What boating mistakes have you made?

[kellmike626]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

My first mistake was buying a used boat!

Couldn't agree more!

 

[Dhopper71]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

How about not getting the hitch ball seated properly when you take your first boat to the carwash for cleaning? Thank goodness it happened on level ground! Put a nice large dent in the trunk hatch of my wife's Pilot as it came off the ball and rolled up and into me. She was none to happy.

 

[JSGOLD]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I seem to keep adding to my list....Saturday I was frustrated as the wife reminded me we needed ice as we were pulling into the lake parking lot and I had to turn around and drive back 2-3 miles for ice, which was no big deal except we had already had two delays getting there so that is a prime reason for my latest goof. I got back, prepped the boat, backed down and put the boat in water....but the darn thing would not float off....I backed down a couple of times and popped the brake which should have slid it off. Puzzled, I thought to myself.."I unhooked the safety chain...why isn't it moving...err ^$%%#!" pulled it out, unhooked the winch and red faced I put it in the right way. Too big a hurry, will get you every time!:facepalm:

But so far some of my other goofs include, hitting the dock, starting motor in gear and hitting dock, dragging skeg of motor in foolish attempt at turning around at dock, taking an untested kicker motor out and having it poo out on me, and breaking the trolling motor blade the same day. Other minor goofs include tangling anchor line in large motor, trolling motor caught my fishing line and made a mess, and forgetting to open the vent on fuel tank.

 

[AZBoatDreamer]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Ok I think I have avoided alot of mistakes by using a pre Launch, Launch and retrieval checklist.

 

[Eddie Ray]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

While very new to boating(not too long ago) I changed from carpet bunks to rollers! Yep fist time to the ramp, I hit the brake the boat came off the trailer slightly before being fully in the water.small enough boat to winch back up and try again. Luckly,I was going snook fishing and was at the ramp at about 4:30 am.and nobody saw a thing

 

[captainzac]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Everyone makes boating mistakes.
It is how well you recover that determines how good of a boater you are
It?s a lot like piloting and aircraft.
The first problem hardly ever hurt you
It?s your ability to not let one problem explode into a series of problems
The captains ability to think things through under pressure (wife saying lets go, kids wanting to hurry you up, someone at the ramp pressing you to hurry and breaking you from your routine) and not make a hasty decision.
Being able to tell someone NO we can not do that
Or being able to ask for help on proper techniques

Just a thought
Harry

 

[SantaCruzin]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

On our fourth day of tubing with the kids, it's time to wrap things up. heading back to the launch, i'm giving the kids one last thrill ride. We have our 3 Australian Shepherds with us. As I whip the kids to the right, I hear everyone on the tube screaming! I shut it straight down and the kid's yell "we just passed a dog"! A quick head count and we're missing one. We flip the boat around and there she is, swimming straight for us. I never saw her fly out in the mirror and I guess my wife looked away for a sec and that's all it took! As crazy as it sounds, our dog's like to ride on the tube (low speed of course), so they are always waiting for their turn too! Now we will train them to alway's lay down when the boat is moving.

 

[wisemsc]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Took my ski boat too shallow and found myself in a mess of water weeds. They wrapped around the water intake, the overheat buzzer didn't work, and I burnt out the engine and fried the gaskets. Luckily the engine block didn't crack. Had to paddle across the lake. The worst part, I left my girlfriend (now wife) on the doc saying I would be back in 10 minutes... 2 hours later she could see me coming in the distance.

 

[AZBoatDreamer]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

On our fourth day of tubing with the kids, it's time to wrap things up. heading back to the launch, i'm giving the kids one last thrill ride. We have our 3 Australian Shepherds with us. As I whip the kids to the right, I hear everyone on the tube screaming! I shut it straight down and the kid's yell "we just passed a dog"! A quick head count and we're missing one. We flip the boat around and there she is, swimming straight for us. I never saw her fly out in the mirror and I guess my wife looked away for a sec and that's all it took! As crazy as it sounds, our dog's like to ride on the tube (low speed of course), so they are always waiting for their turn too! Now we will train them to alway's lay down when the boat is moving.

Just wondering if you have a life vest for you Doggy. Thanks for sharing your Story.

 

[petpad]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

- flipped a Seadoo to cut away the tow rope tangled in the drive.... thing almost sank and 1700$ worth of engine water damage;
- being a cheap ****, bought a Carb 3.0L POS due to low price when my heart was set on a MPI or EFI;
- trailered for weeks with a single axle trailer and no spare tire - God spared me and I had no flat;
- forgot to check the oil on my 5.0 Mecruiser and nearly ran it dry.... got lucky and got tons of **** from my mechanic who could not believe I got away with it... less than 1 litre of sludge when I brought it in.
- never realized that perhaps I should never got into boating in the first place; and, finally...
- still thinking to this day that my worst mistake is behind me...

 

[SantaCruzin]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Just wondering if you have a life vest for you Doggy. Thanks for sharing your Story.

We have since researched life jackets for dogs and have them ordered. $60.00 per times 3. They can't swim forever and wake makes it worse!

 

[wrenier]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Heres a good one, 5 miles out in lake erie, a brand new motor and boat it just died and I couldnt figure it out, ended up calling for a tow only to find out I had my 25lb tackle box sitting on the fuel hose..i felt really stupid

 

[AZBoatDreamer]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Heres a good one, 5 miles out in lake erie, a brand new motor and boat it just died and I couldnt figure it out, ended up calling for a tow only to find out I had my 25lb tackle box sitting on the fuel hose..i felt really stupid

Too Funny.

Keep them coming.

 

[j_martin]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Just dragged the skeg up the ramp. Dang, 'bout a $100 mistake. Was pulling off in the face of a storm and got in a hurry.

 

[Steve A W]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Me and the Girls took out the boat for a shakedown cruise on thursday before a AOMCI meet
The way the morning was going, I decided that fishing was out of the question! I was afraid of My 6 & 8 yr old Daughters with fish hooks!
The boat ride went great. Checked out a new lake and decided We will go fishing there in the future.
When it came time to pull out everything was going good, Kids didn't complain about going home, Backed the trailer in the first try, Everything was good! Then....

Sometimes My Polish heritage becomes stronger than the other 56 varieties in Me.
The dock was somewhat higher than Our jon boat. The other times I got in the boat I stepped way down onto My seat in the rear of the boat.
I don't know why, but I saw that front deck sitting so much higher than the rear seat.
I never even thought about the teetertotter effect.
That '57 Johnson 18hp wasn't any match for My advanced weight!
The good news was ,I didn't get wet!
However I really boogered up My Knee!
Its always an adventure!
Steve A W

 

[j_martin]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

That '57 Johnson 18hp wasn't any match for My advanced weight!
The good news was ,I didn't get wet!
However I really boogered up My Knee!
Its always an adventure!
Steve A W

Sometimes it's less painful to just get wet.

 

[srowland76]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Buying one

 

[AZBoatDreamer]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Bla Bla "Buying one" Where have I heard that before

 

[SWTobias]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

I almost forgot about the time my wife, kids and I were going through the lock and dam between the Charles river and Boston harbor. This was my second time through and once we entered the lock and the gates were closing a VERY strong cross wind hit us. No amount of maneuvering seemed to work and the wind turned me completely around. I headed to the closest side as best I could and tied off quickly... facing completely backwards. When the gates opened I humbly backed out of the lock right in front of all the boaters waiting to enter the lock from the harbor side. I'll also never forget the look on the lock-masters face... utter amazement!

 

[Always Broke]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

The first and last time I asked my wife to throw out the anchor, I didn't think to tell her to tie a rope to it first...