***Boat Ramp Mishaps***OOOPPSSSS [Archive] - Ausfish fishing Australia, Australian Angling Forums

Jungle Jim

09-01-2009, 03:46 PM

I’d be interested to hear what is the funniest or most interesting thing you have seen happen at a boat ramp.

:DI’ll start and dob myself in. When we got our (first) boat on one of our early trips i reversed it down unhooked the winch cable and proceeded to push the boat in the drink on a relatively gentle sloping ramp. After several big heaves and my mate offering to help - the pair of us still couldn’t budge it.

Then a voice kindly points out that this is because the safety chain is still attached...:-[

I’m sure there’s plenty of interesting stories- so let’s hear em

Jim

mik01

09-01-2009, 05:37 PM

3am, early summer.
mate and I were a bit tired still, looped a rope through the bow and pushed boat off trailer.

was only holding one piece of rope - not both.

yep, boat flew off into the water with me left holding the piece of rope - watched as the boat settled about 20m out in the channel and sat there.

clothes off and in for an early morning swim - headed out to sea cold and wet already!! lucky it was not cold weather!

finga

09-01-2009, 06:29 PM

Down the Pin one day saw a bloke back the boat/trailer combo, with his kid in it, into the briny until the Commodore had it's back doors into the water.
He undid the winch (no safety) and the boat floated off.
The son was supposed to start the thing but didn't know how.
After some swearing (a language I didn't understand but cursing is one of those universal languages) and some what I supposed were directions (still sanother language but not THE universal one this time) the kid could not start it still and boat just drifted off into the sunset until a bloke on his way in dragged the boat in with him.
The boat wouldn't start so they floated her back onto the trailer put the winch wire on and drove away. No straps no nothing.
I (and a few others) just sat in amasement.
The Commodore sat in the water while all this happened.

muzzytt

09-01-2009, 06:37 PM

watched in horror as a bloke was launching his nice shiny glass boat at the hawksbury bridge ramp...

no safety chain boat slid off and onto ramp with an alligt thud. i still do not forget his facial expression...

09-01-2009, 07:25 PM

Was halfway through a briefing for a bream comp at the Anzac Park ramp (behind the Southport Pool) with around 80 other anglers when we were interrupted by an almighty thud as a jet ski self launched around 5 metres short of the water. After we stop chuckling amongst ourselves (cause we all love jet skis) 6 competitors wondered over, picked the jet ski up and carried it to the waters edge (shoulda dropped it again).

Have seen more than enough boats hit ramps hard to even think about taking the safety chains off at the top of the ramp.

Cheers

John

Reef_fisher

09-01-2009, 07:47 PM

Didn't see it happen but the inch wide chalk coloured mark thirteen feet down the ramp left a little chill run down the spine.

Captain Seaweed

09-01-2009, 08:06 PM

I have a young daughter and when I dont go fishing I take her to the ramp early as thats when they all wake up and we watch boats head off as I feed her breaky!. I normally go to Raby Bay as your right next to the action and you can hear the quiet whispers of best mates abusing the mates during launching and retrieving sessions. One that comes to mind was a fella in an older glass boat backed it down and drag it up on the sand . He was there with a, what looked like a new girlfriend. He helped her in and jumped in himself. He commenced turning the engine over and over and over and over but no start. He then started to drift out over to the fence and scraped accross it. He then ordered th new young girlfriend into the water to pull the boat up back onto the sand. She is now wet from neck down. He then procedes to fire up the engine again. FINALLY it fires!! As soon as he puts it in gear it stalls. This went on for 20 mins. Eventually after being in everyones way it did start and it left me wondering if they every mad it back as the boat was in need of some serious attentions. Not laughing at anyone but it sure reminded me when I had first started out. Like the time I threw her off the trailer with no bungs or the first time I would "drive her on the trailer and nearly kissed the boat being loaded next to me"!!!
Marty

Blaster Bretty

09-01-2009, 08:17 PM

While casting for bait at the waterford ramp on the logan I watched a bloke and his dad retrieve the sons jet ski, she was on the trailer and the son says "yep drive up the ramp now" then dad got about 5 meters up the ramp and the jet ski slid off the trailer and thumped on the concrete, he he he !!!
no no I shouldnt laugh as things like this do happen, just havnt had my turn yet! I have come out from the bottle store on my way home to find the trailer had a flattie and then was even more surprised to see I had no spare "EeeeK" a urgent call to the mrs fixed it up but it could of been worse!

Bretty

Captain Seaweed

09-01-2009, 08:23 PM

I have had to come back to my car and trailer stolen from Jacobs Well. Wasnt nice coming home to no trailer and no car. Full of mozzie bites and a bad hangover from the non eventfull overnighter.

NAGG

09-01-2009, 08:26 PM

Saw a big flash ski type boat being launched at Rose bay Sydney ........ clearly inexperienced & a knob ....... They took their time in the centre of a two lane ramp....... lots of noise / music - looking for attention ::)
Now it was low tide & the ramp is very slimey ......... As the boat filled with water (Yes left the bungs out) ........ the boat pulled the Ute into the drink ( no traction ... wheels spinning)

It was only funny because the guys were tools::)

Chris

Yes ..... I've seen a few boats come off the trailer because straps & safety chains had been removed ......... including mine when a crew member didn't put the safety chain on & left the ratchet off on the winch:(

Thumbsuckers

09-01-2009, 08:32 PM

Saw a bloke launching a 10 foot tinnie on a trailer at deepwater bend on the Pine towed by an ex taxi Falcon. Whole family was in the backseat of said taxi and Old Mate backs her in right up to the rear doors. Kids open the door and water lapping over the sills so they hop out the front door so they don't drown. Naturally tinnie is able to float off trailer. Old Mate puts taxi in gear and drives up ramp while water drains out of his boot. Gotta get that trailer in nice and deep so you don't dent the tinnie. Champion.

Chris Ryan

09-01-2009, 08:34 PM

On my first boat, I have put her into the water at the Sundale bridge ramp with the father in law, wife and son onboard. The tie off to the pontoon while I take the car and park. As I close the door, I notice something in the door handle..........the bungs. Run down to the boat, up to my neck as we were at the back of the pontoon, screwin in the bung. We take off and I turn on the bilge pump, it must have gone for about 10 minutes to empty her out!

Or the time one night after a long arvo and half the night down he Pin, when I dragged the skeg up the ramp (forgot to raise the motor) and out the driveway...........dragged it for a km or so before I realised......

or the time at the first touchy M&G getting stuck on a sandbar waiting to the rest of the tide to come in............

but every time I just laughed it off........its all experience.

