These are great stories of human falibility...fun to read...if you read the thread on the Hull Truth posted above, the question finally comes up: Why unhook at the top of the ramp anyway?...what's the advantage...why NOT wait til her butt's hangin' over the water to take the hook off?...

Speakin' of takin' the hook off; I forgot to do that once...reverse, power, power, power...not moving...realize I haven't unhooked, tell buddy to pull up a little cause now it's got pressure on it...when boat comes up, it drifts just a little sideways enough to get the starboard chine on top of the upright guide-on, so when I tell him to go back down, the boat TILTS DRASTICALLY and is a chicken-hair from dippin the port stern under...water is pourin' over the transom on that side...STOP, STOP, STOP...he does and I get the boat off the guide, drop it in, we go fishin' and have a great day...but it sure started off hinkey:deer:

Why unhook at the top of the ramp anyway?...what's the advantage...why NOT wait til her butt's hangin' over the water to take the hook off?...

i have a float on trailer, no rollers, just bunks, so i unhook at the top of the ramp or parking lot while in line. when its my turn i have my wife or kids hold a bow & stern line and follow the boat down the ramp and out of the finger pier. i back down and when the fenders go under water, hit the break and the boat glides off.

After a morning duckhuntn' we got back to the ramp to load up and go home. The wind had blown W/Northwest 20-30 for a few days and there wasn't enough water around to drown a cat. Backed the trailer down and it was low tide at the time so I had to back alot farther than usual. What I didn't realize is that I came back so far that the trailer wheels chocked themselves at the end of the concrete slab i.e... "END OF RAMP", but there was no sign. We had to pick the boat up and place it on the trailer and we got soaking wet and man, was it cold. Couldn't figure out why the trailer wouldn't come up. After 3 or 4 tries, got fustrated, locked in the hubs,got 'er in low lock and sidestepped the clutch. I watched my buddys' eyes get big as saucers when the trailer came up. The bumper on the truck had pulled out to a perfect V and at the point of the "V" was the trailer ball with the trailer connected to it. It was a funny thing to see. I unhooked the trailer and backed into a pine tree a few times to bend it back into place. We are talking about an 18" drop here folks at the end of that ramp and I still can't figure out how I didn't tear up more than what I did!:oh:

I have put 3 different boats in the water without putting in the plug.....none sank thankfully.

My favorite quote from one of these events......"Daddy....why is there water on the floor?"

I have been pretty lucky so far. My wife usually asks me at least twice if I put the drain plug in. I can claim I have never forgotten it, but I can't take all the credit! So far so good. Now I gotta go find some wood to knock on.

Here's one I saw...
 

Was at Dreher Island at Lake Murray SC several years back when an 18' brand-spankin' new pontoon came hustlin' in...wifey hopped off, hubby backed away from dock...wife does EXCELLENT job of pulling trailer around and backing it down the ramp (obviously not her 1st rodeo)...hubby drives up onto trailer all the way to the stop-board and TELLS her to go ahead (he hasn't hooked anything up yet)...smoothly up she goes and just as smoothly off slides the pontoon...skeg and back of toons contact the concrete about 10' away from water...she realizes something wrong and stops the truck...good move, but now back end of trailer is still under toons and boat is on greater than 45* angle (hubby rollin' around in back)...busted the skeg off, busted the transducer and bent the bracket, so not TOO bad damage...me, hubby and several others managed to counter-weight the bow back down enough to allow wifey to back down to the water...I guess he learned it

I've done that twice but never with the V thank goodness and neither sank....
Here's my favorite quote from those 2 events. All words uttered by me,

"OH SH1T!"
I don't know why, but every time I put the boat in the water from then on the very FIRST thing I think about is the plug. I have no idea why.
:hi:

I watched a guy at a gas station filling up his boat while I waited in line. The tank filled while he was in the store......:oh: It was not pretty, fuel was gushing half in the boat and half outside of it. I begged him to make sure his bilge pump does't come on and he said it was on a manual switch thank god.

I know y'all know of somebody that filled the rodholder at the gas pump!

Can't say I actually KNOW anybody, but have read about it several times on other, less pleasant forums...:fight: