Stories from the public ramp

[whale]

Well, I have read you guys tell lots of horror stories of things that have happened at the boat ramp. *Since I am lucky enough to have a cheap slip at a marina nearby I haven't had the experience of launching at a ramp. *

Well, my buddy asked me to help him pull his 24' Chaparel on Sunday. *He has always had his marina pull it and store it and never had a trailer. *He is trying to sell the boat and bought a trailer to keep it at his house. *So, he was bringing it by sea to the public launch near his house and I was waiting there for him with his wife. *

Two guys pull their 20' boat on the trailer and proceed to starting driving up the ramp when.....WHOOPS! *The winch was not engaged and no chain attached! *There she goes sliding right off the trailer on to the concrete ramp below. *To try and get the boat back on he backs the trailer up (couldn't winch it on) and basically just shoves his boat about 15 feet along the concrete back down to the water until it floated. *The only part of the boat in contact with the ground was the outdrive!!!!! *He was just pushing it along while the outdrive scraped along the ground hopping along. *

I was in awe......just insane. *The next guy had trouble getting up the ramp due to slippage on seaweed and backed so far down to get a run at it that the boat floated of the trailer. *I had to scream at him to stop to keep him from starting to drive with his boat attached to the winch but drifted 90 degrees to the side. *One other guy forgot to raise the outdrive on his and scraped it along for a few feet before noticing.

I wish I had my camera to share this experience!!!

We definitley had a list of "what not to do" by the time it was out turn. *All went smooth with my buddy's boat!