Chris

laney

09-01-2009, 08:58 PM

my foolish moment would be going to noosa on holiday as a kid with my tinny, got dropped at the ramp by mum and it had ben raining so i left the bungs out chucked her in and said yeh all good you can go now to mum. so she leaves and i go to push her out, ahh crap bungs left in centre console. no phone, no money as i was only travelling about a kilometre back to the resort and no people around, had to use a rag i had in the bow to blug up the whole. it held up nicely.

two funny things ive seen would be the old casino ramp before the convention centre was built and a guy trying to retrieve a 20ft easy boat behind an early 90's falcon. if you remember that ramp at low tide if you had to get a big boat on, your trailer would end up off the end of the ramp. it took a long time and many people in or on the falcon for it to get traction.

the other was at the new casino ramp, an au falcon retrieving a 525 i think cruisecraft or about that length. the guy had it half winched on when the car just started sliding backwards into the water. all wheels just sliding across the sand. lucky he flicked the ratchet over very quickly so the boat slid back into the water. that being said he didnt give it another go and chose to go to another ramp.

the stories haha

-tyler

haggis

09-01-2009, 09:05 PM

disorderly

09-01-2009, 09:36 PM

datamile

09-01-2009, 09:47 PM

The last time I went out ( after 3months ), strong onshore wind at the ramp, chucked the missus the stern rope, and pushed the boat off the trailer. She seemed to be struggling with the rope so went to help pull the boat back to tie it up. Hmm, hard going to me, floating, but just couldn't pull against the wind and tide...... until someone goes... your winch cable is still connected ;(

On the way back in, missus jumped too early for the pontoon, end up half on, with some nice brusing for a few days. Other then that no real drama's except not lifting the motor enough on the way out, and the steering cable jamming.

TheRealAndy

09-01-2009, 10:12 PM

I watched an old couple get dragged down the Sandgate vmr ramp when they unhitched their trailer sailer from the car at the top of the ramp . there sun of around his mid twenties watched mum & dad get dragged down the ramp on their knees & stood back . the boat floated of the trailer & the old fella had to swim after it while the young bloke just stood there , we also had abit of trouble
helping them get the trailer back out of the drink . I have also left the bungs out of the boat also . never mind we all learn .
cheers Jimmy

I have seen many a car in the water on that ramp. Also seen many a boat on that ramp. There is a trick when launching at low tide on the VMR ramp (most people think I cant back my trailer down) but you send the trailer off the side of the ramp and onto the sand so to avoid the drop off. Thats how we used to retrieve out keel boats on the low tide..

PinHead

09-01-2009, 10:20 PM

never had any problems at a ramp other than the one time of leaving the bungs out...berthing the 30' boat was a different story..could have given several hours of funniest home video on that one.

uripper

09-01-2009, 10:37 PM

.... missus jumped too early for the pontoon, end up half on, with some nice brusing for a few days....

thats gotta hurt :-X

I'll fess up to :

1. hastely dropping boat in water at crowded ramp with 2 sons, father-in-law, to stand off while I'm parking car/trailer - coming back to ramp & noticeing she's sitting REALLY low - Oh SH#T - no bungs :-/

2. dragging skeg on ramp (maybe more than once) ::)

3. forgetting to lock hitch on towball (twice) - rig swinging on saftey chains :o

4. smacking sandbank while towing son & friend on tube in sight of the ramp - high & dry for 3 hours - kids rescued by jet skiers (that hurt) over to MUM now waiting at the ramp :-[ :-[

.... aaaahhhh, the joys of boating ;D ;D

Mal

MickThe

09-01-2009, 11:08 PM

I remember the time my mate and I launched his big plate centre conole very early one morning at Kawana to head offshore Mooloolaba, forgot the bungs.

It was a swim job to put them in, i was deckie wasn't I and we had floated down beside some waterfront homes......we both looked up, me from the water and there is two families immediately above us enjoying breakfast on a balcony and looking down.

We said "errr Good Morning"....old mate casually says "forgot the bungs eh?"

"Yup!" "Nice in?" he says.......it was pretty funny at the time, water wasn't cold.

Mick.

PS. Nearly had a major disaster one day with an unlocked tow ball, but thank god for safety chains!!

Lovey80

10-01-2009, 02:52 AM

My first heartbreaking episode was my first trip out(without dad) in a boat my father and I had gone halves in. 15.5 foot glass boat and had two mates with me.
Was fishing around old woman island when the mates started getting green after an hour or two. We get back to the ramp at mooloolaba and as Im winching it up the cable breaks and the boat goes flying back into the drink hiting the ramp slowing it it down. The whole rear of the boat was swamped and full of water. Then before i could get to it, the rear of the boat rises out of the water. Surely it wasnt that bouyant??? I was wrong the water in the back of the boat shorted out the trim and tilt on the engine and trimmed it right in until the rear gunwhale was out of the water. the trim was stuffed and after bailing out the boat we used the large tie down straps to winch it on and drain the last. The Trim and tilt was stuffed and new battery required.

I have left the bungs out twice but had them in in les than a min each time.

Cheers

Chris

Lovey80

10-01-2009, 03:02 AM

The other big one i was only a witness. A student of mine, although qualified in the craft he was operating forgot to check the bungs on a 600k military bridging boat. I was called back to the camp after 3 beers in our bar after knock off to see only the roof of the hard top out of the water and the student white as a ghost. 3 hours later it was floating but only after a colleague did some diving in the river mud of the georges river in sydney to get the bungs in.

Over 200k worth of damage was the rumour at the time.

Cheers

Chris

David H

10-01-2009, 01:02 PM

First trip to Stanage Bay, 2 company cars, 2 boats and 12 months in the planning.

We drove all night with the plan that we would then spend the first day sleeping and setting up ............ thats until we came over the hill to perfect conditions and the Duke Islands in the distance.

We quickly fuelled up the boats and dropped our gear at the shed. We then loaded the boats with all the necessary gear ready to head off.

My fishing buddy and I were about 5 minutes behind the other 2, as we needed to respool one reel. We were soon on our way and at the ramp in minutes.

Holly S#&T ............. my heart sank as we approahed the ramp ...... here was the boat floating in the water ...... the trailer no where to be seen ..... and a Commodore wagon almost fully in the water. I could see the trip ending before it started !!!

The front wheels of the car were just on the ramp with the back 3/4 of the car floating in the water and a hefty tidal current trying to drag the car downstream. I quickly reversed my rig down the ramp and attached a rope to the submadore and dragged it up the ramp. The now underwater trailer was next.

Apparently the car started to slide down the ramp as they were pushing the boat off the trailer, so in an attempt to stop it they unhitched the trailer and let it dissapear into the briney ............ me thinks the car (auto) was left in reverse with the handbrake on ........... maybe something to do with no sleep !!!

Anyway, we punched out all of the bungs in the floors, let the water drain out .... hosed the car liberally with fresh water ....... splayed about 6 cans of CRC about and left the car to dry out.

We then had the next 5 days free of launching and retrieving issues !!!! well except for the fact that I was late getting back to the ramp on the same day and had to wait another 4 hours for the tide to come back in !!!

suzygs1000

10-01-2009, 01:25 PM

The wierdest thing I have ever seen was about 10 years ago at the Cleveland Point boatramp.

A guy backed his boat and trailer down the ramp, and then proceeded to undo the trailer hitch!

I watched in amazement, thinking he was a newbie, and was a bit mixed up.

But, he drove the car up off the ramp, went back to the boat, started it up, and proceeded to motor slowly over to Coochiemudlo island, a kilometre or so away. The boat was tied to the trailer with a strap.

An old landrover met him at the beach on the otherside, and hooked up to the trailer and towed it away!! This is apparently a fairly common way of moving boats over to Coochie, due to the barge fares.

Probably not so strange to all you baysiders, but to and inlander like me, it was amazing.

The funniest thing I have ever seen took place about a kilometre out from the Redland bay boat ramp.

