What boating mistakes have you made?

[Ripfence]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Maybe you should tie a float to this one OR tether it to the trailer lol
Every time I repet a mistake it gets more frustrating

I totally agree. I usually lose them on a bumpy road. I even had a bungie cord around two of them but they were gone when I got to the ramp.

 

[bwachob]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I've only lost 1the transom saver. Mine gets bungied to the motor and only rests against the rear roller on the trailer. Backed boat into water and transom saver slid right off trailer with the boat. It held on up to about MPH.

 

[5string]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I was looking for a fishing spot in my 17.5 foot bay boat, not very deep and made for the bays and backwater. We cruised the inlet and looked out into the ocean and did a little circle then I saw a bigger boat, maybe 21 foot and deeper that was anchored off to the side in the inlet. I saw some bait breaking water so I said, I can fish here so I got about 100 yards ahead of this other boat and dropped the anchor. Holly crap the water was really moving out the inlet and the boat tilted and was about 3 inches from water coming over the edge, I was holding the anchor and yelled, put it in gear and after a tug of war for a couple minutes we got it loose, at one point I almost let the anchor go. It was pretty scary so now I never anchor near the inlet.

5string

 

[dpoff]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Anchored off the stern I`m thinking? Not a good thing to do in tidal waters!

 

[lebnaniejoe]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I went out all by myself and bought a bought my first boat...and that's when the trouble began. I have since spent all of my money and started drinking too much.. I have also learned that a good boat mechanic is hard to find as I am currently on my 4th mechanic that doesn't seem to know what he is doing.

 

[skycries57]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

took off with a sweet hole shot then heard a rolling sound and forgot the downrigger ball on the bench seat and it rolled off the bench and dropped onto the bottom of the boat and the eyelet of the ball punctured an 3/8" hole, but finished the day using a towel to plug the hole, DOH!

 

[Gibbles]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

My FIL and I stopped to use the rest room at the dock before we launched, parked and made my way over to the head when I notice some poor fella trying to get his old Johnson V4 running... in the parking lot :lol:

My first thought came to my FIL having the same issues with his... and then doing the same thing before launching.. resulting in purple heads due to a water pump issue...

So I offered my friendly advice as just an FYI, I had killed an impeller in under 30 sec running in a tank, water level went low and I got side tracked...

The fella all but flipped me off... and I came back to a bent trailer jack handle :lol:

Lesson learned, mind my own business check.

 

[crazymofo]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

First off, my mistakes have been random acts of God as far as anyone has to know.
The first year with my first boat cost me $500 in prop repairs. You simply DO NOT but new props for a Volvo Dou-Prop at $1500 a set period!
The second year cost me 2 brand new anchors. One to me not clipping the chain to the rope. Ok, maybe my fault and not God's but I think he should have said something before I tossed it in the lake! The second from letting a guy crowd up on me while at the sand bar and him not paying attention to where I had my rear anchor. Bent the crap out of it and made it useless. Again, Not really my fault unless you think the 10 beers I had at the time and me telling him "Go ahead!, Join the party!" counts. I don't.
Year 3 was un eventful with the exception of loosing a new beach towel and hat cruising the lake. My buddy needs more hair and heavier ***.
Year 4 was the expensive year up to that point. Took the boat up north for a big boating party. Lake was extremely shallow that season and couldn't make the depth to the dock so I sand anchored it about 75 feet from there and called it a night. Huge wind storm blew through late that night and lake had waves almost 4 feet high. Outdrive was up and everything but with the water so rough it spent the night smashing down on the lake bottom and cracked the "H" bracket on the outdrive. $3000 in repairs and lost 2 months of our short boating season! Insurance picked up the tab on that one!
Nothing dramatic or expensive for the next 2 years! In fact I probably made money from the brand new Seadoo triangle tube left attached to my boat on one outing and the 3 free bumpers found left floating in the lake! Gotta love that right!

