didn't put it in drive. With all the lines in the water, it was going to be difficult to power away from him, but we eventually, pushed the boats past each other, I quickly pulled my anchor in, and powered off before I drifted into the next boat in line behind him. That was probably week two with the boat.

Also accidentally dropped my phone in the water. Caught up to it about 15ft down. I was in 70ft of water, much deeper and it would have been a writeoff.
Another time, I missed a step from the inflatable to the boat, was in about 4ft of water. Kept my $5 transistor radio dry, forgot that same phone was in my pants pocket...

Another time, was taking a nice slow cruise around the shoreline. Skirting some very shallow water with a rocky bottom. Noticed a dog was trying to chase its owner down the shore while she kayaked along. The dog decided to swim out across a deeper spot, got tired, and almost drowned. Was caught up in thinking I was gonna watch the poor thing die as I saw less and less snout above water, drove into the shallows, blew out my hydraulic lines on the outdrive when it caught a rock. I realized what was happening before the drive hit, and put it in neutral, so a dinged prop and a blown line was all I suffered.
 

Mel Taylor

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 25, 2009
Messages
489
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

This is just the latest of many mistakes I've made over the years.

While at Lake Novillo in Mexico this past month I needed gas for my boat. Drove to the nearest town with a gas station with several six-gallon portable tanks in the back of the pickup. None of the tanks had reliable gas gauges on them. Told the station attendant to fill all of the tanks but didn't really watch while he did so. Next Morning added oil to the tanks, had the caretaker of my house put one full tank plus a two gallon can full of gas (with oil in it) in the boat and my wife and I took off fishing.

Knew that eight gallons of gas would be more than enough to fish all day and get me back to the house. Noticed the motor smoking more than usual at low speeds but didn't think too much about it.

Fished all day and added the two gallons before I started for the house. Ran out of gas about four miles down stream from my house with the wind and current both against us.

Good strong trolling motor battery combined with muscle power applied to the one oar we had in the boat eventually got us home.

THEN I checked the gas level in the other tanks. Every one was short filled. I figure I left that morning with somewhere around six gallons instead of the eight gallons I thought I had.

In the U.S. where gas is sold by the gallon and paid for in dollars I would have caught the mistake at the station. In Mexico gas is sold by the litre and I was paying in Pesos so it slipped by me.

Just in case you're wondering, the attendant didn't overcharge me, he simply didn't fill each tank to it's full capacity. Thereby leaving me with a lot less gas than I thought I had.









.
 

Silverbullet555

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Mar 13, 2011
Messages
621
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

1st time out with our first boat, lightly grounded the prop in some mud and killed the engine. Wouldn't start so I jumped in to check the prop and drive. Water was 55 degrees as it was mid spring in Northern Nevada and I jumped in 3 seperate times. Finally figured out the boat was in gear which is why it wouldn't start. That was a cold day.

Ran aground when I was told to stay away from a marker. I was not informed to stay to the left of the marker (was a floating jug). Bent prop, bent prop shaft.

Various dings and scratches docking, etc. Nothing major, but irritating.
 

sasto

Captain
Joined
Jun 1, 2010
Messages
3,918
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Not enough time in a day for me to answer this question. :cool:
 

sw33ttooth

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 24, 2011
Messages
498
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

forget to lower outdrive and outboard a few times start it up and the whole marina can hear so i just lower it acting like i did nothing wrong. havnt done that this year.
 

mommicked

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Dec 15, 2009
Messages
1,700
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Took off w my bow mount trolling motor deployed and didnt notice until the spray hit my face!:redface:I cant believe it didnt snap off!! Another bad oops was when my brother and I left the ramp at 5am to go hunting,dark as heck and I didnt notice he had stood up,right beside me to get his gloves out of his pockets on the 30 degree morning.I throttled up and he fell,spun sideways,and almost fell off the back of my 18 jonboat.He hurt his ribs falling and twisting and we were both shaken by the what if? no lifejackets on.I learned two valuable lessons that morning.I always use pfds in the dark now and always tell passengers to hang on before going for liftoff.
 

nimmor

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 15, 2003
Messages
313
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Forgot to take the straps off once. I don't know how many times I have forgot to undo the emergency bow strap. And last year not really a human mistake but my livewell started overflowing. The fish I had put in the livewell spit a out a small fish it had eaten and thet fish got hung in the drain.
 

