TOPIC: It's embarrassing to do something stupid...

So I ttok my dog and my boat to the public ramp. There wqere a few trailer parking spaces still available, so I deftly backed the boat to the ramp and stopped with the rear wheels in the water. Applied the emergency brake, had ALREADY checked for the drain plug! Then I unfastened the sfety chain, and released the winch hook, having tied the bow line to the winch tower. The boat drifted free effortlessly, and I deftly led the boat by the bowline to the floating dock, tied the bowline and parked my trailer. So far I looked like a seasoned pro! Then I told my dog to jump in the boiat, which he did. I jumped into the boat untied the bowline and turned the key. NOTHING. Battery dead! I felt much less smug as I retrieved the truck and trailer, led the boat back onto the trailer with the bowline, winched it up by the strongarm method, and drove thirty miles home having not even started my motor!
Fifteen dollars wworth of diesel fule, and hours time, but sitting in my boat in the water for five minutes - PRICELESS!

Turns out the depth sounder is wired to the hot side of the ignition switch and the depth alarm, which I can't hear, drains my battery.... time to rewire!

dont be embaresed about it,lol,my hearing is going too.
my uncle once had a problem with a cricket in his house keeping him awake,so my other uncle went to see if he could help catch the cricket,when he went into the house he could hear the fire alarm chirping for new batteries,lol.
and you should hear my mom and eds conversations,lol,i'll leave that for another time,lol,hi ed!john

Recently my dad and some friends (he's 76 his friends are at least that old a few in mid 80's.) went fishing on lake michigan, they were out there for like 12.5 hours or so. When he was gonna load the boat on the trailer he had it shut off and tied to the dock, backed the trailer down and with that boat you can just float it onto the trailer (is a 21' lund) he heard some beeping. Later he called me and asked about a possible alarm beep from the evinrude 140 VRO that is on that boat.. a day or so later he called me back and said he had gone down to the barn to mess with the boat and could still hear it.. turns out it was his fish finder beeping heheh..

On another note.. I just ordered some glass cloth and resin and other assorted supplies to start rebuilding my transom so Ive had some downtime on the boat repairing.. been busting my butt getting my gardens worked up and planted and such but today I finally took the time to just throw my crappy coleman canoe on the roof of my car and go to a lake a mile away and paddle around one good time. First time out on the water this year. By the time I got back to the launch I had aggravated an ole motocross injury in my shoulder its kicking my butt right now but it will go away soon enough.. my point being that time on the water was priceless after waiting all winter for it.. I dont care if I have to go out there on a block of foam with a 2x4 paddle being on the water is what its all about for me.. "Priceless"..

I've been driving Dad's Ranger 2 lately and occasionally the battery goes dead and needs a jump. The other day I connected the booster backwards and blew out a few fuses, including two Max60s for the alternator. I still have to pull the stereo and check/replace its fuses behind the dash. Maybe I can get around to that last one Monday. At least nothing appears damaged beyond fuses.

I know this guy from Wisconsin who took his boat to the lake . He unloaded it and got the kids , skis and tubes in it .He went to start it then remembered he left the key on the kitchen table ..I wont mention my .. Opps I mean his name ..

Everyone's forgot the plug at least once right.

Me and my partner launched his 14' rowboat on Lake St. Clair. LAunch has 6 ramps and 20 boats are lined up, $20,000-$30,000 bass boats and 26' Trophys. Buddy launces it within seconds I pull her off to the side of the ramp and tie the bow line to a piling. Buddy is parking the truck 3/4 of a mile away. All good so far, gonna hit the smallies hard and it's only 6:00 am.

I'm waiting and I see some water in the boat. No biggie it rained last night. Look back and there's a lot more water. Bummer the plug is out, can't find it anywhere. I use my thumb, butts no way up in the air. The boat drifts across the other launch, now where tying up 2 launches. Butt's still vertical, I just put my head down.

Buddy comes back from parking, I start yelling plug, plug. Long story short it's in the glovebox. We had to launch twice that morning. We still laugh about that one.

Anyone that tells you that they have never forgot the drain plug is either lying or havent spent any real time on the water. The real story is how bad was the worst experience!

I've got several stories... fortunately none of them a total disaster.

Did you ever bail out a 13 foot MFG flooded to inches from sinking with a Sheetz coffee cup.

