The confession thread

[eclark53520]

Re: The confession thread

My first time on this particular lake, but i knew that we could take a river up to another lake that i had been on before and knew a couple of spots to go fishing since hte fishing on this lake was slow.

Well, we come to a train trussel, and the sign says "Boats ahead keep right"

So i put that particular sign directly on my port side and headed through at idle...

Well, apparently that sign meant something else because i was dead center, and still hit bottom.

Didn't screw anything up, but that sound still makes you wince.

Ahh the pleasures of learning a new lake.

 

['96 Charger]

Re: The confession thread

Even on lakes I know very well I still manage to find a new shallow spot I didn't know about nearly every trip. A lot of people don't understand that just because you're in the middle in open water doesn't mean you're safe from shallow water. Last time me and my buddy were on Ouachita we were in a really stumpy area called the Blakeleys. With the lake low he showed me why he hugs the bank in one particular area because if he didn't he'd buzz right over a barely submerged stump pile when the lake is at normal level.

 

[korygrandy]

Re: The confession thread

ezombee: On this one section of the river near me that I've only been on a couple times, there's a rock pile that is marked with a whole bunch of buoys. My dad and I thought they were channel markers

Yikes I hope I never see this first hand. I've heard horror stories of people hitting the Army Core of Engineering installing "wing dams" in the rivers. It may be inevitible though.

I had 2 nice new props at the beginning of the season...they're not bad now but need a little repair work. I guess it could have been worse for my first season. The memories I have of this summer far surpass any prop damage.

 

[ziggy]

Re: The confession thread

gee, which time should i confess too....

well, lets see, when i was young (teens) i took dads boat up river (chain of 12 lakes)i had extra portable fuel cans on board. it was kinda shallow so i put them in the ft. of the glastron vhull dad had. while sitting on the back of the drivers seat looking for rocks, i put my foot down on the sole. splash. hum. gee, i was taking on water. no bilge pump. fortunately, i was near a very small round lake and was able to get going enough to siphon the water out w/ drain plug removed. turned out. dad had hit a tree with the bow eye, breaking it's seal. with the weight i'd put up front (fuel cans) the bow eye was underwater and leaked...

another one. a couple years ago i didn't heed the weathers report. was a beautiful sat. eve. red sky at night, sailor delight and all. so i pull my boat up on the beach i tie it to a tree. still calm out. go to sleep. i wake up to 35mph sustained winds blowing me on the beach and large waves pounding me onto the beach. i ended up stuck 'on' the beach sideways for about 10 hours getting pounded sideways by every incoming wave. i had to have friends i knew in town come out and help me. 4 adults and we were able to float her again. amazingly, no major damage done. sanded the bottom of my boat down a little was about it.

i'm sure i got more. but thems the ones that come to mind right now.

edit. oh i just remembered probably my stupidest trick. my first job was at a resort up in minn. i commuted to work by fishing boat. one night i was coming home. 11pm maybe. no running lights. as chance would have it. i found some other idiot doing the same. on collision course right to the last moment as neither of us saw the other. at the last moment we saw ea. other. both of us turned to starboard. man, i had a lump in my throat all the way home after that near collision. had lights on the boat the next day too...

not me, but here's a fella on my lake that's working on his sht..

i been watching this boat all summer, never moves and looks like it's about to go down... hope the owner catches on before it does..

so far this year has been uneventful for me... yeah!!

 

[Hllywd]

Re: The confession thread

not me, but here's a fella on my lake that's working on his sht..

i been watching this boat all summer, never moves and looks like it's about to go down... hope the owner catches on before it does..

so far this year has been uneventful for me... yeah!!

I think one little wake would put that sucker under.....

But I left the bildge pump on auto. Well no.. my battery charger is home....

Kevin

 

[jondavies]

Re: The confession thread

About 15 years ago, I "inherited" a 20' Glastron from my BIL.

First planned outing: We were going to take it out with some friends and we had to move the trailer by hand to get it out of the driveway, which has a slight downhill gradient. The trailer starts to roll downhill toward my truck ....

Without thinking, I grabbed the trailer by the hitch coupler and tried to stop it from rolling. The fingers on my right hand were crushed between the coupler and the bumper. Somehow, my buddy was strong enough to push the boat uphill and release my hand. I was lucky I didn't lose any fingers and there were no broken bones, but I needed surgery so that the tendons in a couple of the fingers could be sewn back together. I had to wear a silly contraption with rubber bands on my hand for several weeks to keep the tendons moving as they healed.

Second planned outing: I rounded up a couple of buddies to go out night diving for lobsters. We launched from the ramp and after about 10-15 minutes, the overheat alarm goes off and the engine starts blowing a lot of smoke. We got towed back to the dock by Vessel Assist and found that the motor still had the rinse muffs on from my BIL's last outing - Doh!