I was on the Bay islands water bus, and we passed a guy in a tinnie about 4metres long, rowing towards the boat ramp. Every ten seconds or so, he would stand up and belt the attached outboard with an oar!! What a scream...

Are you by any chance reading this?

CRAFTY24

10-01-2009, 03:54 PM

I was launching my Boat at Scarborough harbor and I guy pulled up on the ramp next to me. He had two mates with him and it appeared these two had not been on a boat (well his boat before) he was barking orders at them while he stayed in the boat. I can only assume they were all very good mates as he was pretty rude to them. He had an older looking 17ft boat with a brand new 115hp four stroke Merc on the back.

Anyway they couldn't unhook the safety chain to start with and then had issues with the winch finally after old mate finishes swearing at them they unhook it. He says wait until I start the engine before you push me out. I had floated mine to the jetty while my mate parked the car. I sat there watching this as I could see something was about to go wrong. Sure enough Captain numb nuts starts the brand new motor only to have his prop smashing against the concrete boat ramp. It made a terrible sound and everyone on the packed ramp was yelling at him to turn his motor off. He just casually walked o the back of the boat to look in the water which made things worse as his weight was at the back of the boat. Then an almighty yell of "S#!t" and he shuts t off.

We went on our way but the tide was out when we got back and there were some might big chunks missing out of the ramp.

P.S I can also join the club for forgetting my bungs twice.

TIP: When a mate says he put them in always double check your self before water starts lapping over your feet.

Dave

finga

10-01-2009, 04:04 PM

I have to admit my forgetting the bungs tally is now 3.
Sometimes I'm just a bit too keen for my own good. Dope I am.

jelifish

10-01-2009, 04:23 PM

The bungs once and the safety chain once. Too much of a hurry to go fishing

Bros

10-01-2009, 05:24 PM

I have to admit my forgetting the bungs tally is now 3.

There are three types of boaties where bungs are concerned.

1 Those who have admitted to leaving their bungs out

2 Those who are soon to experience the pleasure.

3 Liars.

webby

10-01-2009, 05:54 PM

Went out with a friend in his new boat one evening cruising the bay to the early hours of the morning, came back in whyte island, at low tide, and if anyone knows this ramp, its bloody muddy at low tide.
And this being a tandem trailer, we only parked it so far, and proceeded to winch the boat (6M plate) onto the trailer, said to the mate as i was winding, that the winch cable didnt look to good.
But he said she'll hold ?????, anyway get the boat up, and he has no safety chain, said to him you better get one of them. Yeah yeah was the reply.
Well he takes off up the ramp at a great rate of knots, and get what, half way up the ramp, it hear this crack and turn around to see one 6m boat coming off the trailer at a great rate of knots, as the car and trailer when the other way.
She land smack on the keel, and thankfully didnt damage any of the tranducers etc hanging off the arse end.
So hear we are 2-3am in the morning low tide, and one boat sitting high and dry in the middle of the ramp.
Luckly i had some spare rope and shackles in the back of my fourbee, and after great effort, we managed to winch and reverse the trailer back under her.
His boat now has a safety chain, and brand new webing winch instead of the wire ??????
Luckly the boat only suffered abrasions to the keel.
regards

CB77

10-01-2009, 06:28 PM

About 20yrs ago when I was a kid, we where on a weekend away at Tin Can Bay, My Pop and I where fishing beside the boat ramp when an old plywood 20ft half came in from a days fishing.

The Boat was sitting very low in the water, a bloke got out at the ramp leaving two kids in the boat, he ran up a got his Datsun 200b and trailer and reversed it down the ramp.

My Pop and I had a look in the boat and the bastard was full of water knee deep.

The Bloke hooked the boat and started to winch it in, My Pop said to him theres too much weight in the boat to get it on the trailer, the bloke reckoned it would be ok , but then "bang" one of the rollers went straight through the hull.

It was low tide and the ramp was wet, the Weight of the boat started to pull the dato down the ramp, we hooked up the patrol to stop it all going for a swim..

We got the boat out enough to bail the water out and drag it up the ramp, the bloke got a few mates to help lift it up the trailer as best as they could.

We had a look at the boat she was full of Rot and just had a nice new paint job.

The bloke told us he had just bought it off his Brother in law.

This was one of the most dangerous boats I have seen on the water, and he had kids in it.

But its a great yarn to tell and have a few laughs.

Steve B

10-01-2009, 08:30 PM

I dropped the trailer off the hitch driving out of the busiest servo in Toowoomba!!! very embarassing....blocked trafic for about 10 min while I roused up a few blokes to help lift the damn thing back onto the towball!!

And I also parked my boat on the bank next to another competitors boat at a bass tournament at Somerset. While we were having lunch, the wash from the skiiers boats dislodged my boat and the skeg scraped up and down the side of his paintwork for about an hour before anyone noticed.....ouch.

I know this is not boating but its about as embarrasing. Today I drove down the main street of town with the back door of a commodore ambulance open.!! thankfully a mate phoned me and said 'might want to look in your rearview mirror"

Steve

PS: there was no patient on board by the way;)

bar raider

10-01-2009, 08:33 PM

when i got my brand new bar raider to the ramp for the first time i reversed her down and then couldn't get the which clip off the boat caus the safety spring/clip was too long and jammed, we held a few people up and copped a few remarks while i had to borrow a screwdriver from the shop at the ramp and pry it off.

then...

about 30 metres into the trip she konks out and had to paddle back to the ramp to borrow that screwdriver again to turn the bloody primer bulb around to face the right direction!

the fuel gauge stopped working half way through this maiden voyage as well.

3 things wrong on first day..... bloody dealers!

then...

next trip me and a mate were out at 2 am (with no fuel gauge) still on 1st tank and about 3.5 hours on the clock, she'll be right i said and about the 4 hour mark she ran out about 1/2 hour up river from the trailer. . .missus to the rescue.

it was then i realised how thirsty these things are!

the fuel gauge problem turned out to be the whole loom was hanging off one short wire and pulled it off. easily fixed.

ROBENDOG

10-01-2009, 09:02 PM

Only 12 months boating, so plenty more time to cock things up!!!

Have not been guilty of leaving out bungs yet, touch wood (makes me a number 2).

Have not connected hitch properly once by myself, once trusting a mate (still my fault I reckon, I am the captain). Thank god for strong safety chains!!!!!

Got her from the old boy, and before I owned her, was there when he pumped 20L of fuel into a rod holder.

3-4 weeks ago dropped in early at Spinnakers.

5.5-6 platey, bungs left out, sitting really low in the water. Blokes were pretty cool, switched on bilge and bucketing away. Only 1/4 of the engine cowl (twin 90 yamahas) was showing above the water. Personlly I would have skull dragged her up onto the sand with my 4WD till bilge emptied her. She seemed to be getting lower and lower. Dudes were pretty cool, so I guess the cowl is pretty water tight??

Lots more to learn, lots more to stuff up.....hahahahahahahaha

BILLY THE KID

10-01-2009, 09:16 PM

The-easyrider

10-01-2009, 09:35 PM

Just this week put in on the maroochy river , just me and the young'uns pushed off from shore and then when I went to fire the motor remembered the boat keys were still in the car. time to go swimming

Bros

10-01-2009, 10:40 PM

BUNGS OUT SEEM VERY COMMON

i havent had that problem yet as i have one of these on my float / keys

bung goes onto it aswell so if i forget the bungs i forget the boat key aswell

good reminder as if you go to hit the key you feel it aint right with the bungs
on there aswell

One day you will be in a hurry take the bungs off give them to you mate to put in he forgets and the rest they say is history.