Well, if I go back fifty years, my brother and I were jumping barge waves in a Glen-L plywood kit skiboat with a 392 blown Hemi and V-drive and put a 13 foot split in the bottom! I closed the petcock on the engine cooling water intake, loosened the hose and dropped it into the bilge, my brother jumped off at the dock and backed the VW pickup and trailer down the ramp while I circled and the ran the boat up on the trailer. The VW wouldn't budge the water-loaded boat, so I shoved the throttle forward and pushed the rig halfway up the hill with the blown Hemi, killing it when the prop cleared the water. We had quite a crowd by then and we were all smiles celebrating our brilliant ingenuity when we hear a loud C-R-E-A-K as the boat frame collapsed and the boat settled on the trailer like a mud pie. Water came out of the bottom like there were bombay doors!

gary could write a book about his adventures..hey wait a minute, he did."Red Sky in Morning" available on amazon.com. i read it before it was published. its an excellent read..man what an adventure. ron

I've done the forgot key thing, plug thing and dead battery thing too. And did the forgot to raise the lower unit on my I/O after loading it. I was lucky, it only skinned the skeg a little.
lesson well learned.

YEp did the forgotten key thing just yesterday! All proud, had my uncle help launch the boat so he could drive it. Hadn't been in it since his dad owned it back early 60's. Aprked the truck came back to the boat and DOH no keys! HAd to run back to the truck drive back to the house and drive back.. Thank goodenss I only live 2 miles from the boat ramp and there was not traffic yesterday. Boy how embarassing! Good part is she ran like a top and he had a blast driving her. Pics later since I'm at work now.

Bwana Don - sounds like you launched from Metro Beach.

Bob

vuyosevich wrote:

gary could write a book about his adventures..hey wait a minute, he did."Red Sky in Morning" available on amazon.com. i read it before it was published. its an excellent read..man what an adventure. ron

yes, but that book is about one of my sailboat adventures. Haven't written one yet about my powerboat adventures! I COULD write one to cover ALL of my boating adventures and call it "How to boat stupidly for 60 years and still survive to tell about it".

let me proof read it.

Here's one that was not our fault and lucky we were safe.. Growing up my dad brought us up as hunting/fishing/shooting kids out in nature and on the lakes large and small. Eventually we got a 25 Trojan that we used to fish salmon on lake Mich. Well ya know the drill, springtime polish the boat and repaint the bottom then it goes in a slip for summer. We were at pier 1000 in benton harbor back then. First time me and dad show up to the boat that year after they put it in the water for us.. Take off the camper top canvas start putting things together, cleaning ect.. Finally we get ready to take a little test run. Dad goes down into the cabin and turns around and pulls up the top step (where the batteries were). 2 batteries and one of those rotary switches. Click (number 1 batt) click again (to the "both" setting) and BOOM/POOF!!!! Instant cloud of smoke. I can no longer see dad down there in the cabin and I myself was dodging back further toward the stern. Was really happy to see him pop up out of the front hatch a moment later cause I was freaking out.. Turns out the marina had wired one of the batt's correctly and the other one backwards.. melted not only the connectors and pretty much all the lead posts off both batt's but some holes right in the tops of both batteries. Lucky my dad didnt have his face burned or something worse but he had jumped out of the way as soon as it happened. Also luckily when it melted it broke the circuit and didnt do more damage or catch on fire. Long story short I was only a teen then but once dad was up and out of the boat we went up to the marina to say "what the H?" and some other stuff", my dad is a lot more politically correct than I am and even at that age I was ready to attack someone but he gave em the humble approach of a customer that had something wrong. Anyway they ended up firing the mech that had hooked things up and put the boat in the water. I think of boats a little like airplanes, there are aspects that are just as important safety wise.. maybe you dont fall out of the air, but you can sink or burn to the waterline.. I still think back on that and want to find the guy and give him the proper whoopin but what would that serve? .. hopefully he learned something from the event.. Last summer a boat blew up in south haven, I have seen that boat for years out there and as we were coming back up the channel recognized it right away all burned up. Turned out they had just fueled up and then left the gas dock.. people heard some weird sounds and then it blew.. Not sure of all the details but I belive they pulled away from the dock.. it stalled and they were restarting when it happened.. now I dont know the details but my guess is fumes/blower issue.. luckily they all survived it. Hopefully everyones stupid mistakes are just dumb mistakes and not so hazardous as these but .. makes ya think.. you can never be to carefull, and never just disreguard the simple things you are supposed to do everytime..

Ron, Definitely!

Exploding batteries? I've expeirenced a few! All but two were MY fault though! Latest was gate battery - lightning got it and reversed the polarity on my bucket truck battery!