After that, I figured the boat was cursed and donated it to charity.

I haven't done anything nearly as stupid as either of these stunts with my current boat ... yet

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: The confession thread

I did the transom strap oopsy twice this year, got a standing ovation one of the times but I always have one incident that stands out.

Couple years back on Lake Pueblo my wife and I are enjoying a wonderful day on the lake, I was raised around hot boats and they have always had a special place in my heart. So I see a hot boat with a couple on it, the guy is back by the motor so I decide to stop by, as I am pulling up I ask if he needs a hand and he turns towards me and drops something then reaches down to grab whatever he dropped and he literally jumped out of his shorts screaming!! Now I am really concerned! well he looks at me and tells me "Now that I know I have spark yeah I'm out of gas and need a tow!" once we had him loaded up we had a few beers and laughed about it they were alot of fun!

 

[SkeeterDuke15]

Re: The confession thread

i have a small 15' FG jon boat with a 25 hp tiller on the back. i took it out for the first time to a friends property who has a pretty good size pond. the only thing i forgot to do when putting the motor on the transom was to bolt it down....yup running about 20 mph, i took a turn and the motor jumped right off the transom, good thing i had a good hold on it, turned the motor off and got it back on the transom with all my fingers. thank god nothing happened! and believe me i make sure the motor is very secure from then on....could have been alot worse

 

[Robbabob]

Re: The confession thread

I haven't even told this to my girlfriend, yet. So mumms the word...

Two years ago, I had my first opportunity to cold-start my girlfriends boat ('87 bow-rider with a Merc 120), fill it with gas at the marina and meet her up river/lake. She had done a great job at teaching me boating safety, aproaching and leaving the dock, and I was well versed in filling the tank and getting around the lake.

So, I am excited to be doing this alone for the first time! Proving (more to myself) I can do it. George brings the boat out of dry dock and helps me steady and tie her down. I load the gear and get ready to start the engine. I do what I had seen Dottie do dozens of times -- crank the throttle handle to prime her up.

Turn the key and........... that little merc 120 roared to life and wanted to pull the dock!!! I felt the blood rush from my face as I got the throttle to neutral and the engine died (still cold). I then thought to myself, "oh, that's what Dottie pushes (the button at the pivot point) to just give the engine gas and not move the boat." hmmmmmm :redface:

I know George saw it, and probably remembers to this day... without a word said.

 

[joebob14]

Re: The confession thread

OK so yea I forgot the transom straps once this summer but the most fun I had all season was when I backed my 25 ft trailor down a 15 ft ramp and didnt pay any atention to the end of ramp sighn. The worst part is when I did it on the way out I figured with the tide being out it would be ok when I came back at high tide.So I come back and bring the trailor down and had my wife tell me when to stop. I gueas she wasnt paying much attention and I didnt realise it till the trailor frame hit the end of the ramp. I was glad the ramp was slow until I realised the only option for getting my full size dodge up the now slick ramp was a little old toyota. Until now only me my wife and the guy in the yota knew about it.

 

[proaudioguy]

Re: The confession thread

We are learning fast around my house. We are learning to put the plugs in the boat BEFORE putting it in the water. We are learning to pull the 100ft long garden hose OUT of the boat after washing it down, but BEFORE pulling out of the driveway! We are learning (but haven't quite learned yet) to bring the bimini with us so we aren't stuck out in direct sunlight all day. I learned only a couple months ago not to hit 2.5ft large boat, wakes at WOT.

 

[Robbabob]

Re: The confession thread

OK, another to keep this thread bumped up...

Last summer, on the 16.5' bowrider, the 4 of us aldults were slowly coming out of a "party cove" as a larger boat was going in. At our very slow speed, I didn't want the larger boat wake to rock us silly so I turned into it and didn't think of the nose-dive we'd do. Water poured into our little boat! Soaking everything (food, towels, clothing)! Sump pump worked great and kept us from a very bad sutation.

I realized I should have been on the throttle just enough to keep our bow up powering through his wake.

So the next time this nearly happens: We are out in the middle of the lake with the maintenace supervisor from our marina. We wanted him to hear a noise and associate it with something we couldn't describe well enough. yada yada... we are stopped while discussing it and a large boat passes by and here comes the wake. I panic a little since I didn't want this supervisor to get all wet during a nose-dive. Problem was, he's standing within the bow... I call out "WAKE", which everyone knows on our boat to brace themselves. Well, he just stands there not realizing I need to give her some gas and hear comes that wake!

What do I do...? give her a little more gas than intended... yup, he falls over from the thrust! didn't matter my explanation of why I did it. I was embarrassed and he didn't care too much about it. :redface: no blood no foul, right!?!?!?