Bungs get left out when you do something different and or you are in a hurry. I have done it twice but there was 20 yrs between each time.

3rd degree

10-01-2009, 10:56 PM

Had a read of this thread yesterday, and thought how I haven't had an incident at a ramp worth contibuting.

That changed today when I started some trailer maintenance.

I needed the boat of the trailer so took it done to the local ramp, which is normally pretty quiet, thank god.

I got the boat of the trailer and noted the incoming tide along with the strong wind so made sure I pulled the boat up well onto the mud bank next to the ramp so it wouldn't float away.

With that sorted I started my work and every 10 mins checked on the boat and pulled it up further.

The battery on the cordless drill ran out so I started looking for something to improvise with in the tool box, and after 15 odd mins I have looked up to see the boat drifting of up the creek with the tide and wind behind it!

Doh!

Off with the shirt, shorts and shoes and into the creek in my boxers for a 50 m dash!

Silly me left the boat keys in the pockets of my shorts and ended up having to paddle the boat back to the ramp into the wind and the tide!

Not sure if anyone got to witness it, but I'm sure if they did they would still be cracking up!

Cheers

Jim

sleepygreg

10-01-2009, 11:40 PM

learnt my lesson (so i thought) from early days with a 12' quinnie......putting the bungs in from the inside, and either standing on them or putting something heavy in the transom area and knocking them loose (the rubber plug type). Figuring out something was wrong when the esky (styrafoam type) started floating.

First time with the then 'new' boat, a quinnie fishabout, launching at Terrigal (a long sloping ramp into a sheltered open beach that requires a quick push off and get the car out of there before the next large swell comes in) back down fast, unlock chain and push off boat, leave brother to hold off boat while i park the car (250 metres away).....run back to ramp only to see my brothers backside hanging over transom of boat with boat on beach, bailing out water because we forgot the bungs. Now my brother, sister, me, and all other mates and relos that fish with us, have a habit of inspecting the bungs before the boat is put in the water, no matter whos boat it is and how many have checked already lol.

Greg

Dan5

11-01-2009, 12:03 AM

I used to have an old dehavaland 12 footer which went up on the back of my ol hilux.......well oneday after fishing coroboree lagoon a mate and unloaded all the gear into the ute,took the motor off and were wrestling it into the back.......so we turn around to grab the boat........hhhmmm where did that go?...........Ofcourse it's floated off about 50m or so down the billabong.........whoops,with 5mtr salty's swimming around were not swimming after it.

So after about a 15 minute wait luckily someone else arrives at the ramp so after helping them launch their boat and letting them take the pi$$ out of us they went and retrieved it for us.............I felt like a right kn@b.

Never forgotten the bung's though...................................not yet.

plaztix

11-01-2009, 12:17 AM

Was loading the boat onto the trailer at Rudy Maas a few weeks back when i heard a bang followed by the sort of scraping sound you dont want to hear at a boat ramp.

Looked round to see a tinnie on a trailer rolling down the ramp backwards, bloke chasing after it, 'bloop' straight into the water.

Noticed the trailer had one of the old screw down hitches and obviously no safety chain. :-/:P::)

Chamelion

11-01-2009, 12:34 AM

I've

Forgotten to trim the motor up before winching the boat onto the trailer
Forgotten to trim the motor up before driving out of my driveway. That took a MM or so off the skeg
Let go of the winch to have the boat slide down the trailer the last 1m and then the transom hit a big sharp boulder some ####wit had placed just under the low tide waterline. Took a nice chunk out of the fibreglass
Nearly flattened the battery trying to start her only to realise the dead mans clip wasnt on... TWICE
Smacked into a sandbank that was 1ft below the waterline at 40+km/h with my kids on board wich ended up putting a split in the hull, which has now turned into a big gash that nearly sunk the boat last time I used it. $$ to repair if insurance doesn't play fair!

I've only had a boat 3 months. :(

Matt.

chewy01

11-01-2009, 06:08 AM

Reversed boat down the burrum hds ramp,daylight one morning in the faithful xd falcon,tide is screaming in. After a hard night.Me and the mate jump out.push the boat in.I go to take the car up,the mate has locked his door and clunk,i break the door handle(a common occurance with the xd.So here i am at daylight running around trying to break a bit of fencewire off someones fence to break into my own car on the ramp with the tide pi55ing in.Lucky breakng in was a regular event on that thing:):)

chewy01

11-01-2009, 06:24 AM

This was painful.MAckay boat ramp:waiting for a m8:new 5.5mtr platey 140 suk brand new cruiser pulls up at top of ramp reverses half way down:Mum and the kids jump in:Dad removes strap winch cable and safety chain:At this point my lad starts hitting me..dad dad look at this:Boat must have been a little sticky on the trailer.Cruiser starts reversing:jolt must have been enuf to free the boat:it start launching itself:Dad sees this:Brain must think..boat needs water:he tries to speed up:New suk hits ramp:skeg breaks off:as motor hits trailer keeps going back forcing boat near vertical:by this time mum and the boy are screaming hanging off the windscreen:Dad panics again:launches the cruiser back up the ramp.boat crashes down onto the ramp:mum and the boy appear,claret streaming.Boat is lying high and dry:we check on them:ok but shaken:we go fishing:Nautical norms wait for tide to com in to float boat and inspect damage to boat and trailer package won in a prize:(:(

ozscott

11-01-2009, 08:40 AM

I have never forgotten bungs (in any of my 3 boats). However I have done somthing more stupid. I was half way to Peal and was not wearing my safety lanyard (others in the boat who could drive). It was as rough as. I was wearing a jumper and it must have snagged as I came down off a wave and pulled out ring causing the yammy to shut down...ie as designed. I didnt realise, nor think to look, and I (stupidly...it is a yammy) went looking for electrical faults such as a blown main fuse under the cowl). The best bit is that I was then towed back to Raby...the VMR boys didnt ask if I had pulled the kill switch...but perhaps they thought no one would be silly enough to call for a tow without checking that....live and learn.

Cheers

PS. I never rush at the ramp even if I am with mates or the behind time, and I think thats why I always stick in the bungs and have the motor up. I always leave the safety on, even though I have a electric 4wd winch with a line on almost as big a little finger. I also leave the keys in my ignitiion so that helps with that. Coming back I always stick the safety on at the ramp before moving off...it only takes 20 seconds and I dont give a rats if people are waiting...20 seconds isnt going to worry them. I have a high speed heavy duty 4wd winch and dont drive on. All in all my loading is very quick and only marginally slower than someone driving on...and thats assuming they get it on properly first time and manage to drive the boat right up to the winch post.

Cheers

Edit: as for colliding with sand banks, before getting a chartplotter I have found almost all of them at the Pin...you cant have been through the Pin without a chartplotter and not have a least one grounding or semi-grounding!

GAD

11-01-2009, 08:59 AM

I have had a few and seen a few incedents , I have lost the bung and used a mangrove root to plug it up , dropped the old tinnie on the ramp , copped it for hours afterwards , at the red bank ramp .
launched the new boat at Deeral ram and idled her straight on to the gravel bed , hit bloody 2 more sandbars and the bar at the front . had a few more trips out of there most good but another trip my winch went walk about , so did a few other bits off other riggs as a consequence I haven't been out of Deeral ramp since .

