Re: Fell in the drink
re: not getting wet: a lot of us use our boats more than for summer-time swimming. Since I don't go swimming from the boat even in the summer, I'm not going wading up to my waist. Fall Winter and Spring, obviously out of the question. One ramp I use often has anywhere from a few inches to a foot of creek mud on top of the concrete so I'm not all about wading around in there, even ankle deep. Some ramps I use are too slippery to be safe to stand under water and operate the trailer/boat. Wet feet are slippery, too, and some of our facilities are dangerous for bare feet. Not to mention the jelly fish we call "bloodsuckers" at the ramps in July and August. And even though I can pull on my hip boots in the winter, I'd rather not, and I don't need to go up to my thighs anyway.
The above are reasons why many boaters know how to launch and retrieve, and stay dry. I don't have to stand around in wet shoes, or change shoes, in hot weather and get cold and wet in the cold weather (sometimes we are busting ice as we launch). For a large boat, I may need calf-high boots; that's all.
So if you are the kind of "boater" with the limited experience of only using the ramp in the heat of summer for a day of swimming, fine. Those with broader experiences and uses of their boats learn to stay dry with equal, perhaps greater, efficiency, which is not about "doing it wrong" or being afraid to get wet. If you regularly go waist deep to launch and retrieve in this boating community, you will be regarded, well, as an unskilled boater, to be charitable.
