The problem is people panic. A missing plug, even the screw in external kind, isn’t a huge deal if you don’t panic. Worst case you can always jump in the water and plug the hole with your finger (or toe depending on how deep the boat sits) until your buddy can get the trailer lined back up. Easier solution, hop in the boat and take off until the trailer is ready. Once you’re moving more than 10mph the water will just drain out.
Boat ramps wouldn’t be nearly as fun a place to people watch if people had common sense and could function under pressure though.
Yeah, I thought I put the car in park, but there was a strap on the console that blocked it from moving all the way forward, so it was in reverse. E brake was on, but with the incline and trailer it was enough to make it roll. Only moved about 2 feet before I got back in and stopped it. That’s what I get for being in a rush.
I still had the boat connected to the trailer when I forgot the plug so that was no big deal, just pulled it out.
The storm once was probably the most pressure packed. Only the second time I had launched the boat. It worked out in the end, but it was calm when I showed up and I ended up having to wait over a half hour because of the crane operator at the marina, and then the weather turned. That good ship was a bone to be chewed when the gales of November came early.
I’ve been in launches where my truck would slide back 5ft with the parking brake on and in park just because the ground is so slippery with slime, both wheels just skid down.
Boat launches are the best, I’d estimate that 90% of people that go out boating return pissed off. They’re always flustered with the loading process, screaming at kids, screaming at wives, arguing with other boaters, it’s honestly quite comical. Sitting at the Isle View boat launch on a busy Saturday or Sunday afternoon is some of the best people watching.
Isle View is definitely one of the best. Free launches in general bring out the best idiots. It’s $40 a year for Niawanda for a non-resident and don’t tell the town but would pay double that without hesitation. I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait to launch or retrieve there and any idiot without a tag is ticketed within 30 minutes of parking there.
yeah, agreed. I mean, I didn’t REALLY panic, but I was intensely concerned.
The problem is that the drain plugs in inboard ski/wakeboard boats is often times in the middle of the hull, because that’s where the lowest point is. So it doesn’t really drain at speed if that plug is out. If anything it fills faster. There can be 2 of them in the floor and 1 in the transom, so 3 plugs total on some of the larger boats (this was a Malibu 23 LSV). ALTHOUGH, the plug in the floor of the boat can be put in from inside the boat. Problem was since it wasn’t my boat, I didn’t know which plug(s) was out or where they were being stored. Like you said though, if the situation was REALLY bad and I thought I might lose the boat, I would have thought of something. It was convenient that the trailer was close by though.
This thread is great. My boat is 29’ overall and I launch and haul it by myself. I’m gone so much that I don’t buy a slip for the year, so every time I want to take the boat out, I’m trailering, launching, and retrieving it. I frequently get a small group of onlookers watching me do it and usually get the “I can’t believe you can do that” comments. It’s really not hard, I just have everything prepared and ready to go before hand. I just laugh when I see 4 dudes struggling to launch or retrieve a 20’ aluminum fishing boat. A boat launch ramp web cam would be great entertainment.
Last saturday at Gratwick docks a truck was backing in a boat and decided to hit the brakes abruptly. Needless to say the boat came sliding off the trailer and landing on the out drive. If it wasn’t for all the guys there for the Bob Weavers PWC poker run, I don’t know how he would have ever got it back onto the trailer.