The moron with the towel in the front door of that submarine makes it for me

I don’t think I’d be taking things so well. At least he saved the boat.

Okay, I couldn't resist, so here goes. Was waiting my turn at the ramp to load my boat. A beautiful 19 foot Sanger Blown Jet Pickle Fork boat was being backed down the ramp by a beautiful young lady. I head up the ramp to my truck as she gets it off the trailer and it's floating by the dock. I am almost to my truck and hear a woman screaming, I ran back down there, can I help you? Yes, the boats sinking.

It's going down fast, a giant 454 with two Holley 750 double pumpers on top. Water is almost to the valve covers. I jumped in, told her I would have to start the motor and take off or the boat was going down in about 30 foot of water. The other lady was parking the trailer and ran down when she heard all the screaming too. It's her boyfriends boat, they took it without asking. She says, [beeep] yes, do whatever you can to save the boat.

I fired it up as the water was almost to the two carburetors. Bam, got it fired after a few tries, rip it into reverse, then hard into drive, and pinned it for open water, knowing full well they didn't put in the plug. I'm almost at full throttle but can't make any speed since I have a boat full of water, and the faster I drive, the more the water runs to the back and over the motor. I still don't know how or why it fired and ran. I ran about 2 miles down and 2 miles back, gaining speed as the water ran out the drain hole. Couple more laps and I can't see that I am making any more progress, so I fly into the boat launch area again (No wake zone), just bouncing the other boats off the docks, yelling at them to get the trailer back on the dock and do it NOW. Back out to sea I go, run up and down again, then back into the launch area when I see that they have the trailer there. I just drove it right onto the trailer. They left, never saw them or the pickle fork again, was a really nice boat, glad I could save it for the boyfriend at least. I thought that it wouldn't start with the water over the plug wires, but it did for some reason and I am glad it did.

Did you get her number? Guarantee she's available.

I have a good one that I still laugh at to this day. We were up camping at the local lake. We were camping where we could see the lake and boat ramp. We had just got off the water when this big Class A motorhome came pulling in with a monster pontoon with a triple axel trailer pulls up to the prep area. The wife gets out and starts guiding the husband down the boat ramp. As they get close to the water she moves from the front of the camper to the side of the boat as he is still backing down. He starts to jack knife the boat and trailer and proceeds to run the back set of duals over the curb down at the bottom of the ramp and drops them into the sand. His wife yells at him to say that he is hitting the dock with the motor. So he slams the motor home into drive and floors it. The tires spin on the sand and hi-centers the rig on the curb. The back end of the boat is jack knifed against the dock so they can't unload the boat cause it isn't deep enough to float it. And the camper is high centered and can't go forward or back. He gets out and they have a screaming match for about 15min. They tried to get a couple of people to try and pull them out. All of them said they didn't have a big enough truck. They finally had to call in a big semi tow truck to pull their stuff out. It to the better part of an hour for the tow truck to get there. No one could use that side of the ramp and they had half the dock space in use. Both of them were down at the dock trying everything they could to keep the dock away from the back of the boat. When the tow truck showed up the 1st thing he asked was cash or charge. $500.00 later he hooks on and drags the whole unit up to solid ground. And both the tow truck and the Class A motor home with the boat leave. Never to be seen again all weekend. Mind you this a Thursday afternoon. There are some other ones but not near as funny. We always like being close to the boat ramp when we camp.

Mistakes made with boats are expensive mistakes!

Boat = A hole in the water you throw money into...

I watched a couple guys launch their punkin seed racer. Driver pulled the trailer up to the parking area. Bout 1/2 way back to the boat guy hollers "we forgot the plug" and driver sprints for the truck and they loaded up w/ water pouring out drain.

They decided to go home and dry it out and come back tomorrow night. I didnt get there the next night.

I have seen too times people with more boat than tow rig. Don’t unlatch all the tie downs, back into the water, boat fastened to the trailer and floating, lifts the back of the little car,Jeep or truck and out she goes.

It is always good entertainment on memorial weekend to get a good spot in the parking lot to watch folks back and load and unload boats. Saw girl load a jet ski into the back of a truck, skipped over the trailer and stuck the nose of the jet ski through the back of the cab. It was a King Ranch all decked out, still had the sticker in the window.

Hanbing out at any boat ramp can be entertaining! Grizz

Years ago I saw a truck with trailer completely under water at a ramp in MS. I took a quick look then exited the area. I didn’t want to be around the upset owner, couldn’t help much anyway.

I go slow around the ramp, try to hit the quieter times. With the Covid it seems a lot are out fishing. I drove by the other day, even though the main season isn’t open, they were stacked about 10 in line waiting to get out.

Once the water warms a bit more I’ll get out.

Had a very serious issue at a ramp here in Missouri about a week ago. Gentleman was launching solo and somehow the truck rolled over him and killed him. The truck and boat rolled into the lake and completely submerged.

How terrible. Cant imagine that but things get complicated quickly and mistakes are compounded..

Many yrs ago I would ride bicycle over to the launch and just watch. Better than the movies, by far.

I saw many 'situations' to say the least. I cant really pick the 'best'.

One good one-two guys pull up w/ new punkionseed racer, unload. One guy drives the truck/trailer up and parks, quite a ways away. He walks about 1/2 way back to boat and hollers "we forgot the plug," and heads for the truck to reload. When they pull it out water is draining out the plug hole..
they decided to go home, dry it out and come back tomorrow night. I was busy the next night and didnt get to see that return.

Not just boat launches, locks can be fun too seeing folks trying to use locks for the first time.

Chittenden Locks between Lake Washington and Puget Sound can be hilarious on a summer holiday.