Last year was my Kryptonite! Had to slow down for an IDIOT who was towing his little kids (under 12!) by himself with no spotter! After I slowed and blew my horn and yelled and my kids stood up and signaled him I had to reverse almost full throttle because he started to swing around directly at my boat to come back for his kids who had just fell off. Now mind you when that all started I was about 150 yards off his left side but by the time all the rest happened he was almost 40 feet from me and closing fast. All danger averted by me full throttle reverse but the engine died. Hydrolocked! Engine scrap, boat done for the rest of season. after the insurance company pays off the boat loan (I owed less than the repairs and the value of the boat to them because of its age?) I get the boat back for $500, not bad I thought. Its going to cost over $4000 to replace the 454 that was in it! Royal screw up I guess?

Love my boat and the times I have had on it but somebody don't like me!

 

[Ripfence]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I launched at a local marina this week, something I rarely do, and I noticed one of the marina employees backing an empty Malibu wakeboard boat trailer down the ramp using good sized John Deere tractor. For whatever reason the guy didn't or couldn't stop and he ended up deep in the lake. The ramp was shallow and the trailer didn't look heavy at all and I didn't have any problem launching a 2500-3000 lb boat so I'm not sure what happened.

I didn't laugh and I didn't take any pictures, I just felt bad for the guy. I hope he didn't lose his job.

 

[chris.j.marshall]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Yesterday we went to our usual lake and stopped in the parking lot to stage. An SUV pulling a pontoon pulled in behind us and appeared to be doing the same thing. We had some friends with us and I mentioned I wanted to hurry because the people with the pontoon looked to me like they haven't done this before. We got unloaded and parked the truck, no problem. As we're backing out from the dock I hit something with the prop. Everything seems fine, so we idled out to the lake, pushed that throttle, and........spun hub. The pontoon cruised by as we were headed back to the ramp.

 

[CharlieB]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Bummer.

This is exactly why I try to convince every customer to invest in a spare prop and prop wrench.

It can keep you on the water instead of loading up and heading home.

 

[Yeonik]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

My best one - When I was 15 or 16 years old, I was out salmon fishing with my father. He was having a heck of a time fighting a fish, and tangled the line with the downrigger cable. Fish started swimming under the boat, he hollered at me to shut off the engine, I didn't react fast enough. He managed to run up to the helm to shut the key off, but not before the downrigger cable tangled in the prop and broke the shaft on the rigger. :cold: After landing the fish by hand (15-20 lb salmon) he had to jump in the water and untangle the prop. Luckily, everything worked afterward so we were only out the downrigger, cable, and cannonball - maybe a prop too, been too long and I can't remember. He wasn't too steamed, but I felt like an idiot! He had the shaft welded and to my knowledge is still using it.

We also had the "plug is out" story - except we were at our fishing spot out in Lake Michigan. Crappy feeling when water comes out of the engine compartment and you're miles from shore. Managed to get it beached so the bilge could empty her out.

You'd think I would learn from that one, but last year towards the end of season I launched my lil 14' starcraft and took the truck back home (I'm a block from the boat launch here) and by the time I walked back my wife was asking me why the boat was taking on water. Best part is I had the plug sitting in the TRUCK.:facepalm:

 