Greg

Jungle Jim

12-01-2009, 08:43 AM

This is great stuff guys. I loved the 20l of juice in the rod holder.....

A couple of things I’ve learned in my relatively limited experience.

*The chances of you making a stupid mistake are in direct proportion with being rushed during these launch and retrieves.

*Mates are there to observe and not to do. “My mate was supposed to check the bungs.....my mate was supposed to put the safety chain on.....”
As the skipper fortunately/unfortunately the buck stops with me and “if i do it then i KNOW it has been done.”

Just remembered returning from a relatively stressful trip -no fish- long day in the sun- gale force wind assisted retrieve.
Getting home to unhook the trailer when the little lady says she’ll push the trailer back that last little foot or so.

4.7 Stacer decked out at close to a tonne. ...... little lady 49kg’s....................so i say “You’ll never push it here let me do it.”

Well of course the 7 pin plug is still connected to the car and that little push promptly separated the plug from the cable. :-[

JIM

seafarer_australia

12-01-2009, 10:08 AM

Hi All

It was some years ago when we had a gale force wind and very heavy rain - absolutely totally unsuitable for any boating activity at all

So what do I do? Easy...I go to the local ramps in Carrum to see what clueless clowns are about

Lo and behold I found one there, a guy with his new ski boat, all kinda metallic and glitzy with matching trailer all blinged out

Anyway, they were preparing to launch it before they drive down the ramp, off came the ropes, chain etc and then up came the wind and picked up this 18ft'r and lifted it off the trailer and it firmly landed on the crushed rock road hull side up.

The look on the guys faces was priceless to day the least

I have never seen anything like that happen before!

Cheers

seafarer_australia

Pete62

12-01-2009, 10:39 AM

I know this is not boating but its about as embarrasing. Today I drove down the main street of town with the back door of a commodore ambulance open.!! Thankfully a mate phoned me and said 'might want to look in your rearview mirror"

Steve

PS: there was no patient on board by the wayhttp://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gif

Now that has cracked me up Steve, thanks, didn't u notice the aircon wasn't working properly.

Cheer's Pete.

big one

12-01-2009, 05:31 PM

At the Tin Can Bay boat ramp, heaps of people there looking at the dolphins. Guy reverses down his new 20ft shark cat with twin suzuki 4 strokes behind his relatively new F250. Hits the brakes so boat gently slides off the trailer, unfortunetly he forgot to raise the motors, you could hear the juttering noise as the motors scrapped across the concrete ramp. He was not very impressed.

Mike Delisser

12-01-2009, 06:12 PM

mik01

12-01-2009, 07:17 PM

My best was spending 1 hour in the predawn darkness taking turns with a mate at trying to pull start a borrowed 25hp Yammy. Checked everything, fuel, fuel hose, plugs, was it flooded??? Nothing would work, then as the sun came up and we were about to pack it in I noticed a little red switch that said "RUN"::)
Cheers
Mike

hahahaha - now thats funny!

one more dumb story from me - had fished most of the night and had very little sleep - got home, drove the car up to the garage door and washed the boat down.

left the motor down as flushed it - went inside for a sleep.
got up, jumped in the car and reversed to turn around and put boat away.

'crunch' !!!!
as we have a sloped driveway, I had reversed the skeg INTO the bitumen! was a big divot out of the road, and outboard was firmly jammed.

had to drive forward as couldn't raise motor - more squealing!

had cracked skeg and taken big chunk out of it! still goes alright though!:-[

culbara

12-01-2009, 08:59 PM

Best i have ever seen was a lot of years ago at cairs inlet Young bloke had obviously borrowed his dads car and boat
The car a brand new mecedes and the tide was well out and he was showing off and went backwards down the ramp at a rate of knots and put foot on brake and everything kept going and the salt water ran in the front window and the fairly large boat is floating and trying to pull the car down stream took three four wheel drives hooked together to pull both out
I doubt dad will ever laet him have a lon of a wheel barrow after that

BrewGuru

12-01-2009, 10:02 PM

I have been guilty of launching without bungs twice in a thirty years of owning water craft. You get to the point where its the first thing you check.
Through ignorance its a different thing when the tinny becomes a tender, I left the bungs in, after 3 days of torrential rain, I had 2 tonne of water in the tender hanging off the back, thought to self, leave bungs out at all times

trymyluck

13-01-2009, 05:45 AM

Hi all

Haven't left the bungs out yet!!!!!!!!!! mainly because the missus has this strange adversion to having to swim in the same water as sharks........:o:o so she has the bungs in before I get out of the car. I still check thou.

I didn't witness this just told about it, a mate was working with a pro up north a bit and had just brought a new 1 ton ford ute. All ok when they put the boat in with the nets on board but when they came back and started to winch the boat on the weight of the wet nets in the back of the boat lifted the rear wheels of the ute off the ground..........oops no hand brake now..........:o:o:o.

Mark

ShaneC

13-01-2009, 07:45 AM

Trymyluck,

I have very nearly come a cropper under the same circumstances. I backed my brand new Hilux down the ramp at Turkey Beach, ramp was a bit slimy, and when my mate drove the boat on the trailer, the weight off the back wheels and slimy ramp resulted in the whole lot going very quickly into the drink. Luckily, my mate had the presence of mind to keep the power on in the boat which slowed it down enough to allow me to jump in the car and get on the brakes and stop it just before the rear axle got wet.

Only damage was cut feet and a scratch on the car from my watch, but it coulda been much much worse. We used the beach launching area after this incident!!!!

Pete62

13-01-2009, 08:22 AM

A mate of mine has had his new Haines for about 6mths and while he was away over xmas he gave in to his sons constant whines about being able to take daddies boat out. As the boat is housed in the same complex I work out of I was able to watch this all unfold.

So the son(not the sharpest tool in the shed) and his dropkick mates come out and hook the boat on and head off for their first ever solo trip:-[

The next morning when I get to work the boat is back in the shed, they have managed to do the following.

Rip the arial off
Tear all the lettering off the side, rubbing against pontoon
Destroy the prop
Tear the baitboard out, smashing the mountings.Dad is not back yet and all repairs have been done and charged to daddies CC. Son has decided in his wisdom that he will wait till dad asks what all the CC charges are before fessing up.

Can't wait for that one...............

Cheer's Pete.

