Re: crazest thing i ever saw!
back in the seventies the whole family used to go camping at lak la nonne. (central alberta canada) we had huge tents and left them set up all season. we were launchung our trusty wooden 14 footer with a 30 johnston on it. it was a one lane boat launch so we launched quick tied the boat up out of the way on the far dock and proceeded to load the boat with our various fishing gear. 6 of us in the boat.
this guy drives up with his newer 17 foot fiberform and stops with his trailer about three feet in the water. out of the truck jumps his boys. one about 5 the other mabe 7.
for some reason all of us were in the boat just sitting at the other dock watching. motor running. just watching.
the guy climbes on the bow of his boat, grabs the long bow line and walks to the end of the pier, hands the rope to his oldest son and says what ever you do dont let go of the rope!
he gets in his truck floors it backwards, slams on the brakes, them throws it into drive and punches it outta the launch!
we sat in horror as we watched the rope on the dock uncoil. that poor little kids eyes went wide as he was launched into the air, musta flew ten feet!
we couldnt help but laugh our a@@es off.
as we left the dock to pick up the screaming kid...he still thinks he did somthing wrong...his dad slinks on to the dock to see how hes gonna live this one down and wether his boy is drowned or not. we pull this hysterical kid into the boat and wrapped him in a towel. then proceed to rescue the guys boat, it had drifted about 35 feet from the dock and was starting to make its way toward the creek! we were still laughing, in tears at that point. the kids cryin, my mother is tring to warm him and tell him he didnt do anything wrong. and genius is on the dock watching his fiberform headding for the rapids! well we grabbed his boat in time, towed it to the dock. all the guy could say is thankyou. we were still hysterical! we laughed ourselves sick for the next three hours.
I watched a guy do something to that effect on a lake in PA, only the kid saw the line running out as the boat headed away and had the sense to do a quick few wraps on a dock cleat, only to later realize that the rope was around a trailer roller and the dock cleat only screwed to a wood dock with short screws. The guy yanked out the cleat and then nearly dragged the boat ashore when he gunned it off the ramp. The kid ran for cover, I think he jumped about 10 feet from the dock to a pile of rocks probably thinking the whole boat, dock and trailer were headed his way. When I got over there the rope was tight as a guitar string, the boat was around the other side of the dock, slowly trying to climb up on top of the floating wood dock. The only thing that stopped the boat from running up the ramp or dock was the angle it was on and a really strong crosswind and current from the nearby stream heading in that direction. The kid was cowering below the stretched out bowline trying to climb away over some rocks and a small fence. I walked up and tried to get the guy to back up but he couldn't hear me over his radio blaring full blast. The rope which still had hold of the cleat, was hooked on the trailer roller and pulled tight against the dock cleat. I simply took out a pocket knife, cut the bow line, which was bout 50' long, (which turned out to also be attached at the other end to his anchor which had firmly planted itself into the bow deck just behind the bow cleat), and I walked over to the dock, winding up the slack as I went and secured the boat with the rope . I just walked away, there's not much you can say to someone with that type of boat sense that will ever make any difference, and by that time the Fish and Game guys had showed up anyhow, wondering why the docks were dislodged and missing a chunk where the cleat used to be. The driver never said a word, never even got out till I was gone. He was probably better off not saying anything anyhow, all I was thinking was what if my new boat was sitting there waiting to load or launch when that idiot pulled that stunt.
I think was had gone through my mind at first when I saw the kid reach down for the cleat was that he was about to loose a finger or something when the rope came taught, but somehow the kid got lucky that day. I think the kid had more sense than did the driver. If the boat had come around or jumped the dock, the kid had nowhere to go other than over a chain link fence that separated the launch from a neighboring property.
