How about a stupid boater thread?

oh I have another one. Had our 250DA in the driveway and wanted to turn it around so hooked it to the truck and went around the block to pull in forward. Forgot I left the VHF antenna up and we had a few low hanging trees. Boat came back with the antenna about 1' shorter...lol

 

First trip out last April was a sunset cruise through the narrow State Channel heading west into the sunset. We’re cruising about 20mph and say to my daughter I really should be wearing my darker sunglasses and just after I say that the sun blinds me. I couldn’t see my GPS nor the buoy to my starboard which I hit dead center on the bow and the chain holding it in place dinged my starboard prop. Limped back to the marina on one engine and had the boat hauled the next day with fiberglass and prop repaired 2 days later. It could of been a lot worse and I was happy that our boats have nice thick hulls! I NOW always have a pair of dark sunglasses at helm and slow down going into the sun like I should have back then.

 

Here's mine; the Admiral, our three young children, and I were camping on the west side of our favorite mountain lake and hoping to cross over to the east side where there's some nifty beaches that are accessible only by boat. The wind was blowing pretty strongly from the east, enough so that the rollers were at least as high as the freeboard on our eighteen foot runabout. We started out across the lake as the wind continued to increase, as did the wave height. After taking a third wave over the windshield into our laps, I perouetted on the next wave and rode it back to camp. Unlike Haulover Inlet, there wasn't another soul in sight to save us had we sunk.

Twenty years later, we bought the 30-footer for motoring on the same lake. I pray we don't come across waves big enough to sink that one!

 

It's amazing how many possible reasons for not going anywhere went through my melon for about 2 seconds when I threw the transmissions in to reverse and just sat there.

The last voice in my head (there are many)... "Yo Mensa, take all the dock lines off and give it another try"

 

I hate to admit this but I'd buy 2 antennas at a time to save on shipping and time. We had low clearance on one of my docks and the antennas had to be down to back in but needed to be up to work worth a darn out on the water. Ashamed to say I heard that fiberglass cracking sound more than once.

 

My biggest concern is that I will end up being discussed on this thread multiple times!!!!! How do I block a thread! Help!!

 

A week or so ago I was turning my 23 bay around on my sons new property after a lake run and ripped his OH powerline down to his barn with the Ttop, luckily no damage to VHF or GPS.

A few months ago we miss timed a return to the marina and high winds, strong current pushed us into the divider piling between our slip and nieghbors. The piling caught the edge of the swim platform, it must have flexed 3' at the top. When it came around the swim platform it sprang back and hit the starboard corner of the transom causing some cosmetic damage. Son was at the helm, shook us all up for a minute. Good news was no audience...I bought eartecs after that.

While we were dating, wifey and I took a friends catamaran out on the Indian River down in Sebastian. We wound up in a tstorm and flipped the cat, and could not right it. Friend came looking for us on his jet ski and towed us back.

This is my most recent....at least it's paid for.
Got a little agressive backing up to the trailer of the 23 Bay.

If anyone has one laying around, I'm interested....

 

I just sold the Mercury dinghy with the Merc 9.9 2 stroke.
Then bought a Highfield with a Tohatsu 20 4 stroke.
We took the boat and dinghy down the river to a party at a friends house, anchored the boat and dropped the dinghy in and ran it to their dock for the party. Came back three hours later to find the dinghy engine still running. Never shut it off. It's too quiet.... That's my excuse.

 

Oh, that reminds me. Brother had a Hobie Cat and we went out on the lake on a high wind day. Both of us lacked much experience. We ended up digging a hull and flipping it complete upside down. After battling and battling we got it on it's side and then stood on lower hull with a line over the top hull and it slowly, very slowly, starting coming over back on to it's two hulls. All would've been great except we had forgotten to loosen the main sheet and as soon as it righted itself it took off and left us floating in the water. Hardly a sole on the lake because of the wind but eventually a bass boat saw us bobbing out in the middle and picked us up. We chased down the cat and called it a day.

Big lesson learned that day.

 

First outing with our 310Da after moving up from a 230Wk. we were coming back from Middle Bass Is. and I was feeling pretty good about how the whole weekend went. Now I was following my buddy Aftica in his wide ass old 1989 Dancer in to West Harbor. First time coming in West channel Aftica was blocking my view of the buoys and I set up wide in the channel to make the corner. About the time Aftica said your wide I stuffed the nose of the 310 into the pond muck. Then my Buddy following me said on the radio those Green and Red things in the water aren't Christmas trees.

 

Lol that is awesome!

 

This bridge is 20 yards away from my slip. Water level is clearly marked and this happens frequently.

 

Similar, cousin and I on vacation at a big Ohio lake, rented a small sailboat, knew nothing about sailing. Wind blew us across lake where we beached it. Hitch hiked back to our side of lake. Went to rental office, told the guy where his boat was, walked out. Good Times.

 

I just visited a cousin who told me about his recent trip to Alaska. He took one of his daughters and her children along for a total of six. He purchased a Zodiac excursion to see a glacier. There were a number of small icebergs in the area. The captain said she would take the boat up close so the kids could touch the berg. As the boat approached, the berg tipped due to wave action from another boat. The berg had a flat "lip" around the bottom edge where the ice under the water had melted faster than the top. The lip went over the gunwale of the Zodiac and tipped it enough to spill out my cousin, his daughter and two kids. Even though he's late 70's the cousin is in great shape; he came up with one child and his daughter came up with the other. Luckily, there were other boats in the area who came over and everybody was rescued pretty quickly; it could have been much worse solely due to hypothermia. My cousin had several thousand dollars worth of his amateur photography equipment with him that is probably all ruined. He's getting ready to introduce the excursion company owner to his lawyer.

 

Scary, cold water is nothing to mess with. I can’t believe I used to take a zodiac down the Sassafras river in January. One time I cleared snow off pier to launch, 10’ zodiac with a 8hp Merc. I’m blasting down the river one morning and it farking cold. I see blue lights coming, back off throttle. Cops pulls up on his boat says honest to god “what the fk are you doing out here?”. Good Times.
Now the zodiac and engine are in the house by mid November latest. Too old for that stuff.
I really miss it, too old to handle now. 100# zodiac and 85# engine is way more than I can transport and wrangle these days.

 

How am I supposed to take a picture of the skeg being dragged up the boat ramp if I’m in the driver seat??

If hitting your car with your boat is the rarest occurrence, dragging the skeg may be the most common one.

 

We did the same thing with our 16' Hobie Cat in the middle of the Columbia River. Six of on the trampoline got rudely dumped in the river. Fortunately we had a "righting line" and we were able to get it back upright without too much trouble.

Water was warm enough that it was kinda fun for all involved.

 

Ha - you have no idea. A lot of skeletons that will stay in the attic.