Strangest things you've seen while boating..

[Tequilasun]

These threads are always fun, and as the season is winding down for some people I thought I'd see what the strangest thing you guys have seen while boating.

Here's one.

Last year we were headed into the marina to put our boat on the lift, and as we idled through the no-wake zone, we passed an I/O that was throwing a huge spray out the back, but not going very fast. I looked, and their lower unit was at such an angle that the prop was just barely in the water. I'm not sure why they had it that way. The driver looked like this was just as normal as it could be, but one of the passengers looked worried, so I yelled to them that they needed to lower their lower unit. The drive gave me a look like I was a moron, and another boat was close to helping them, so I just idled off wondering what they must have been thinking. It had to be a rental I guess

[Tequilasun]

Another one:

It was early this year, and we were tied up at the party spot with a long line of boats. We were on the end. Well this pontoon boat comes over and asks to tie up.

Normally I'm not real excited about tieing up to a pontoon, as they have such a high freeboard, that my boat goes kinda under them when rollers or waves hit. I know, its an anal thing, and I always have lots of bumpers and such, yada yada.

Anyway, this pontoon had like 10 dudes on it, and no girls and as is generally the case with dudes on a toon, they began migrating over to my boat (where the lady ratio was pretty high)

So I'm chilling out, playing some tunes, and I hear one of the Toon dudes tell a girl on my boat all about how he payed cash for the boat, and its an 06, its got the taps thingy. Dude has been on my boat for like 5 minutes and he's already working like it is his...to a girl who rode to the party spot with me!

So she's pretty cool about it (she knows a bunch about our boat, and knows that I will find this funny) and lets him work his magic for awhile, then she asks him to take her out on it later..you know...for some one on one time..*wink wink*.

At this point the dude has to work some crazy story about how he will have to use the toon (a rental) Cause his wingman is using the boat that night.

I couldn't help but laugh as she worked that dude over, then said I'd like you to meet Tequilasun, he's pretty thrilled you own his boat.

[talltigeguy]

I recently was at the lake when I thought I could see a couple of people in the water with no boat in sight. As I got closer it was obvious that there was an upside down jet ski next to them and they could not get it to stay upright. There was a man and a woman. The man could right the PWC, but each time he tried to get on, it rolled. As I got even closer, it became obvious why - the man looked like Alvie from other people's pics, he was AT LEAST 350 pounds. As he would get on the jet ski, it would tip and roll. I tried to help get it upright and with my help steadying it, he finally got on, but it would not start. When the woman got into the boat, it was even more clear why they lost control, she was at least 250 pounds. I don't think that the 2 person PWC was meant for the 600+ pounds that they put on it.

[chpthril]

At the launch ramp

While waiting for ramp to open up, so we could launch, a guy was putting in his brand new 24' cuddy. someone in his party, about 12 standing on the dock, backed the trailer into the water and set him adrift. He had no docklines or fenders ready. The boat is floating in between the two docks while he scrambles around the boat to find a line to toss to his group. By now the boat has turned side ways and is blocking 2 ramps. By the time he finds a line, and throws it to the dock, the boat is now backwards.

They finally get the boat tied up and begin to board. The boat is in about 2 feet of water, and the lower unit is bouncing off the concrete ramp with each person that climbs aboard. He fires up the engine and puts it in gear, and it doesn't move. (SCOTTIE, I NEED MORE POWER) He lays into the throttle and still it does not pull away from the dock(I'M GIVIN YA ALL SHE'S GOT CAPTAIN). By this time, I can only imagine what the prop looks like. He raises the I/O and throws one cool rooster tail, but still can't get anywere! Dunb a## finally realizes that the ladder, that he put down to climb up when it was still on the trailer, is hung up between the dock and the concrete curbing of the ramp. I'm wandering which way this guy is going, so I can go the other. He idles away from the dock and when he gets to edge of the no wake zone, drops the hammer and up flows old faithful 50 feet into the air!

Some people don't need to own boats.

[spenchey2]

I have a few and one happens everytime we surf.

There are very few people that surf on my lake as much as we do (about every weekend) and the look on peoples faces as you pass them is priceless. Sort of a look of what in the world are they doing?!

Also, the staring and finger pointing that people do that pass us on a busy night. I've had people stop and take pics of my boat when we go by. We love the attention tho and always get a kick out of their reactions.

First time out this season for a morning ride. After tossing out the line, we see a pontoon with a PCP pipe tower. And there wasn't just a few pipes there was about 100 of them holding this thing together. I was going to get a pic with my camera phone but i was laughing to hard to do it.

[dogbert]

I watched a couple of guys get launch this 14' boat with an outboard w/o a cover. After 1/2 hour of trying to get it started, they finally did. They had to rev it up real high to keep the engine from dying, so they pushed off their trailer and proceeded to pull away from the ramp. Suddenly, the guy driving realizes that the boat is sinking because they forgot to put the plug in. Now he goes full bore to try and go around this rather long dock to get to the beach so he can beach it. About 10 yards away from the shore, the boat has taken on enough water to kill the engine and sinks in about 3' of water with the guy still in it.

[Gschmidt1]

Weirdest thing ever...when I was boarding earlier this summer...a fish hit me in the leg. It actually jumped out of the water, and cut me. True story.

