Go ahead, laugh at me.

[mikel1291979]

So this happened about 3 months ago, and the burn has worn off enough for me to tell you about it.
Took the boat to the lake for its first splash of the year. Got to the lake just fine to find the ramp deserted. Stopped in the prep area to get the boat ready and had my daughter jump into the boat to unstrap the tube (big tube so I inflate it and strap it inside the boat as it wouldnt fit in the truck).
So I take off both trailer straps, the strap over the outboard and the transom saver and I put all of them onto the swim platform. I put the plug in and about that time my daughter tells me shes having trouble with the straps. I walk to the front of the boat to help her and in no time we have the tube unstrapped. We talk for a minute and I get back in the truck and back her into the water. Float the boat and park the truck. Congratulating myself on another successful launch. Spend 4 hours on the water tubing and enjoying the lake all to ourselves (wife was there too).
Come back to ramp and I get the truck and back her down, load the boat, hook the strap and winch her tight and pull her out of the water. Pull the plug, walk back to the truck to get the straps and transom saver...... no there. I never took them off the swim platform.
Not a long ride home, but a BUMPY road around the lake with me sweating bullets watching my outboard bounce around and I swear I could hear the transom cussing at me. Got home safe, and I learned a lesson.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

I will laugh at you after you laugh at me, this past weekend, I threw my truck key into the water(with floaty thingy) stepson quickly retrieved it, then we pulled the boat out and went home, ran over one very well fed praire dog that doesn't know the jaywalking laws in Colorado, then 30 miles later I pulled over and ran to the back of the boat after removing something from behind the drivers seat, get back in and my wife smiles at me and says "seems like a good time to put the transom straps on the boat". Got home and had to wash the jaywalker off the hull of my boat, I didn't know they popped!

But it was a great day on the water so who cares right! It's still early in the season so we have plenty of time to get into mid season form!

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

First splash of the season and I had forgotten the routine. The catch for the bow strap is under the front stop when winched all the way up so you can't unfasten it when it's winched up. The procedure is to loosen the strap a bit so that when backing down the ramp, you hit the brakes and the boat slides down about 6 inches to make the latch accessible but you don't take it off until you're ready for the boat to come off the trailer. Well, you guessed it, I disconnected the latch instead of just loosening it. Wife started backing further down the ramp and the boat goes scooting off and into the water. Luckily, it was touching the water and didn't cause any damage, and I had hold of the rope so the boat didn't keep going. Was quite a bit of scrambling though to get it straightened out and tied off but luckily not too many people at the ramp. The wife says she hand't seen me move that fast for quite some time and had to sit in the truck and finish laughing before she could come back to the boat!

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

Saturday I came this close to backing down the ramp with the plug on the swim ladder platform.

 

[WINTERSUX]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

i loosened winch strap but left it so it could free wheel on accident, backed boat it water and it started floated away. good thing strap still hooked up and no one was there to watch. yes first launch of the year..

 

[Sixmark]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

God you people are ****ing stupid

Looking at your posts on the forum I guess you would be an expert in the subject of stupidity, my question is did the brain cells die of natural causes, or did your parents forget to untie your leash from the bumper of the car one to many times?

 

[lonesouth]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

glad you didn't try to stop the winch from spinning. Seems I've heard of people with broken arms from that sort of thing.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

I had a winch handle catch my t-shirt, wind it up and leave a half-circle on my chest

 

[johnny howe]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

isnt it funny how sometimes as the handle of the winch is spinning , it just looks so easy to grab it. but then as soon as you do it speeds up to the speed of light and knocks your hand away putting a nice black and blue mark on the back of your hand...lesson learned

 

[sschefer]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

LOL, I got one too... 2 Saturdays ago.. new boat and trailer. I back the boat down the ramp and leave it just shy of comming off on it's own. I unhook the winch and safety and put the 25' line on the bow hook and tie the other end off to the winch. I get back in the truck, roll back about a foot and tap the brakes. I see the boat sliding off perfectly. I put the truck in forward and pull up about two feet just so I barely tap tension on the bowline. I see the boat comming forward so I throw the truck in park and walk around the back. Then it happens... The bow line gets hung up on the trailer light and there's nothing I can do to get it to come free. The boat is nicely tended to the back of the trailer and just sitting there as if to say.. Ha Ha, got ya..... I straddled the trailer and got it free'd up but it was funny and all I could do was laugh. One of the other boaters said.. "Man that's a slick way to launch your boat but that last part I didn't get".. I just laughed and said "Me neither"..

 

[jjacobs007]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

once saw a guy pull his boat out of water with his kid on rear bumper,halfway up ramp kid fell off and got ran over by trailer tire.Ill spare the details.

 

[dabombman4u20062]

Re: Go ahead, laugh at me.

Looking at your posts on the forum I guess you would be an expert in the subject of stupidity, my question is did the brain cells die of natural causes, or did your parents forget to untie your leash from the bumper of the car one to many times?

HAHAHA if this was facebook id hit the "Like" button!