Bruce_Bogtrotter

13-01-2009, 10:57 AM

Have left the bungs out...twice.
Arrived back at the boat ramp one morning to see a really nice restoration job on a Stessl tri hull being backed down the ramp, while alighting from my boat & paying too much attention the the stessl i didn't lift my leg high enough, hooked the foot through the side rail & fell face first into a foot of water in front of everyone at the ramp:-[... yes, i did feel just a bit sheepish:-/

funniest incident was at Somerset Dam, not at ramp but a boat that was beached on the bank. Was some kind of racing boat comp on, all were racing around a circuit, just up from us was a crew with a loudmouth driver, he was doing the old 'i know boats fella' with his mechanic.. 1/2 an hour later he jumps in the boat & goes out for his race, this thing was unbelievably fast (found out later it would pull an old fashioned 100mph) roaring down the back straight at full noise when we heard the biggest bang & this thing stopped dead in the water. He was towed in & beached right in front of us. Driver stood up absolutely throwing a tantrum like a spoiled three year old, abusing mechanic & anyone else that came near him, jumped out of boat & did the big dramatic helmet throw up the bank, took about three steps in a petulant frenzy & stood on a slippery rock, ended up flat on his back in shallow muddy water, totally ruining his dramatic exit.. i absolutely pissed myself, i could not even stand up, my daughters were embarrassed at me, he was even more pissed that i was laughing at him.. was a wonderful sight.. Couldn't help myself so i sidled up to the mechanic & asked him why he had destroyed the mans boat & possible reputation, he just shook his head & said 'i told him not to park it on the bank at that angle as unburnt fuel will run back into the pistons & it could hydraulic & cause a problem' or something similar... that is what the earlier 'i know boats' discussion was about..
he gave me a look at the motor & it had a big thick copper head gasket blown 3" out the side of the head..
lesson, if you are going to have a mechanic, listen to his advice...::)

Dirtysanchez

13-01-2009, 04:55 PM

Many years ago I had a half cabin and only a 4 cylinder magna, so I was careful where I took the rig (ramps etc)
A mate had a 4wd so when we could, we used that to launch etc.
Anyway, there was a spare block of land to us, quite slopey.. he parked it on this once to dry it out, then went home for a sleep. (he chocked the wheels with some besser blocks) :-X

I got up the next day wanting to go fishing. I found I couldn't get traction with the magna, but came up with a great idea.. I got a 25foot length of anchor rope, tied one end to the tow bar of the car, the other to the draw bar of the trailer, up where the car was I had traction... cool. ;D

Unfortunately the anchor rope snapped, and halfway up the hill the boat stopped, and turned on the axis with the jockey wheel and headed back down the hill. OH SHIT I scream, and I leapt out of the car and raced after it.
I got hold of the rope, but a 15 foot half cab has some weight so it just dragged me down the hill too. I thought this was it, as there was nothing at the back of this property, just a ravine!! :o

Just as I expected to see the rig and me head into the void below, the trailer wheels hit a huge rock hidden in the bush.. BANG it goes, and the axle snaps and the jockey wheel is at right angles, and I am a mess of bruises and cuts, and bush in places I don't want to talk about. :-[

I eventually got hold of my mate and his 4wd.. he came around, nearly shat, then laughed his head off, and using an old type of snatch strap he hauled the whole thing back up the hill!! ::)

It stayed there for a week while I scrounged local wreckers for replacement wheels, and ordered a new axle :-/

Fish'n Junky

14-01-2009, 07:27 AM

Pete62

14-01-2009, 07:46 AM

You Win...................................

Noelm

14-01-2009, 08:14 AM

OK, nearly 40 years of Boating I reckon I have done, or been there when almost everything that can happen has happened, so first off, been down the old "put the fuel pump in the rod holder" road, we used to have an old 23' sharkcat and had 44 gallon drums at home to fill up, had a hand rotary pump thing, on the far side (away from the drum) put the nozzle in the fuel filler, start pumping like a madman, but the nozzle has fallen out into the gutter, about 35 gallons down the drain (literaly) launched an 18' sharkcat from halfway up the ramp (some "helper" had unhooked it without the owner knowing) Motor caught fire before daylight when starting it, launched without a battery (it was in the garage because it had been used to start a friends car with a dead battery), launched my own Cat with a friend holding the rope, but it got tangled and yanked him into the water at 5AM in NSW winter, do I need to go on? I must add that almost none of these things are my doing with my Boat (except the yanked into the water thing) but I was involved in some way (might be time to give it away huh!

Noelm

14-01-2009, 08:16 AM

just remembered a couple more gems, but I am not too sure anyone will want to be bored sh!tless with them. I must add, I have never launched without the bungs in!

Dirtysanchez

14-01-2009, 09:16 AM

I am sorry, I regailed my story and in all fairness it is not a boat ramp mishap..

Best one I have seen was at River heads, Hervey Bay with a mate.. we had pulled up and were waiting to retrieve his tinny when this legend was driving his boat onto his trailer.. except it was low tide...and the trailer was a bit high up..

Anyway, he has it trimmed down, and is accelerating up the trailer, but runs out of water basically and it is a very rocky (pebbly) ramp, so he is showering us with a hail of stones from the prop.. I must say he had a very shiny, albeit chunky prop afterwards, and we were cracking up at him.. he did the man up thing and advised us that "ahh well, a new props only a coupla hundred"

Farqqqqqqqq!~~!

John Buoy

14-01-2009, 12:10 PM

Dory4.1

14-01-2009, 12:24 PM

Nearly got hit by a winch cable as it broke just as the boat was coming onto the trailer, lesson learnt was to stand to one side when winching a boat onto a trailer, also learnt at the same time why you also need a rope attached to the boat, saved me a swim.
Cheers
Michael

Noelm

14-01-2009, 12:31 PM

yep, there is a thousand funny things happen during your Boating life,some funny, some dangerous, some scary all sorts of drama, I have had the trailer come uncoupled launching, the Cat was halfway off, weight transfer, up pops the coupling and left hooked to the Car by the safety chain only, could not drive up, trailer just rolled backed if tried to reverse to hook it back on, had to get another "helper" to push the Boat right off, chock the trailer wheels, roll back a bit, stand on coupling to get it back to the ball again. Jesus what a time we Boaties have huh, if it is not rusted, broken, over priced, forgotten, stale/rotten or just generaly trouble, then you just arn't Boating!

Jungle Jim

14-01-2009, 12:39 PM

just remembered a couple more gems, but I am not too sure anyone will want to be bored sh!tless with them. I must add, I have never launched without the bungs in!

By all means mate i’d love to hear em. ...

When i first started to think about this i was picturing

cars in the drink - and boats on the ramp.

Husband and wife arguments (possibly some of my own)

Interesting catches.....

run ins with the law and what not.

Just general interesting goings on.... all these other things have been a bonus

I have learnt heaps to about things that can go wrong and how to perhaps limit these mishaps...

jim

Chris Ryan

14-01-2009, 12:44 PM

Amen to that Noelm.

coucho

14-01-2009, 02:15 PM

Couple of weeks back I went to launch my boat about 30 mins drive from home put bungs in, undo tie downs,backed the trailer down into the water, safety chain off jump in the boat prime the fuel bulb lift the fast idol lever and reach for the key to start the motor so i can be slid off the trailer dam no keys tell the deckie hang in don't undo the winch cable. rummage throught the hilux can't find the keys look through boat console can't find keys!!
hmm bugger must of left them at home pull boat up ramp redo tie downs safety chain etc etc couple guys backin in says did you do an allnighter mate? No i forgot the keys.
Get in car drive home RANSSACK house still no keys the decky goes "sure there not in the glove box of the truck" "of course I am sure i would of remebered chucking them in there what kind of num nuted half wit idiot do you think i am" "Have a little look anyway shall I " guess I am an idiot after all. keys in glove box.
took a couple weeks to live that one down.
done the bung thing a couple times as well and the trailer falling off the tow hitch

Peter4

14-01-2009, 02:42 PM

The best thing about this thread is that I no longer feel as stupid as I did before....all of my mishaps seem quite common.