NewfieDan

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 8, 2011
Messages
383
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

When I used to go skiing/tubing with my old boat I used to have a bad habit of leaving the boarding ladder down. Thought for sure one day I would tear it off.

Was getting ready to go out one day with my dad and wife when he was visiting. As we were getting the boat ready he had accidenatlly pulled the lanyard for the kill switch, of which I wasn't aware.

Got to the lake off-loaded th boat and parked the truck with no problems. That is until I tried to start the motor. Busy boat ramp, with fishermaen wanting to get back in and lots of thers going out for the day. Dad was really helpful by pushing us off the dock before I even had achance to sit down. tried to start and motor would turn over but not catch. Boat was adrift in a busy loading area with no power. After a few minutes I figured it out nad got it going, but not before I got a few stink eyes from the others around me.

On another note, I was the "victim" of a SHT. A fiend had a Sea-Doo challenger jet boat. He liked to get up to cruising speed then put it into reverse. the result was a large crest of water that the boat would then ride up on. Would get everyone around wet including the passengers in his boat. We were sitting and watching one day when he did this. We had the motor shut off and in neutral, basically drifting. He tried to do this close to us this particular day. As he came down off the crest the bow of his came down on the bow of ours. He took out a pice of gel coat about 3" long by 3/4" wide. No damage to his boat, just ours.
 

AZBoatDreamer

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
1,100
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Thanks for the replies.

Keep them coming.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
6
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

lol, i forgot to pull the trolling motor up and tried docking it on the trailer. Broke the trolling motor mount and jamed the trolling motor underneith the boat trailer. The docks where busy, made me feel like a dumb a**
 

1fast6

Seaman
Joined
May 27, 2011
Messages
72
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I've made the common ones ie. skeg, plug etc. but the other day was by far the worst. After buying my current boat/trailer, my son and I took it out for the second time. After a nice day of boating we loaded up, pulled out of the boat ramp and headed home. Got about 1/2 mile down the road and the trailer came off the ball! The chains held but the boat ended up slamming into the tailgate of my 12,000 mile 2010 GMC. Wiped out the tailgate. I examined the latch, ball, and tounge of the trailer and still don't know why it came off.
I have been towing boats and race cars for 15 years and this is a 1st for me.
 

NewfieDan

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 8, 2011
Messages
383
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

When my parents used to boat they went to a local lake that they liked. After a little bit they noticed the boat was bit sluggish. It seemed to improve after the boat was up on plane for a bit then when they slowed down it would feel sluggish again. My dad figured it was an engine problem and wasn't running at the right temp when they slowed down for some reason.

Then my mom noticed teh water coming out from under the engine compartment cover. It dawned on them that they had been cruising for last few hours with no plug in. Dad jumped over the back and put the plug in. Turned on the bilge and enjoyed the rest of their day.
 

NewfieDan

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 8, 2011
Messages
383
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

This isn't really a mistake unless you count the 2 fishermen that watched me do it. We were out with a single father and his 2 kids for some tubing and sight seeing on the lake we had our cabin on. It was a hot day so we had swimming gear with us. At the end of the day I dropped my wife and the friends on the dock. My wife went up after the 2 running kids. the single father wanted a smoke and as he was digging them out I tilted up mu outboard so the prop and intakes were just under the surface(the area was really shallow there).

He was bent over stilltrying to find his smokes and lighter, with is back to me. He heard the motor coming up but didn't think anything of it. I couldn't resist myself and gave the throttle a quick shove and back to almost neutral. Needless to say the 125Merc performed flawlessly as always and gave him a great shower. Soaked him from head to toe, the kids towels and spare clothing. the only thing to come out dry was his cigarettes and lighter since they were at the bootom of the duffle bag.

He could't stop laughing at how wet he got from such a quick shot of the throttle. we both enjoyed that story until he passed away a few years back. His kids still laugh at it...
 

xxturbowesxx

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 20, 2008
Messages
491
Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

No plug
forgot straps
trailer too deep
drug skeg(twice)
hit a sand bar
Beached boat while camping/cut water to the river overnight(luckly 6-7 guys there).
left gas cap off(too many times to count) and coated the road with some gas.
bought my first boat with a rotted out deck

Thank god I got a cheap used boat as my first. I learned alot and now can do all my own and pretty knowledgeable when it comes to boats.
I gave up on boat ownership a year ago(poor gas mileage/storing issues) and its been painful every since(shopping now).
 
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