Being around boat ramps a guy gets to see all sorts of launching/loading gymnastics. I saw one yesterday I've not seen before. Guy and wife pull their boat to the ramp. He backs the trailer down and lines it up so that all the wife has to do is put the truck in reverse and back up, then forward straight out to the parking lot. Guy gets out removes the motor tote, stern straps, puts plug in... looking good. He then unhooks the bow strap and climbs in. Lady gets in the truck.

I'm sitting in my boat at the dock waiting for my son to bring our rig around. So I'm casually watching the launch. Then I notice... the boat is sliding off the trailer. This ramp is pretty steep, the guy in the boat is standing up getting something out of a storage compartment, wife in truck is oblivious. I yelled over, "Hey! You're sliding off the trailer!" Took two yells to get his attention. He looks up from what he's doing, looks at me annoyed just about the time the skeg of the trimmed up motor made contact with the concrete ramp. The impact knocked him off balance and while he was scrambling to regain his balance the boat slid completely off the trailer and crashed onto the concrete ramp - high and dry. Boat was a 17.5' Triton glass bass boat with 115 Merc.

I'll say this, his trailer has a heck of a winch. Hooked the boat back to the winch strap and with some help he got the boat loaded back on the trailer. Motor skeg was trashed, lots of gel coat damage on the stern bottom, pad and keel. Said he would file an insurance claim. Reminded me to be aware of the variables in ramps!!!

wow thats a new one to me.


best one i saw... waiting to get onto the ramp, evening so several boats coming out - there were a couple of us on the water in our boats and vehicles waiting to come down to the ramp.

wife on the dock holding the rope, hubby at the wheel... failing miserably over and over and over to get that trailer down the ramp, no less under the boat.

finally after about 10 or 12 tries, i see the wife loop the rope around the post, throw her hands up, stomp up around the front of the truck and waves him out of the cab. he slinks down to the dock, head hanging low. sure as [beeep] she puts the trailer under the boat on the first try. literally pulls the truck forward to straighten up, backs right down, and they're off the ramp in less than 2 mins.


poor SOB, you could tell he wanted to go crawl in a hole somewhere, burn his man card and cry.

i was one of several folks who witnessed it, thankfully for him it was before the days of camera phones.

LOL, yeah that would sting! Twice I've seen guys forget to pull the bow mounted trolling motor up and then power load the boat on the trailer. Tears hades out of the trolling motor!

Boy, that sure would ruin your day to slide off the trailer onto the dry ramp and tear up the boat.

That’s a pretty funny story Plant.One

Just a few weeks ago, my father in law and I went to the lake after I got off work to meet up with family to fish that night. My sister in law and her husband had went ahead earlier that day to take my kids and theirs out on the bass boat and to fish and play during the day. When they were offloading the boat into the water, my sister in law got the 30 second crash course on how to run the trolling motor. Off she went into the water on the boat with the kids while her husband was parking the truck. When he returned to the ramp, he found her and the kids just drifting around on the boat because she couldn’t figure out that the arrow on the trolling motor showed which direction it would go. He had to catch a ride with another boater and hop from that boat to his to get them going.

LOL... wimmins!

Good ones! Some dip$hit here in Miami Beach tried to steal a 60ft sport fisher two years ago from our local marina. Only got one screw going. Needless to say he couldn't make it out and turned it over after pinballing off the sea walls. 3 million dollar boat.

Here is a video taken from inside a houseboat that tried to make it to the launch ramp. (Lake Powell, May 2018)

https://www.facebook.com/jimmyrexrealtor/videos/10161248721815347/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqPRek-J8_w

I feel for the ol boy and the boat trailer backing. I pull the boat and the wife pull the fifth wheel camper. She can park that sucker before I can get the boat off the trailer and back to the camp spot. I can back boats,horse trailers of all sizes, low boys,etc, but that camper takes me an hour to get it where I want it.

No way i heck would my boat wnent back on that trailer
I would have had to push on on down to the water.

Working on a fisheries creel survey, 3 retirement age men with a Lund aluminum boat. Water level is below normal and they are towing with an old station wagon. Backed to the edge of the ramp,boat on sand at water's edge, hook electric winch to the bow eye. I'm about 100' away,watching the boat being winched up onto the roller trailer. 1 guy on each side and one running the winch, I can see the boat get pulled up tight to the winch post. Guy running the winch hasn't moved away and I can see the winch post start to flex, I yelled and started running their way. No one hears me and I watch the boat shoot off the trailer back into shallow water, motor up. The winch pulled the bow eye off and the the post sprung back, lucky no one was behind the boat. I helped them get it back on the trailer, then had to pull their car/trailer up the ramp with the state truck, trying not to laugh the whole time.

I could tell you a story about a fella that drank to much and forgot to put his plug in and sank his 21ft big block Chevy day cruiser boat on the beach at a river side casino in Arizona many moons ago. But I wouldn't want to incriminate myself.

This is true because you can't make up something this stupid. Guy took his boat out for the first time everything went well 'till it was time to put it on the trailer. Backs the trailer in the water gets in the boat and hits the trailer at about 45mph. Well the boat went over the trailer and almost ended up in the truck cab. Salesman at the boat dealer said the guy came in raising h3ll wanting the dealer to pay for all the damage. Guys reasoning for wanted the dealer to pay..... They told him it was a drive on trailer. Yep there is some stupid people out there.

Now that's power loading...

I witnessed almost the same thing as PC. Guys unhooked all the straps and unlatched the tilt trailer and all was well on the flat above the ramp. When the trailer started going down the incline of the ramp the trailer tilted and launched the boat right in the middle of the concrete ramp. He got it back on the trailer in the same fashion described, not a pretty sound to hear as the fiberglass was scraping along the concrete while trying to get the boat back on the trailer. That was an inboard, I don't know if he did any damage to the motor.

I always put in at a marina that had two ramps. The north ramp was really steep, so I always used the south ramp. Came in one day after a morning of fishing in the (salt water) bay to see a Suburban backed in up to the windshield in the water in the north ramp. I assume there was a boat trailer behind it as there was a boat tied up to the dock. I suppose the owners were inside the marina awaiting a tow truck.

Regards,
hm