Boat Ramp Play-by-Play

[Davy Crockett]

Was that by chance at Deepwater bay back in the 80's ? We did it at Deepwater , The ramp was busy and I was in a hurry so I backed in along side the ramp and unloaded, wife was going to park but she had it in R with a manual transmission , she clutched it and launched back a foot and that was all it took to get stuck. She walked down to the bait shop and Garette came and pulled us out with his tractor and wouldn't take a dime for it. Thanks Garette. It was a good lesson for both of us, slow and steady wins the race.

Later in life , with that same boat and pickup , I actually skidded the tires up a cement ramp while tuning the motor, I could have pushed the pickup out with the boat. Live and learn.

 

[ndfinfan]

How about a dock story! Wife cannot back trailer, but she can park truck/trailer after launch...makes her feel like she's contributing! Couple years ago we went to Audubon, 3 Mile ramp, wind blowing in from east, I backed boat in, jumped out of truck to unhook, wife jumps in driver's seat. Start boat, disconnect, back boat off trailer, thumbs up - wife parks truck/trailer. She walks back to the dock, I pull boat in slowly, wind pushing boat into dock. I tell her when she gets on, gotta sit down quick so I can put her in reverse and back away from dock quickly. She hops into the bow, but turns to help push away from dock...have no idea why. I shift boat into reverse and she flips right off the bow by the trolling motor into the water! Only couple feet deep, I look over the bow and her hand pops out of the water holding up the keys to the truck. Right then I realized I married the right woman!

 

[thriller1]

How about a dock story! Wife cannot back trailer, but she can park truck/trailer after launch...makes her feel like she's contributing! Couple years ago we went to Audubon, 3 Mile ramp, wind blowing in from east, I backed boat in, jumped out of truck to unhook, wife jumps in driver's seat. Start boat, disconnect, back boat off trailer, thumbs up - wife parks truck/trailer. She walks back to the dock, I pull boat in slowly, wind pushing boat into dock. I tell her when she gets on, gotta sit down quick so I can put her in reverse and back away from dock quickly. She hops into the bow, but turns to help push away from dock...have no idea why. I shift boat into reverse and she flips right off the bow by the trolling motor into the water! Only couple feet deep, I look over the bow and her hand pops out of the water holding up the keys to the truck. Right then I realized I married the right woman!

My wife doesn't like to back a trailer in but she can load the boat onto the trailer like a boss. We have a good dratto latch (however you spell it) and we are outta the water in seconds.

 

[johnr]

It was at McKenzie Bay, but it probably happens all over the lake, johnr can confirm
Funny story but the dude had a rotweiller, and his kid tied the dawg to the picnic table after putting some food on it, including a brand new bag of elf cookies...... kid went swimming and the rott got a hold of the cookie bag and demolished it,,,,, I didn't dare step between the rott and his cookies, and kid was not impressed once he came back from swimming
I had a good chuckle anyways......

haha
The bay brings in the best of us westerners for sure.

 

[johnr]

My wife doesn't like to back a trailer in but she can load the boat onto the trailer like a boss. We have a good dratto latch (however you spell it) and we are outta the water in seconds.

mrs johnr backs us down faster than most tourney fisherman could. Its a real blessing, as then I can just sit in the boat getting fatter, and not walk the lot.

 

[Allen Gamble]

Sometimes you gotta iron out those wrinkles in the worst of situations. My first watercraft was a pontoon and learning to launch/land on the Missouri In Bis. It wasn't busy so I tried to have the wife back down the trailer... she couldn't get it which was fine, but got really mad... jumped out of the truck, left it in gear (drive), and said "F IT!" while walking away with the truck/toon idling forward.


Lesson two. I tried to land my pontoon solo with my dogs in the truck on a non-busy, hot as hell sunday afternoon at a local lake. Dogs locked me out of the truck with the pontoon on the trailer, while on the boat ramp. Tried everything to get them to unlock it with their paws. Thankfully there were relatives on the lake who called AAA to have me unlocked. Truck idled for 45min with the dogs in it while stuck on the ramp.

Lesson three. The latch on my current bow line somehow doesn't always latch when launching. I've sent it off the trailer a few times with the bow line coming off the hook and had to swim after the boat. Luckily, cold water doesn't bother me, but I still haven't fully learned this lesson and attention to detail nips me in the butt.

I'm lucky enough to have had a majority of my mistakes happen when it wasn't busy.

 

[Pheasant 54]

I am also lucky enough to have a wife that backs the rig down, she does an amazing job. Years ago had a guy try to cut in front of her with a storm coming in , never saw a lady get out of a vehicle that fast , marched up to the guy and in no uncertain terms told he was going to the end of the line like everyone else . We still laugh about it .