lncoop
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2010
- Messages
- 5,147
My paddling club participates in an annual clean-up on the Arkansas River. Every year I swear I won't take my barge again and every year guess what?:facepalm: Usually I just goober up the prop, but this year was an even bigger gong show than usual. My buddy towed my john boat over and launched it, then I backed the barge down and hopped in while he took over the truck. The river is really low, so about the time the trailer was close to deep enough it went off the end of the ramp! The scene is part of the story. There were people everywhere including two crews from local TV stations. I waded in slowly until I reached the end of the ramp then carefully stepped off into neck deep water while three buds stood on the now floating barge with a grappling hook ready. I found a place on the frame and hooked it, then with the guys on the boat pulling up and the guy in the truck pulling forward in 4WD low we got the trailer out with basically no damage (just a spot or two where the concrete scratched off the paint).
Eight or so crew members, including one very good sport of a reporter, hopped on the barge and the flotilla (barge and two big johns) headed for an island where we planned to pick up all the trash before heading out into the main channel for bigger targets (more on that later). We launched at a city park (Burns Park) ramp bass boats use to access the main channel but everything was so silted in from all the high water earlier in the year it was a slog to get to the island. I had people running back and forth on the boat constantly to redistribute weight. Once the island was clean the john boats ran the trash back to the ramp, then when they returned we all headed out to the main channel. After more weight shifting and juking through a slot in the jetty we made it out into the river and headed for another target, an abandoned fiberglass boat hull (no guts, no transom, nothing) leaning vertically against a tree. Not sure how it ended up there. High water is the likely culprit of course, but the strange thing is it was only a couple hundred yards below a dam, so...........
Anywho, a guy went up the tree and hooked ropes to the hull. We pulled it over, dragged it across the point and dropped it on the shore at which point we stuffed the bow with a mesh bag full of two liter bottles, hooked it up to the barge with a quick release knot and pulled it into the water with two people aboard. What's that you ask? Could we have simply dragged it to the nearby boat ramp? Of course we could have! After a short trial run we determined it would be suitable for a run five miles back to a park on the other side of the river where a grapple truck would pick it up.
So, everyone boarded a vessel and away we went, one party barge towing a boat hull with two riders and flanked by two john boats. What could possibly go wrong? It quickly dawned on us there would be a need to keep our intrepid stunt riders hydrated, so my buddy devised a method whereby he would pull alongside long enough for one of his passengers to take possession of two frosty beverages from the mother ship then drop back to the hull and deliver them to the grateful riders. What's that you ask? Why yes, there IS video.
We safely delivered our charge to the Riverfront park boat ramp where an empty boat trailer was dispatched to get it up the ramp to a place where the grapple truck could take possession at a convenient time (why yes, there are pics and vid of that too). We then felt we had earned a break, so we rafted the flotilla together and fired up the grill.
After a late lunch we headed back to Burns Park and extracted a hot water heater, more tires (at least ten) and a shopping cart. I had drafted someone to deliver my truck and trailer to Riverfront so I wouldn't have to try and load at Burns, so after we hauled all the trash to the top of the ramp for pick up I headed back to Riverfront. After clearing the slot in the jetty (I thought) I fired it up and put it in gear at which point I heard a loud bang. I wasn't sure what to think but everything was working fine so I headed in. When I pulled the boat out at 8:00 p.m. water began to shoot out of the back of the port side toon. The bottom weld on the bilge pump bracket had ripped out and taken a fingernail sized chunk out of the toon.
I've decided when I put it in gear on the other side of the jetty the bracket slammed down onto a rock, hence the loud bang and hole. I'm just glad it wasn't the gear case.
As I sat in the truck at a red light in the hood covered from head to toe in mud (good thing I have Husky liners) someone behind me was honking frantically. I just chalked it up to night time shenanigans in the hood until he ran up beside me to exclaim my boat was leaking gas. I pulled off ASAP to confirm it was just more of the water and had a good chuckle with him. I headed home to a thirty minute shower and a fistful of ibuprofen, and thus ended another Coop (mis)adventure. Pics and vids to follow hopefully.
Eight or so crew members, including one very good sport of a reporter, hopped on the barge and the flotilla (barge and two big johns) headed for an island where we planned to pick up all the trash before heading out into the main channel for bigger targets (more on that later). We launched at a city park (Burns Park) ramp bass boats use to access the main channel but everything was so silted in from all the high water earlier in the year it was a slog to get to the island. I had people running back and forth on the boat constantly to redistribute weight. Once the island was clean the john boats ran the trash back to the ramp, then when they returned we all headed out to the main channel. After more weight shifting and juking through a slot in the jetty we made it out into the river and headed for another target, an abandoned fiberglass boat hull (no guts, no transom, nothing) leaning vertically against a tree. Not sure how it ended up there. High water is the likely culprit of course, but the strange thing is it was only a couple hundred yards below a dam, so...........
Anywho, a guy went up the tree and hooked ropes to the hull. We pulled it over, dragged it across the point and dropped it on the shore at which point we stuffed the bow with a mesh bag full of two liter bottles, hooked it up to the barge with a quick release knot and pulled it into the water with two people aboard. What's that you ask? Could we have simply dragged it to the nearby boat ramp? Of course we could have! After a short trial run we determined it would be suitable for a run five miles back to a park on the other side of the river where a grapple truck would pick it up.
So, everyone boarded a vessel and away we went, one party barge towing a boat hull with two riders and flanked by two john boats. What could possibly go wrong? It quickly dawned on us there would be a need to keep our intrepid stunt riders hydrated, so my buddy devised a method whereby he would pull alongside long enough for one of his passengers to take possession of two frosty beverages from the mother ship then drop back to the hull and deliver them to the grateful riders. What's that you ask? Why yes, there IS video.
We safely delivered our charge to the Riverfront park boat ramp where an empty boat trailer was dispatched to get it up the ramp to a place where the grapple truck could take possession at a convenient time (why yes, there are pics and vid of that too). We then felt we had earned a break, so we rafted the flotilla together and fired up the grill.
After a late lunch we headed back to Burns Park and extracted a hot water heater, more tires (at least ten) and a shopping cart. I had drafted someone to deliver my truck and trailer to Riverfront so I wouldn't have to try and load at Burns, so after we hauled all the trash to the top of the ramp for pick up I headed back to Riverfront. After clearing the slot in the jetty (I thought) I fired it up and put it in gear at which point I heard a loud bang. I wasn't sure what to think but everything was working fine so I headed in. When I pulled the boat out at 8:00 p.m. water began to shoot out of the back of the port side toon. The bottom weld on the bilge pump bracket had ripped out and taken a fingernail sized chunk out of the toon.
I've decided when I put it in gear on the other side of the jetty the bracket slammed down onto a rock, hence the loud bang and hole. I'm just glad it wasn't the gear case.As I sat in the truck at a red light in the hood covered from head to toe in mud (good thing I have Husky liners) someone behind me was honking frantically. I just chalked it up to night time shenanigans in the hood until he ran up beside me to exclaim my boat was leaking gas. I pulled off ASAP to confirm it was just more of the water and had a good chuckle with him. I headed home to a thirty minute shower and a fistful of ibuprofen, and thus ended another Coop (mis)adventure. Pics and vids to follow hopefully.
