Oooops pulled boat from water with drive down...

M

manjo

New Member
Jun 26, 2007
48
Austin TX
This was my 4th time out on the brand spanking new boat.... What a day! I got to the lake, lowered the boat down the ramp and realized that I dont have the keys to the boat! DUH! I was lucky there was a sales rep from Sail and Ski (Austin Searay dealer), who happened to have a spare that fits my boat... He was very nice and gave me the key I promised to return it to him the next day. (Thank you sail and ski!)

After a few hours of cruzzin' we dropped anchor and we decided to do some fishing, we were fishing for cat fish so I cast the line and left the pole on the swim step area... I jumped in for a swim... sure enough I caught a fish... or shall I say the fish got the pole! DUH! took me a while to get my pole back...

Got back to the ramp, loaded the boat on the trailer, jumped into the truck and dragged the boat about 4 feet out of the water and I saw someone yelling and banging on my truck...oooops did not raise the drive... Lucky did not do any (visible) damage, just scrapped 4 feet on the concrete, I jumped into the boat and raised the drive...

Did I hurt something ? what do I need to check to see I did not damage anything? any suggestions?
 
You will be fine. You are not the first person to do this and probably won't be the last. :wink:

You may want to touch up the paint on the bottom of the drive.
 
When I first started boating I put reminder labels on my dash.

1. Check drain plug
2. Outdrive up
3. Check trailer hookup and lights
4. Windsheild closed for trailing


I helped me

Jack
 
Manjo, your boat is a total loss. I will take it off your hands. :grin:
Seriously this reminds me of a funny story. Someone (not me I swear) I know did the very same thing when he first started. His wife was driving the truck and he was in the boat. The drive was dragging the ramp. People were yelling for him to stop and finally his wife heard the screaming and stopped the truck. He was very flustered as you can imagine. Big crowd at the ramp looking on. In his panic, he jumped from the boat, snagged his swim trunks on a cleat, and was momentarily suspended by the cleat in mid air before his pants gave way. At which point he hit fell to the pavement without his swim trunks. I still laugh every time I think about it. He has not been back to that ramp. Could have been much worse! His drive was not damaged, but his self esteem was!
 
oh! forgot to mention... all along I had the trailer lights hooked up in reverse, so I was blinking left when I was turning right...

BTW I checked out the drive and it is fine, I need to get some paint and paint the bottom of the skeg coz I did grind it a little bit, I will be going back to the lake this weekend and I will find out if it runs ok.

I made a check list and go it laminated, I am going to leave that and a wet erase marker in the glove compartment so that I can go thro it before and after the ride. I signed up for a boater safety course today... hopefully will learn something...
 
mikestein said:
Manjo, your boat is a total loss. I will take it off your hands. :grin:
Seriously this reminds me of a funny story. Someone (not me I swear) I know did the very same thing when he first started. His wife was driving the truck and he was in the boat. The drive was dragging the ramp. People were yelling for him to stop and finally his wife heard the screaming and stopped the truck. He was very flustered as you can imagine. Big crowd at the ramp looking on. In his panic, he jumped from the boat, snagged his swim trunks on a cleat, and was momentarily suspended by the cleat in mid air before his pants gave way. At which point he hit fell to the pavement without his swim trunks. I still laugh every time I think about it. He has not been back to that ramp. Could have been much worse! His drive was not damaged, but his self esteem was!
Click to expand...

I did the same thing with my swim trunks.. i was in the garage cleaning the boat.. jumpd off the bow onto the floor and landed on my feet with no swim trunks.. mine also got stuck on the cleet.. made me want to get one of those push donw cleets but they are too expensive for my boat...

and btw i have done the same thing left the ramp with the outdrive down.. it happens.
 
I have a can of the Merc. black paint. I've had it for about 4-5 years and haven't used it in about 2 maybe. It's almost empty and there are several coats on the skeg, including the bottom edge. :grin:

Get ready for the first time you forget the plug. Ya, it'll happen, at least once. Don't ask me how I know. :smt043
 
Searay Jim said:
I have a can of the Merc. black paint. I've had it for about 4-5 years and haven't used it in about 2 maybe. It's almost empty and there are several coats on the skeg, including the bottom edge. :grin:

Get ready for the first time you forget the plug. Ya, it'll happen, at least once. Don't ask me how I know. :smt043
Click to expand...

now is this a brush on paint or a spray paint? i was told to touch it up with anti fowling paint... i don not want to spray paint nothing cause of overspray..
 
It's spray paint. If the surface is good (or close) it goes on really well. I've never had an over-spray problem but I watch and am careful.
 
I was told never to take the drain plug out, leave it on at all times, taking in and out can cause the threads to wear off cause water to leak in... sounds like a possibility, so I always leave my on, never took that out... I am off to west marine to get a can of black spray paint.
 
I would recommend taking the plug out, just use thread tape if you are worried about the brass threads. Furthermore, I have done the same thing to my out drive and believe me I have not done it again since it scared everyone so much that they always remind me now. My boat actually raised of the trailer and was only supported be the skeg (scary).
 
I back the trailer down the ramp & she drives it on. I hook the winch & saftey chain & up the ramp we go. We stop at the top of the ramp but away from traffic. I get out to do my part while she does whatever she does inside the boat. I complimented her for remembering to raise the drive. Also told her it would be a good idea to go ahead & turn off the engine :smt021

It only happened once & being the great guy that I am I told her that it was no big deal & that everyone does it thinking holy $!%# did she just ruin the engine :smt089
 
I don't want to be a thread hi-jacker but how exactly do you paint the drive and get it to be a perfect match? Mine's nice and shiny, I even wax it! The bottom edge of my skeg has some paint missing, not even the sides just the absolute bottom. It's not really noticable that the paints gone. Do I need to paint it? I trailer my boat, and it's never left in the water, fresh water ONLY.

Joe
 
I did the same thing. The drive was up, but not in the trailer mode :smt018 . Wife was yelling as I dragged it a foot or two. Same here, just scraped the paint off the bottom. No biggy, but I remember now to put it in the trailer mode.
 
mikestein said:
Manjo, your boat is a total loss. I will take it off your hands. :grin:
Seriously this reminds me of a funny story. Someone (not me I swear) I know did the very same thing when he first started. His wife was driving the truck and he was in the boat. The drive was dragging the ramp. People were yelling for him to stop and finally his wife heard the screaming and stopped the truck. He was very flustered as you can imagine. Big crowd at the ramp looking on. In his panic, he jumped from the boat, snagged his swim trunks on a cleat, and was momentarily suspended by the cleat in mid air before his pants gave way. At which point he hit fell to the pavement without his swim trunks. I still laugh every time I think about it. He has not been back to that ramp. Could have been much worse! His drive was not damaged, but his self esteem was!
Click to expand...
:smt043 :smt043 :smt043 :smt043 :smt043 Good stuff.
 
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