Labor Day Ramp Follies

[third timer]

blooper video

Thats the stuff great videos are made of

[dogbert]

Yeah, I was out one weekday this summer when decked out Supra Launch 224 SSV was having trouble getting the boat to sit on the trailer correctly. They spend about 20 minutes trying to get that thing right on the trailer. The boat was listing to the one side. I'd seen them surfing earlier that afternoon and it looked like they were still ballasted for surfing. Only after they got the boat on the trailer all cockeyed did they think to drain the ballast. Then they tried to rock the boat back to its rightful position. Definitely comical.

True story. I trained the wife to drive our first boat on the trailer and she did a fabulous job. Each time, I'd ask her if she raised the out drive (it was an I/O). I'd always get a grumpy response (afterall, how could I question her). One time, we were on this really long ramp on Lake Travis and I got the same grumpy response. So I start hauling up the ramp with the boat and near the top I start seeing some guys waving me to stop. Turns out she forgot to raise it and I dragged the skeg the entire 100 yards up the ramp. Needless to say, after that, I didn't get the grumpy response and she would actually check.

[Juiceman831]

So we went to Lake Don Pedro in the Sierra Nevada foothills Saturday and Sunday. Knowing how it gets on holidays we went out early and pulled off the lake by 4:30pm both days. We never spent more than 20 minutes to launch or retrieve. Saturday wasn't too bad but Sunday was such a total cluster out there that we walked back to the top of the ramp to watch for awhile ! Here's just a few of the best ones we saw;

So what's with the freakin idiots who circle right in front of all six lanes after they launch! These dumbasses make it almost impossible to pickup your party after the truck is parked! Had one moron in a Moomba just hanging 50-60 feet off the ramp right in the way! Turns out he was just there posing with his buddies! Ended up yelling at him to move his freaking boat as he ignored our request for access!

Then of course there's the dumbasses that drive right through the marked hazard buoys! Talk aboy a TOTAL lack of brains! Saw one Malibu ground out, four guys jumped off in less than knee deep water to rock-n-lift it off! Another moron in an old I/O does the same and sits there and just churns up mud! Not once but TWICE did he do it! He actually circled around and came right back through it again! GEEZ!

So i'm waiting to load the boat on Sunday and there's a couple of idiots on the ramp with their boats totally sideways at about 45 degrees and of course this leaves me with a VERY narrow corridor to thread through to the trailer, i make it and load QUICKLY. The guy to the left with a very big I/O cuddy has just ground his outdrive to a pulp and has four guys in the water trying to lift the boat for whatever reason! The guy to the right has an old POS flatbottom jet that has no bow eye to secure the boat to the POS trailer that's missing bunks! He's yelling at the wife, their both in the water and both parties have now blocked lanes for almost thirty minutes!

The miscellaneous category; Some dumbass that kept driving his truck to the bottom of the ramp and sitting at waters edge for 20 minutes at a time, never retrieved a thing! The guy who got his trailer so cockeyed on the ramp he actually blocked four lanes of the ramp and then got out to survey the situation with his wife! The moron who tried to launch a 23 foot Centurion with a LOWERED Chevy truck and had to back in until the water was about 8" above the bottom of the doors! But wait! He then reopens the door because he forgot to release the winch strap while STILL in the water!

But i've saved the best for last, rememeber i said we watched at the ramp for awhile? Well by 6PM there was a single line of about 45-50 vehicles either waiting to launch or retrieve. AS we're watching this mayhem a big lifted Dodge Megacab comes FLYING down the ramp with a trailer and backs in and retrieves a Sanger V215 with a stripper pole attached to the pylon! He then comes FLYING up the ramp and of course everyone watching at the top is booing and giving visual signals, of course they're all laughing and raising their beers. Well it's a WHOLE truck full of flatbillers and their women (about 12 total) and they blow right through the cleanup area and head out. As we're leaving about thirty minutes later we see them at the back of the parking lot cleaning up and drinking. So we stop Mr. Ranger as we leave and explain and he proceeds to go put the screws to them along with a few of his buddies. Dumbasses.

Gotta love holidays!

You know what I do whenever that happens here locally for me...as soon as I unload and the wife goes to park the truck I hit the gas and make a 007 1/2 power turn and chops the water up BIG TIME! LOL gets them furious cause those that are hanging out at the ramps just parked get swamped with rollers and someone ends up falling down into that murky grotesque water. DOWN WITH MORONS!

[hoopykat]

So does doing that make you any better that the folks at the ramp?

Mike

[my86stanggt]

Hope you were laughing right with them

I wasn't laughing but I was definately surprised. I don't mind falling in at all, but I hate getting my truck seat wet. I try to stay dry the last half hour or so coming in so I don't get it wet but not that day.

[ddmracing05]

Labor day... omg... I hate it (HATE IT) when people just think they have the right to go start Tanning on the boat ramp and have their kids go swim on it when they know that boats are trying to put in... Especially when there are 4 signs that says no swimming in big letters. Then u have the kids swimming off the loading dock So I can never get to it to pick up who ever went to go park so instead I have to yell or threaten to run em over when they refuse to get out of the water for 30 seconds... People these days have no god freaking since.

[Memphis]

Man, you guys in CA,TX have it bad. I went to the lake last weekend and thought I would try a new ramp I usually don't go to on the north side of the lake and there was no one there. I couldn't believe it, no boats, trailers, trucks. You ever have one of those moments when you just can't believe your luck? I drop out, my wife drives the boat for loading/unloading, and this whole section of lake is devoid of boats. We were out all day and we come back and there were a couple of trucks there parked with mine but noone at the ramp. It's the ramp I'm using from now on.

I promised myself I wouldn't cry...I did have tears in the eyes though.

Course when we were loading up, my wife eases the boat up close to the ramp and I step off the bow not realizing the water is still about 4-5 ft deep. My truck key has one of those chips on the key. That almost sucked. Course they were laughing as they are backing away.

ah, the advantage of already having the boat in a slip there

[Memphis]

Labor day... omg... I hate it (HATE IT) when people just think they have the right to go start Tanning on the boat ramp and have their kids go swim on it when they know that boats are trying to put in... Especially when there are 4 signs that says no swimming in big letters. Then u have the kids swimming off the loading dock So I can never get to it to pick up who ever went to go park so instead I have to yell or threaten to run em over when they refuse to get out of the water for 30 seconds... People these days have no god freaking since.

youre in east TN, what do you expect

I kid, because my buddy has his boat up there, and I see it regularly too

[Ruune]

well, down here you have to have signs in English AND Spanish. Some people seem to think that our country has two official languages. Good thing I speak both.

[hoopykat]

well, down here you have to have signs in English AND Spanish. Some people seem to think that our country has two official languages. Good thing I speak both.

Don't get me started on the whole English/Spanish thing...you're here in America...speak ENGLISH! Do you see English signs in Mexico City? Hell no!

[Ruune]

even all good sci fi aliens speak English!

[dogbert]

well, down here you have to have signs in English AND Spanish. Some people seem to think that our country has two official languages. Good thing I speak both.

Who needs Spanish...a few choice 4 letter words and everybody understands what you're saying

[raythompson]

Sign language, sign language. It is all in the delivery.

[Razzman]

A WHOLE 'nuther subject here! Let's stay on track, back to ramp follies!

[da.bell]

Sign language, sign language. It is all in the delivery.

I hear you on this one. Nothing like the one finger solute!!!! he he he

Then there are other signs that are nice also.