Forgot bungs once at Logan River, never again......
Trailer fell of tow hitch at Wello...oops forgot to lock it down......
Backing down Cleveland ramp to an awful clatter.....oops engine brace still dangling from trailer....
Ready to go but won't start......oops forgot to fill up. Quick rush to servo while poor son holds boat along side Wello ramp at 4.00am in the dark......nervously!

BTW these mishaps are over a three year period, with the most recent being six months ago.....

slyman

14-01-2009, 03:11 PM

Done the bung trick a couple of times, once in a hire tinny at coochin creek ramp and once in the poly launching at Tuan in the sandy straits.

Done a launch and retrieve with the motor down, crunch... scrape....

Slipped and went base over apex while walking down the trailer to retrieve.

Decided to give the winch another click and busted the cable when retrieving.

Got the trailer bogged once retrieving at Hinze Dam in the dark, it sunk into the mud once the boat went back on, up to my knees in mud that night packing grass and all sorts under wheels to help lift her out.

My brother has driven all the way to the logan river to find he forgot to put his rods in the boat. He also lost the killswitch cord after camping at hinchinbrook for a week, only noticed it missing once all the gear was in the boat and ready to go home. Problem solved with a bit of cord holding the switch out.

John Buoy

14-01-2009, 04:05 PM

And some just take the safety chain off too soon :( :(

This was very recently at the Mornington ramp in Vic.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/natedog_019/rampwhitley4.jpg
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/natedog_019/rampwhitley3.jpg
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/natedog_019/rampwhitley1.jpg
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/natedog_019/rampwhitley2.jpg

Nice Whittley :P
Regards Frank

slyman

14-01-2009, 04:33 PM

:o :o :-X :-X ;D

Jungle Jim

14-01-2009, 04:38 PM

a new contender has emerged....

djgtom

14-01-2009, 04:45 PM

Fantastic thread guys.....here is a story i posted on another site. bear in mind this all happened on the same day, not a ramp story but boating i suppose:)

"Had a funny/crap/expensive day on melb cup day.

Arrived at mulwala at around 11 am to meet phil from albury for a fish in my boat.
He called and was running 1 hour late so i went for a quick fish.
At fav yella spot and had a rod in the holder and another in my hand. a fish hit the rod in the holder and the rod went in, i reached into the water and tried to save it.
As i was reaching for the 1st rod i somehow dropped the 2nd rod into the water as well. here i was reaching out the back of the boat clawing for the 2 rods and i overbalanced and fell out the back!!!!!! when i surfaced spluttering with 2 rods in one hand i looked up and saw the boat moving off into the distance as the electric was still going.....
well i thought to my self.......self wtf am i going to do now? i remembered i had the remote for the bowmount at my neck on a chain as i always have and tried it. thank christ it worked and i swam and caught up to the boat and clambered in. the worst fear i had was, Did anyone see this happening? it would have looked quite amusing as you can imagine.....stop laughing.

after that phil arrived, he took a while to compose himself after i explained why i was dripping wet....barstard.http://www.##############.au/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

went for a flick and when casting i hooked onto my good rod in the vertical holder and smashed about 2 inches off the tip.........buggerhttp://www.##############.au/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif

we fished some more and it was very sunny and sort of hot, went to change jackalls in the clear plano box left on deck and found they had all melted and expanded.......yep lost 6 jackalls which now look pregnanthttp://www.##############.au/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif.......stop laughing.

while on the water i noticed a squealing sound like a loose fan belt from the merc. took it down to shepp marine........it's nackered. needs replacement gearbox....stop laughing. thank god its under warranty.

not a bad day huh?????

2 stupid cod(released of course) and 3 f'n yella's."

dean

corndog23

15-01-2009, 07:00 PM

I once launched my brand new 520 formosa Cuddy cab at Burrum heads and it stopped with a thud half way of the trailer. I thought it hit the bottom but as it was high tide and night time I did not realise I had hit the concrete stopper on the ramp. Snapped of my brand new bait tank pickup and Furuno Transducer. Needless to say we did travel to far over the weekend with no sounder and I did not bother using the cast net.

PaulMark

15-01-2009, 09:07 PM

That is a prick of a ramp at the best of times.
Paulo

Crocodile

16-01-2009, 09:09 AM

My contribution is a good story.
I had a passenger, not crew, who was having family issues.
Just what you want to hear about.
Drop the boat in OK.
Battery is flat, old battery anyway, boat shop nearby, leave ######## to look after the boat, go get a new battery.
I double park closeby, batteries are heavy!
Get it all started, throw the old battery in the bin, off we go.
About and hour later I exclaimed, my goodness me! the car is still double parked or words to that effect.
Luckily I had taken the key but not locked it.
Someone, who is a true gentleman, had gently pushed it out of the way when they need to to retrieve.
I do not know who that person is but my sincere thanks.
Moral, do not allow yourself to get distracted.

Dirtysanchez

16-01-2009, 03:20 PM

I'm shocked at those pics of that whittley, how buggered is the leg on that boat ?
Wouldn't you weep ?

finga

16-01-2009, 04:22 PM

I'm shocked at those pics of that whittley, how buggered is the leg on that boat ?
Wouldn't you weep ?
But the speed dodad is OK ;D

I hit a log once with a brand spanking new second hand motor (first trip even :-/).
It flew into the air still going with me on the tiller. Bit like a whipper snipper from hell.
Motor went into the drink with me still holding onto like grim death. At least it stopped just after hitting the water
Cook sees me going over the back so grabs my dacks just before I'm looking for Nemo as well.
She pulls me back in the boat
I pulled the motor in but the cowl falls off as it's coming out of the water.
I goes in again.

The funny bit is we had another motor on the floor because I wasn't too sure about the new second handy so I put the spare on the back and motored merrily back to the ramp. Well nearly merrily at least.
Pulled the motor apart when we got home and found a couple of little problems not associated with the swimming and she was going better then ever that arvo.

wakakiwi

18-01-2009, 05:34 PM

seen a fellow at the tin can bay boat ramp un hook his tralier tie a rope to it and then let it roll down the ramp while holding the rope. all god untill the rope let go the tralier took off down the ramp the boat come off an floated away and the tralier sank ont of sight. the air in the tyres must have been enoug to keep it just off the bottom so it was slowly dissapering down the inlet. by the time he caught it it was down near the coast gaurd so after two swims to get his boat and tralier back he was very tired and embaresed. i nearly had to change my shorts as well.

Breambuster33

14-05-2009, 07:26 PM

I have a pretty good one....
Sitting down at the boat ramp waiting for my go on the jetski saw a landcruiser start to spin wheels and slowly go in.... before he knew it he was sitting on the bonnet a good 20meters away from the ramp with his trailer underwater behind him.. The funniest thing was it was the car owners mate who was driving. So he jumped out of his boat and it started to float away from the pontoon heading for rocks so he made a jump and clinged on to the side half in the water. By this time i was almost wetting myself watching the landcruiser float away... patrol came to the rescue and winched him up untill the ramp ledge and fire engine got him up the rest of the way... when he got up he opened his door and out came hundreds of litres of water ...
poor bloke but gave some entertainment.. I can assure you he wont be taking that mate out again... hearing all the words (in wog language) coming out of his mouth one word i can recall is MALAKA

BOMBIE

14-05-2009, 09:34 PM

Coorooman Creek in CQ no boaties troubles, we just took p ss out of jetskiers , (cause we should) midday he & her in latest big thing & goocey gear not a mark on them ETC pulled up to the ramp ,we pulled up mud, fish, & crabs all over usin or $1,500 tinny . I said to him as he WHINCHED his thing on their dual trailer ,,SO" mate who many did you get get?? "my mate fell into water laughing HE said "smartarse!! havent seen them since. So who cares !!