Ah well... our now 22' boat doesn't have that issue

 

[witenite0560]

Re: The confession thread

Ok, so first launch this summer.... I've got the boat backed down the ramp, jump to the trailer tongue and let tension off the winch strap. But, the boat won't move... hmm, thought I was far enough in. Oh well, jump back to the dock (wanna be cool and keep my feet dry, eh!), hop in the truck and back her in a foot or two more, jump back to the tongue and... hmmm, boat still won't move...???? While I'm scratching my head, a gentlemen sitting in his lawn chair, fishing at the edge of the ramp, quietly mentions, "Safety hook". Doh!! Yep, safety chain was still connected to the bow eye!!! I felt like I should offer him a ride. But, he probably would have thought he was safer in the lawn chair!! Told him, "thanks, I bet that will help!" and pressed on. Of course, some how my feet did get wet. So much for Cool!!!

 

[korygrandy]

Re: The confession thread

^^^ I did that once this summer but quickly realized my mistake. My new confession is not using a pump to drain my oil. Now i know there are 2 ways to get oil out from the engine, to pump it from the top, or connect a hose and drain it from the bottom. I tried to get a funnel and jug in there and ended up spilling over 1qt in the bilge. This was 2 days ago and tonight I get to deepclean the bilge and try and get all the oil out of there. My only concern is that the bilge pump won't work now.

 

[skargo]

Re: The confession thread

^^^ I did that once this summer but quickly realized my mistake. My new confession is not using a pump to drain my oil. Now i know there are 2 ways to get oil out from the engine, to pump it from the top, or connect a hose and drain it from the bottom. I tried to get a funnel and jug in there and ended up spilling over 1qt in the bilge. This was 2 days ago and tonight I get to deepclean the bilge and try and get all the oil out of there. My only concern is that the bilge pump won't work now.

I dropped an oil filter full of oil last year in my bilge.
You need a bilge boom, it sucked up all the oil, and quick!

 

[Tim Wagner]

Re: The confession thread

My biggest one is forgetting to remove BOTH transom tie downs when launching.
Ive done that a couple times.
One thing I hate is looking like a rookie at the launch.

 

[eastont]

Re: The confession thread

Just started thinking as I was reading some other confessions and I thought, I've just done a real stupid thing.

I decided to keep the dinghy on the bow of the boat over the winter instead of deflating it and bringing it home. I won't be putting on the winter cover for a few weeks yet, because it is still being made, and maybe we'll get a couple of nice days to get out for a ride.
But like a fool I put it right side up on the bow just waiting for the fall rain to fill it up.

 

[dbuffington]

Re: The confession thread

One thing I hate is looking like a rookie at the launch.

Believe me, it will happen... I'm 54 and have been boating for at least 40 years, but this summer, I was at Blue Marsh Lake near Reading, Pa., and we were trying to pull the boat out of the water.

Trying, not succeeding.

I just could not get the boat to line up on the rollers. It just kept getting cockeyed as I winched it on.

I went to the back. Got water up to my chest. Pushed. Pulled. Huffed. Puffed. Apologized as the horns started blowing.

Then finally realized that the right trailer tire had gone of the _side_ of the ramp, causing the entire trailer to twist, making loading impossible.

Sigh. Sorry to everyone who had to wait for me.

Now, I feel better
Dave

 

[Skiwi]

Re: The confession thread

Believe me, it will happen... I'm 54 and have been boating for at least 40 years, but this summer, I was at Blue Marsh Lake near Reading, Pa., and we were trying to pull the boat out of the water.
Trying, not succeeding.
I just could not get the boat to line up on the rollers. It just kept getting cockeyed as I winched it on.
I went to the back. Got water up to my chest. Pushed. Pulled. Huffed. Puffed. Apologized as the horns started blowing.
Then finally realized that the right trailer tire had gone of the _side_ of the ramp, causing the entire trailer to twist, making loading impossible.
Sigh. Sorry to everyone who had to wait for me.
Now, I feel better
Dave

Say three Hail Marys' and tithe, ...you are now forgiven

 

[itsaboattime]

Re: The confession thread

So we get home after a day on the river and park the boat. About an hour later I ask my son to grab the keys out of the boat. When he brings them in the house I hang them on the hook like I always do.
Fast forward a week and we are ready to hit the water again. Grab the keys and go out to start her up on muffs and let her run a little before we hit the river. I hit the key.....nothing. I hit the key again and she turns over but won't start.
GREAT!!!
so I start checking...I have gas, no spark.....WTH!?!
long story short...I had that motor about completely tore down when my son comes up to me with the kill lanyard and says "Oh yeah dad, I put this in the truck glove box last week so we wouldn't forget it." Generally I just leave it plugged into the switch.
I couldn't even get mad. I should have checked it first thing.

We eventually did have a great day on the water.