[Tanner]

Was at the dock once getting gas, and there was this brand new four winns there. He was asking the guys at the dock for some assistance with his brand new boat. The thing was sitting pretty low in the water, but no matter what he did, he said he couldn't get the boat to go very fast. They were down inside the boat, looking the engine over. I offered my assistance and started wondering if maybe the boat was in limp mode. Had started thinking that maybe for some weird reason the impeller had already gone out and the boat had overheated. But I started thinking why was the boat sitting low in the water. There was no water in the boat. About that time, one of the guys at the dock busts out laughing.... couldn't figure out why. He then looked at the guy and said... you do realize your supposed to unhook the boat from the trailer... not the trailer from the truck right? Apparently he had backed the trailer down and his g/f (whom supposedly had never been in a boat ever) was allowed to take his brand new boat off the trailer. Well apparently she misunderstood about unhooking the boat from trailer... and well.... the boat was still on the trailer while on the water!

[Moki]

Originally posted by Tanner
the boat was still on the trailer while on the water!

He didn't really want a Four Winns, he wanted this boat!

[Moki]

As a dare, this guy was water skiing "free"style (naked) down at Lake Powell. He came around a corner where there was a tour boat full of people. He let go of the rope, but did the slow stop and the slow sink into the water.

[dogbert]

Originally posted by Tanner
Was at the dock once getting gas, and there was this brand new four winns there. He was asking the guys at the dock for some assistance with his brand new boat. The thing was sitting pretty low in the water, but no matter what he did, he said he couldn't get the boat to go very fast. They were down inside the boat, looking the engine over. I offered my assistance and started wondering if maybe the boat was in limp mode. Had started thinking that maybe for some weird reason the impeller had already gone out and the boat had overheated. But I started thinking why was the boat sitting low in the water. There was no water in the boat. About that time, one of the guys at the dock busts out laughing.... couldn't figure out why. He then looked at the guy and said... you do realize your supposed to unhook the boat from the trailer... not the trailer from the truck right? Apparently he had backed the trailer down and his g/f (whom supposedly had never been in a boat ever) was allowed to take his brand new boat off the trailer. Well apparently she misunderstood about unhooking the boat from trailer... and well.... the boat was still on the trailer while on the water!

That's funny! How do you not know the trailer's still attached?

[scottcarlye]

While home in Arizona several years ago, I went to the lake skiing with some old friends. We all ski and boat on a very regular basis. The lakes in Arizona are all reservoirs and the water level fluctuates based on time of year and rain. The lake was down about 20 feet that day so the temporary ramps are exposed at the bottom of the concrete ramps. They are concrete blocks spaced about 2 inches apart and joined with steal hinges. A guy had backed off the side of the temporary ramp and gotten his new boat and trailer stuck. He tried pulling it out until the clutch in his truck burnt up. We offered to help since he was blocking the ramp. The trailer axle had dropped in between the concrete blocks and wouldn’t move. Fortunately he was far enough in to get the boat off. We figured we could jack up the trailer to get it out and went looking for wood to put under a jack. The guy said just pull me out, it will pop loose. OK……My buddy hooked up his dually king cab chevy and pulled him out. The rear axle of his trailer was about 4 inches further back on the side that had been stuck once it came loose. We went out skiing for a couple hours while the poor guy called a buddy on his cell to come out and tow him home. I guess it took a while for his buddy to get out to the lake since they were just pulling out his boat on his bent trailer when we got back. To top it off, he didn’t trailer the drive once on the trailer an up the ramp it goes banging off the concrete. We were out in the lake yelling at him to stop. Ended up breaking off the skeg and chunking up the lower end. Truck, trailer, boat… all in one day. Some people really don’t need boats.

[raythompson]

Boat Trailer Attached

That would something that would be fairly noticeable.

Of course Myth Buster did an episode on that very thing and it turns out it is quite possible to leave the trailer attached. One of the people they were working with said he had to deliver a boat and trailer to some fellas house on a lake. Turned out that there was not way to get the boat and the trailer to lake from the front of the guys house. So they went to a public ramp and put the boat in the water, trailer and all. They motored over to the guys private ramp, hooked up the trailer and pulled the boat out.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Now my story. I was coming back to the ramp I was using at Blue Springs Marina. I saw a person about waist deep when they were 30 feet from the ramp. I thought whoa I did not know it was that shallow and should not be that shallow. Upon closer inspection I saw that fella was standing on the roof of his truck. I watched while the tow truck arrived, the cable was hooked to the truck with some difficulty, and the truck was pulled out of the water. I had drop my wife off so she could take the trailer to another ramp so I could get out of the water. This was because after they pulled the truck out they were staying on the ramp effectively closing the ramp.

[raythompson]

Strange Lauch Story

OK, here is another one about a guy launching and retrieving his boat.

He was alone and I watched him back his boat down into the water. He got out of his truck and just pushed the boat off the trailer and let it drift off. He never tied it to the dock. He got back into his truck, parked, walked back to the dock, then dove into the water and swam to his boat. He then climbed in and took off.

When he returned he reversed his process. He came to the dock, got out, shoved his boat away, and went and got his truck. He backed the trailer down the ramp, went to the dock and jumped in, swam to his boat, and then drove the boat on the trailer. He then get in his truck and drove away.

[kirk]