My 'not so favorite' memory was around 15 years ago when my buddies decided they could make their own boom out of a 10 foot fence post. At the time, we trucked it around to which ever of our dad's would let us use their boat for the day. It worked flawlessly for one summer until we strapped in my dads 17ft Crestlner. You see, my soon to be engineering friends devised a system of eye hooks and ratchet straps to keep it in place on a small 2x4 platform.

My buddy cried out 'hit it' and I dropped the hammer on the 120hp sterndrive. Before I could take my next breath I was bobbing in the water with blood in my mouth watching the boat spin in the 'death circle' while my buddies in the boat were pinned against the side of the boat. The boat made a single revolution before they realized what happened and peeled themselves from the seat and put the boat in neutral before myself or the rider in the water got hit. One of the ratchet straps snapped and the boom hit me in the shoulder and face and tossed me out of the boat before I knew what happened. No one got seriously hurt, and we all got a great story out of the deal.