How about a stupid boater thread?

Carpediem44DB

Carpediem44DB

Well-Known Member
Aug 18, 2015
3,227
Sanfransico Bay area
Boat Info
2000 Carver 506
2006 44 DB Sedan Bridge
Engines
Volvo TAMD 74 P
I looked around a little bit and did not find a dedicated thread to share boating goof ups.
This came across my feed and it caught my attention because the boat in the clip is a Sea Ray.
I sure hope it is not one of our members. Not that our members are all perfect skippers but this is a pretty bone head maneuver!
Boater Fails to Clear Closing Bridge | Watch (msn.com)
 
Carpediem44DB said:
I looked around a little bit and did not find a dedicated thread to share boating goof ups.
This came across my feed and it caught my attention because the boat in the clip is a Sea Ray.
I sure hope it is not one of our members. Not that our members are all perfect skippers but this is a pretty bone head maneuver!
Boater Fails to Clear Closing Bridge | Watch (msn.com)
Click to expand...
The way he takes off and keep going, I’ll bet he doesn’t know his radar is gone.
 
Snapon24 said:
Its not a thread on here but checkout @thequalifiedcaptain on instagram. lots of good stuff on there
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I’ve seen it, I like one stop shopping though. Thought it would be a fun thread to have here since there seems to be a never ending supply of stupidity.
 
A few weekends ago, I had a full seasons' worth in one day.

[ One was so bad, it shall not be mentioned again ]

After the above - related to the tender -- I take the 300 DA out which went well. As I pull back into the marina, I see someone tying up my tender. Which means I left it un-tied and it drifted over to the neighbor's slip :eek: Luckily that's as far as it went. He was all kinds of confused because they were expecting friends and he told them to just go ahead and tie up behind his boat.

At one point I open the lid on my dock box, and I hear something slide off and into the drink. I check around and I've got the important stuff (wallet, keys, phone etc). To this day I have no idea what it was.

Later I took out extended family and of course forgot to unplug my shore power cord :eek: Luckily a neighbor yelled YOUR POWER CORD!!!!! I thought it wouldn't shift out of neutral o_O
 
Phil S said:
At one point I open the lid on my dock box, and I hear something slide off and into the drink. I check around and I've got the important stuff (wallet, keys, phone etc). To this day I have no idea what it was.
o_O
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It was your next slip neighbor’s wallet, keys, and phone. He’s still wondering where he lost them.
 
Carpediem44DB said:
I looked around a little bit and did not find a dedicated thread to share boating goof ups.
This came across my feed and it caught my attention because the boat in the clip is a Sea Ray.
I sure hope it is not one of our members. Not that our members are all perfect skippers but this is a pretty bone head maneuver!
Boater Fails to Clear Closing Bridge | Watch (msn.com)
Click to expand...
Ouch, reminds me of the folks that try to beat the RR crossing bars dropping.
 
My turn, last season Queen and I are out and about, beauty day, thought we would go find our old neighbors new house. Took what appeared to be a quick path, looking at houses, opy doo, next thing all electronic devices are yelling at me I look down and I’m in the dark blue on the Garmin, about 12” of water, outdrives churning up mud like a blender, hard to starboard, closest path to the white, out drives up enough to keep moving, hull drags once then we clear and get back to deeper water unscathed. Look back, shoal is clearly marked. Queen asks me what we would do if we got stuck. Told her our Boat US/Sea Tow membership would be engaged. We joke about it now and she repeatedly tells me “stay in the white”
As I like to say “Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool”
 
To this day while on auto pilot I still grab the wheel to do something forgetting I am on auto pilot, having a brief "where's my steering!!!" panic.

Any I have lost count how many times I fought a water hose to get it on only to realize I forgot to put a loose clamp on first.
 
OK, I'll add one of my famous goof ups. We were headed down the Columbia in the area of Hood River about to pass beneath the loooong bridge that crosses the Columbia. A tug with barges was headed upstream and approaching from the downstream side. I called him on the radio and told him I'd yield to him as he passed under the bridge.

I moved to port, toward the OR side of the river and watched as he went beneath the bridge. When he was clear I was getting close to the bridge (we were drifting) so I powered up a bit and turned slightly to stbd, basically paralleling the bridge. I had my focus on the bridge as I headed to the opening where the channel went through and all of a sudden there was a red nun buoy smack dab in front of me. I swung the boat to port and pulled the throttles back and sat there feeling stoooopid as my rub rail bumped along the buoy.

No harm, no foul, but boy was I ever embarrassed.
 
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I started the thread with no real intention of it becoming a confessional but here we are...
This weekend I decided to take the 506 out for a run with only the wife as crew. No wind and full pool so it was perfect opportunity. She really does not like to be crew on this monster. We cast lines with the aid of my wireless remote and as I drifted away from the dock I made my way to the helm and put the drives in gear which immediately killed both engines!
I had forgotten to power down my wireless system and it's Achilles heal is the ACU will short with the wireless activated. I have a protocol for that but I broke with it so there we were, alone dead in the water drifting towards the transoms of the boats behind us. Luckily I was able to use Bow thruster to turn 90 degrees and back up to a friend's Sea Ray 175 that was tied to his platform. He was fendered and luckily on his boat so he came and assisted while I went into the engine room to replace fuses. Engines fired back up after I reset the computer codes and we beelined it back to the side tie. The wife was no longer enthusiastic about taking a ride. I have yet to figure out an electronic solution to isolate the systems so I have to rely on a physical guard system that one needs to remember to have in place during preflight. Oh well no damage was done except to my pride and what is that worth anyway?
Carpe Diem
 
Carpediem44DB said:
I started the thread with no real intention of it becoming a confessional but here we are...
This weekend I decided to take the 506 out for a run with only the wife as crew. No wind and full pool so it was perfect opportunity. She really does not like to be crew on this monster. We cast lines with the aid of my wireless remote and as I drifted away from the dock I made my way to the helm and put the drives in gear which immediately killed both engines!
I had forgotten to power down my wireless system and it's Achilles heal is the ACU will short with the wireless activated. I have a protocol for that but I broke with it so there we were, alone dead in the water drifting towards the transoms of the boats behind us. Luckily I was able to use Bow thruster to turn 90 degrees and back up to a friend's Sea Ray 175 that was tied to his platform. He was fendered and luckily on his boat so he came and assisted while I went into the engine room to replace fuses. Engines fired back up after I reset the computer codes and we beelined it back to the side tie. The wife was no longer enthusiastic about taking a ride. I have yet to figure out an electronic solution to isolate the systems so I have to rely on a physical guard system that one needs to remember to have in place during preflight. Oh well no damage was done except to my pride and what is that worth anyway?
Carpe Diem
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I love you started this thread, It’s nice to know I’m not the only forgetful yahoo on the planet.
I subscribe to Alfred Montaner/Chit Show on YouTube if you want to see some funny stuff.
So I’ll ask, how many of us have run the bilge blowers for hours not on purpose and kept asking yourself “what is that noise?”
 
I tend to only use my genny when I am
GirlyGirl1999 said:
I love you started this thread, It’s nice to know I’m not the only forgetful yahoo on the planet.
I subscribe to Alfred Montaner/Chit Show on YouTube if you want to see some funny stuff.
So I’ll ask, how many of us have run the bilge blowers for hours not on purpose and kept asking yourself “what is that noise?”
Click to expand...

Not the blowers, but I have left the genie running all the way back to the slip after leaving an anchorage.
 
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