When you think you've seen it all..

[CC Rider]

Returning from a day of fishing in Howe Sound yesterday, and as we come into our launch ramp we see this truck and boat pointed with the wrong end down the ramp. At first, thought it was just an optical illusion, but after rounding the tight corner of the cove to our launching ramp.....no..it's definitely not an illusion.





Tied the boat in front of the Cutwater (nobody on board, and apparently had been there for quite a while - which of course you are not supposed to do..) and went to see what was going on. Did the guy lose brakes on a turn? Just WTF? Turns out they had put the boat on the trailer and didn't have it up to the V-chock and instead of re-floating or taking it somewhere else to correct, decided to go down the ramp and let gravity help, which it did. But, gravity also works against you (and surge brakes as well) and of course they could not reverse it back up the ramp.



So.. we wait until another pickup arrives and hooks a tow strap to the back of the boat. All pretty good entertainment. I try to ask one of them if they have the pin in on the surge brake actuator and the guy pulls the electrical connector and says "You mean this?" Oh boy.. I let them do their thing and just as the truck/boat/truck combo clears the top of the ramp the tow strap parts with a bang. Luckily, nobody was hurt and they did get it back up the ramp.



Chris

[daninPA]

There are about as many steps in successfully launching and retrieving a boat at a ramp as there are taking off and landing a small aircraft.

Most students take between 15 and 20 hours of dual instruction before they are competent enough to fly solo.

But every day, somebody buys a boat and trailer, hooks it up to a truck, and heads down to the ramp armed with 0 hours of instruction.

[Knipet]

Newbie obviously subscribes to the "Go Big or Go Home" mantra. Big truck, bigger boat, now I'm sure he just wants to go home.

[hardee]

It takes all kinds, for sure. Thanks Chris. Entertaining.

Harvey
SleepyC