Bone-Headed Boaters at the Boat Docks

[dubob]

Back in the day, with our young families, we used to camp at East Canyon every weekend in the summer and spend the days water skiing and wakeboarding and a little fishing with the families.  You used to be able to legally camp in the parking lot.  We would sit in our lawn chairs in the mornings eating breakfast being entertained by the goings on at the boat ramp.  Here are a few "classics":

- The guy that makes his wife drive the truck even though she's never driven a trailer before and takes out 2 cars in the parking lot trying to park the truck and empty trailer.

- The same guy who yells at his wife from his boat idling in the marina as she is trying unsuccessfully to back the trailer down the ramp so much that she gets mad, puts the jackknifed rig in park, turns it off, gets out and walks away leaving her lazy fat husband floating in the marina in his precious bass boat.  A few trips to the local shopping mall parking lots with trailer in tow for some back-up training does wonders in this regard.

- The guy that has his whole family with him, including teenage sons and a wife, but insists on doing everything himself, leaving his truck and trailer at the bottom of the ramp while he parks the boat and ties it up and walks back to the truck eventually to park it.  Lesson #1 with a family: Teach your wife to drive the boat...yes, she will forget to raise the outdrive and take out a prop or two but they learn to remember to raise the outdrive very quickly after that.

- The guy that arrives, backs down the ramp, then starts prepping his boat at the bottom of the ramp...clogging up the ramp for a half hour.  I never have understood why folks do this.  There are usually signs up that tell folks were the boat prep areas are, but they whiz right by them to do all that about 3 feet from the waters edge, blocking the ramp for 30 to 60 minutes.

- The occasional guy that slams on his brakes as he's backing down the ramp and launches the boat before he gets to the water...

- The guy that backs too far into the drink and launches his truck...

- The guy that assumes his battery in the boat is still good after being stored all winter and his boat won't start. 

- Almost forgot the most classic blunder...leaving the plug out.  Lots of screaming and yelling!  There isn't a boat owner in the world that hasn't done this.  And it WILL happen to you again.  The new plug system on Lund is a nice idea and will help.  My buddies new Ranger bass boat has a mechanical switch system with the open/close lever set into the top of the transom.  Best system I've seen so far as you can close it while on the water without getting any part of your body wet and use the bilge to get rid of the water.  It would be worth the cost to install a system like that on my boat as I cannot reach the drain without entering the water and diving under the back deck that sticks out 2 feet from the transom.

I've seen all this stuff so many times and it used to be funny.  Now it's just annoying!  Yep!

The problem is, it was getting worse anyway and now with all the brand new boat owners that purchased due to the pandemic, you ain't seen nothin' yet!  Probably not!

We launch early just to avoid the idiots.  I stay away from weekends and holidays like avoiding the plague for the very same reason.  And since I really don't care about how many fish I catch, I typically launch an hour after sunrise to avoid the early launchers that think it absolutely essential to be on the water and fishing before sunrise. 

Another irritant is the folks that insist on backing down the entire length of the 1/4 mile boat ramp at some locations.  Hello!  Drive forward to the waters edge and then turn the truck and boat trailer to face up the ramp.  THEN back the boat into the water from there.  I do this at ALL boat ramps.  I am a skilled trailer backer with over 50 years of backing up trailers of one form or another.  I still take the easiest way and the shortest distance to do it.