[jwalterus]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

my favorite 2 over the years:
1) My $2000 lesson: I had bought a 1970 glasspar tri-hull at an auction, had a merc 110SS on the back, fixed up the merc, got it running perfect, painted the hull, etc. Didn't even think about the nice sheet of stainless I'd taken off when I pulled the motor, and since it was fresh paint, no lines from it on the hull. I took it out for it's maiden voyage with a friend, and about 100 feet (nobody around that day) from the ramp decided to give 'er the mustard. Transom was apparently rotten, and the motor ripped the top half clean off going from slow to 3/4 throttle. Luckily the water in that area was only about 15' deep, so after my swim to shore, recovery efforts consisted of winding out the entire cable on the trailer and hooking both of my tow straps from "behind the seat" to it and swimming out to hook it onto the hull, motor was dragged in by the steering cable still attached.
2) My best day with perch ever: Took my boat out when it had the 1958 Evinrude Lark 35 on it, had a parts motor that according to the guy I bought it from "didn't have enough power to move a boat anymore". The parts motor had a near perfect prop on it, and since mine was kind of chewed up, I put it on my motor. Had everything tuned in and was ready for a good day, took the boat to the lake about an hour away, launched, go through the no-wake zone fine, and gave it some throttle...... Spun hub on the prop, that's why the parts motor couldn't move the guys boat :facepalm:, and of course I'd left my old chewed up prop on the parts motor at home. Ended up running all day on the trolling motor, and found a spot where we caught 2 5-gal buckets full of perch 1lb+ each in less that an hour. And when I got home, wouldn't you know that friggin parts motor that had been stored upside down and uncovered for over 10 years in the corner of a barn ran better than my "good" motor?

 

[Seagrub]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

went out with frayed steering cable, it froze up bad, had to steer back all the way to ramp by wrestling 85hp outboard with my arms then run to hit neutral and shut off key while everyone looked on with smirks...hahahaha.

 

[ThrottleBack]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

that seems incredibly unsafe.

 

[richocki]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

My biggest boating mistake was buying a boat.

 

[hawkrdr]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Not sure if this would be a mistake or a &)4( up. Got back from a weekend of boating and fishing and decided to fall off my swim deck 5 feet to my concrete driveway. Got a fractured elbow to show for it. Don't bounce like I used to.....

 

[DXN]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I tried walking across the gunwale and fell into the boat. I was trying to jump in to the water but it didn't work out and there were plenty of people to see.

 

[carguy001]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I have had 2 mishaps but only one really counts as one of them happened when I was a teen. The first was when I was about 15 and we were putting our house boat in the river and the boat was drifting of the trailer,so I jump in the water minus my shoes and grap a tag line swim to the dock with the line to help pull the boat straight, when I felt something hit my foot I thought it was a fish or a stick, i gave it kick. It was my wallet with about 60 bucks in it. That was a lot of money for 15.

We bought our first boat 3 years ago and I had to do a few repairs before we could use it, so I got her fixed up and ready to go so went to the lake for test and before we left checked the weather and looked like some rain was moving in but I was eager to try it out. I get to the lake with my wife and 2 kids and the storm clouds are rolling in, mind you it has been 12 years since I have boated. Get the boat in the water wife moved the truck and trailer off the ramp I take the boat for quick spin, and start to feel a few rain drops and I head back to the ramp to load it back up and there sits 6-7 bass boats all waiting to pull out. At this point my wife could not back the trailer in so I had to but could not get to the dock because of all the bass guys, it poured for 20 mins I was soaked. It was then my turn and no sooner the boat was on the trailer it quit raining. Lesson of the day don't put in if storms are coming.

Now my can back the trailer down the ramp better than most, and remarks on others skills lol.

 

[lebnaniejoe]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

So here is my most recent boating SNAFU..

Took the kids out on the boat and went tubing.. Yay, lots of fun. At the end of the day we pulled the boat out of the water and put everything up as normal.. stowed the life jackets, put the stereo up, strapped the tube down and we were headed home. As we were driving home I look in my mirror and see the bright orange side of the tube in the grill of the car behind me. I am thinking WTFO, I strapped that thing down to the boat before we left with the bungee cord.

Well as it turns out, I did bungee it down but forgot detach the rope and stow it. As we were driving down the road the wind caught the rope and sucked it out of the boat. went between the front tires of the car behind me and they swerved to miss it. When the swerved to miss it they ran over the rope and it pulled the tube off the back of the boat breaking the bungee cord. Well the rope was still between the tires and the car and acted like the a railroad track then wham! the tube hit the car.. Fortunately no body was hurt and no damage to any of the vehicles. I will need to replace the rope, tube and bungee cord though..

Had a good laugh about that one. Lesson learned put ALL of the gear away before pulling away.