Boat Ramp stories, let's hear 'em.

[Woody929]

I still don't think I've ever launched or trailered my boat. I do the truck/trailer, the wife does the launching/loading. We sunscreen the kids, load all the crap, load the kids, remove speaker covers, unfold the Bimini, etc in the parking lot.
I unhook all the straps, back the boat down until the water intake is submerged. She fires it up & gives me the thumbs up. Once I get that, I back down a little further and hit the brakes. Boat slides off, I park the truck, walk to the dock where she picks me up & then we laugh at the people who are still clogging the ramp. Once it is our turn to launch, the process takes 45-60 seconds from the top of the ramp to me heading to park.

[rdlangston13]

+1 for Matt's method. I am so happy Heidi is seasoned boat launched/loader. I drive the truck, she drives the boat and we are in and out in around a minute. I don't unhook the winch until the boat is floating and running either.


Sent from my iPhone

[kaneboats]

I still don't think I've ever launched or trailered my boat. I do the truck/trailer, the wife does the launching/loading. We sunscreen the kids, load all the crap, load the kids, remove speaker covers, unfold the Bimini, etc in the parking lot.
I unhook all the straps, back the boat down until the water intake is submerged. She fires it up & gives me the thumbs up. Once I get that, I back down a little further and hit the brakes. Boat slides off, I park the truck, walk to the dock where she picks me up & then we laugh at the people who are still clogging the ramp. Once it is our turn to launch, the process takes 45-60 seconds from the top of the ramp to me heading to park.

I used to do it all myself as my wife is not really a boat person and just wants to relax. So I trained daughter #1 to drive the boat since she was very small. By about 14 she could do anything an adult could do with the boat, including pull me riding or surfing. She's gone or working most of the time now but daughter #2 who will be 17 next month has taken over. Twin boys 15 coming behind her will start getting more experience this summer. My Dad always let me drive from the time I was old enough to see through the top of the wheel. Gotta pass that on.

[gregski]

[Wife] Did you get the kids' life jackets?
[Me] No, I thought you did.
[Both] F$#%&!!!

In our defense we were out on Sunday, things were still drying and we only decided at 10am on Monday to play hookey and go to the lake.

Once we sorted that out, we launch and as I'm turning around, I see something floating that looks like a surboard. "Ha! Some sucker lost his surfboard"... "Oh wait, that looks familiar. S#$%! that's our swim platform". Some sucker indeed.


(The platform retaining pins were getting really hard to work, so I put a couple of bolts with lock washers and nyloc nuts in place of the pins. Apparently, the ever common platform rattle was significant enough, especially given the rough water on Sunday, to wiggle those loose and the angle of the ramp was right to just lift the platform out of the brackets.)

[sivs1]

[Wife] Did you get the kids' life jackets?
[Me] No, I thought you did.
[Both] F$#%&!!!

In our defense we were out on Sunday, things were still drying and we only decided at 10am on Monday to play hookey and go to the lake.

Once we sorted that out, we launch and as I'm turning around, I see something floating that looks like a surboard. "Ha! Some sucker lost his surfboard"... "Oh wait, that looks familiar. S#$%! that's our swim platform". Some sucker indeed.


(The platform retaining pins were getting really hard to work, so I put a couple of bolts with lock washers and nyloc nuts in place of the pins. Apparently, the ever common platform rattle was significant enough, especially given the rough water on Sunday, to wiggle those loose and the angle of the ramp was right to just lift the platform out of the brackets.)

Doh..... been there

[bergermaister]

Just remembered a good one. Day trip to the lake with my buddy's family and their Malibu. We launch and float around waiting for them. He backs down, jumps in the boat, she drops him in and goes and parks. He's floating there, engine running and looks concerned. A lot of looking back and forth. Engine revving. Finally goes back and opens the engine compartment. After a few brief moments of staring at something he motions me over to give him a pull back to the dock. But won't say anything more.

Runs up to get the trailer, backs down, pulls the boat out about 20ft and stops. I'm watching still not sure what's up and he still won't say.

He climbs in the boat, pulls out a big crescent wrench, and then..... the prop out of the rear compartment.

BWA HA HA HA!

Apparently after pulling it off and getting it repaired they were a bit hurried to get going and forgot to put it back on at home. To this day I'll ask if he remembered his prop and then dodge an incoming punch.

[dtank394]

We have a pretty steep ramp coming off a very flat parking lot at one of our lakes. Several years ago a van pulls in pulling a big ole I/o ski boat, on a trailer with rollers instead of bunks. Well the knuckleheads stop on the flat area remove tiedowns, and to our surprise, the bow strap. As soon as the trailer made the transition to the steep ramp, that boat just zipped right off the trailer onto the concrete. Skeg completely trashed, lower unit destroyed I'm pretty sure. Then the real fun started as they tried to figure out how to get it on the trailer. Their bad day turned into a very good comedy show for everyone around.

[kaneboats]

He climbs in the boat, pulls out a big crescent wrench, and then..... the prop out of the rear compartment.

BWA HA HA HA!

Apparently after pulling it off and getting it repaired they were a bit hurried to get going and forgot to put it back on at home.

I did something just as stupid one time. I had an Isuzu truck and had just purchased the Suburban. My brother had 3 buddies in town and I was going to take them out. On the way to the ramp about 20 min into a 45 min. ride the Isuzu truck started not pulling right at all. I thought the transmission was out. Pulled over, unhitched the boat and left it. Coaxed it back to the house and we jumped in the Suburban. Hey, we are going in the boat-- worry about the truck next week, right? We headed back to the boat. We got there and my brother jumped out to "direct me" backing up to put the hitch right under the trailer. He starts giving me the "stop" sign way too early and shaking his head at me. I'm like, "WTF?"

There's no hitch on the Suburban. Leave the boat and back to the house again.

BTW, the Isuzu truck had under 30k on it and the catalytic converter was all plugged up. They didn't figure it out till after they had replaced the transmission. POS.