White Pointer

15-05-2009, 12:04 AM

The bungs once and the safety chain once. Too much of a hurry to go fishing

G'day,

I find that if I'm left alone to do it I'm OK. I have a mental checklist leaving home, rigging at the ramp, on the ramp before launch and it's done and it's all double checked.

But if I have a crew of family and friends, all trying to be really helpful, I get distracted telling them to leave the safety chain alone until I say - and yes you can put the fenders over the side - but why didn't you tie them first - and no, I'll switch the batteries on, your iPod can wait - and please put the rods in the rod holders and don't walk on them - and "VMR for a radio check" (nothing) only to discover that the antenna was cross threaded and tightened so hard it's rooted - and "did you put the trailer lock on when you parked the car?" "The What?"

Personal sins:

1. Left the bungs out - once - and I'll never live is down.

2. Failed to put the safety in the control box and finished up towing it off the ramp before I woke up ... Duhh!

White Pointer

garman1

15-05-2009, 08:58 AM

We'd just got back from fishing and as we nudged the boat at the ramp at scarby, we heard all sorts of words like truck and fitch and .......... noticed some guys with hands on hips and one in the boat, a very new and very nice looking boat. Seems the engine wouldn't start.

Now I had a 6 hp johnson that made me pull my shoulder off to start it, so it was good to see someone else having starting problems. We mentioned the kill switch on the throttle control box, may be not connected. NAHHHH no probs there mate...............................

We put boat on trailer, moved off the ramp with swearing still in the background, then to hear the engine fire into life. We had to have a look at this and find out what happened, Someone had put the safety lanyard and key that fits into the throttle control box...."in the car" for safety.

All we could say was, hope ya day gets better mate and catch a few too"

DigitalSI

15-05-2009, 09:03 AM

This was not at a boat ramp and not even a mishap, I guess you would call it luck. Went to pickup the boat from service two days ago and the kind young lad at the marine shop hooked the trailer up to the ute for me. I should have checked it myself but got side tracked by another staff member. Drove 80+km not so smooth roads to get it home only to discover the coupling was not dropped down in place but fortunately the safety was hooked up. Lucky break that the coupling didn't bounce of the tow ball at any time.

Daamu

15-05-2009, 12:45 PM

Never left the ramp without putting the bung's in YET.

I am really lucky that the family enjoy boating and fishing as much as i do and the added bonus of having a misses that can reverse a trailer, so i had a good laugh one day at ramp while putting the boat in when a bloke tried to out do the misses and reverse his tinnie off the edge of the ramp at Shute Harbour. He had a front wheel drive car which made things difficult for him so he did whatever any embarised bloke would do and smoke the bags off it, while we poked on down the ramp.;D

FNQCairns

15-05-2009, 01:29 PM

Only 3 for me, years ago disconnected the boat completely before backing the last bit down the ramp, luckily it takes a heave to start then if flies off, so it flew of once i hit the brakes to stop and get out of the car for the launch heave. Wife went straight in for swim before I even got out of the car! bless her soul.

Another was the return of a night fishing trip with all of the boat ramp lights either broken or blown {crappy councils) proceeded to winch the boat up and go home, next launch in daytime, parked car to come back and find water and sand gushing up from the bottom of the hull. That night retrieve I had the hull sitting of to the side of the roller and the roller bracket opened the hull up like a can opener:(

Worst without doubt was a left bung out ordeal , long way to park trailer then back to find it half sunk near (felt like) 10 minutes later, down south no drama as a person could just walk around back and put the bung in, up here before parking car I settled the boat to the side of the ramp in a small bay that is a known croc hide.

cheers fnq

groverwa

15-05-2009, 02:19 PM

I dont have any pics (but the local fisheries boys took some) but last year I went down to the fishing boat harbour here in Bunbury to see if any one had come in and see if anything was beeing caught when I spied a large, about 8.5m, aluminium cat sitting on the bitumen where it had slid from its trailer while being recovered fron the water

Went to have a look and found it belonged to that govt group responsible for keeping Aussie free of drugs and the like.

What happened was that the winch strap broke as the trailer was towed up onto level ground and without the tiedown turnbuckles in place it slid off the trailer and onto the bitumen

No one got hurt and the boat was OK so all ended up OK

A female member of said organisation turned up and when asked by me as to why the tiedowns were not used told me that their standard procedures indicated that this is done when the vessel is on level ground. My thoughts were that a procedure like that had as much substance as frog shit in water and I have never seen frog shit in water

I found out later that the standard procedure was to tiedown the vessel before towing to level ground but at least it highlighted the fact that the straps used for all the same trailers in that organisation were replaced with more substantial ones

Mike

Smithy

15-05-2009, 10:07 PM

Who was the Ausfisher today parked high and dry on the Coast Guard boat ramp from 5:30am to 4:00pm with an old Carribbean with a snapped winch eye and which fell off the trailer and how did you get on?

Smithy

15-05-2009, 10:16 PM

Found it here.

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=149873

siegfried

15-05-2009, 11:00 PM

.

I know this is not boating but its about as embarrasing. Today I drove down the main street of town with the back door of a commodore ambulance open.!! thankfully a mate phoned me and said 'might want to look in your rearview mirror"

Steve

PS: there was no patient on board by the way;)
Hah, I thought there musta been someone other than me to do that;D

Donny Boy

16-05-2009, 10:18 AM

Yep * hand up * Bungs out. :-[

Launched at Jacobs Well, the Mrs went to park the car & trailer and I'm firing the Motor to get her right, having just had it serviced.

Fortunately, had put the tub on the Sandy stretch next to the ramp to wait for the Mrs.
Stood on a towel in the back & it was soaked, looked down wondering ............"why is that so wet ???" to find water 3 inches deep in the arse end.
This is 3 " above the Fuel Tank well, halfway up the batteries !!

Jesus H Christ....the bungs !!! :o

Jumped over the side and start screwing them in frantically, then back in to fire up the bilge pump.
Took half an hour to pump it out, and all the time an old bloke in a tinny was sitting watching me, with a hint of a smile.

When we got it out he said ............
" Ya know, if you'd just taken off, the water woulda been forced out the back by the forward momentum of the boat, Then you beach & bung her, & pump her out again while she's movin' again .....
Only woulda taken 4 or 5 minutes......................
Don't be in such a bloody hurry next time..............the fish'll wait.......!"

Let me tell you......there is no comeback line apart from .....

"Thanks old mate ! ...........I'll remember that....." :-[:-[:-[

stevej

16-05-2009, 10:24 AM

also goes to show you need a bigger bilge pump :)

people put the cheapest pump in say a 360gph add a meter of head a elbow or 2 and my 5 year old son could move more water with a spoon.

1 inch skin fitting failure would need 1000 at least to keep up

Donny Boy

16-05-2009, 10:33 AM

quote=stevej;.......................... my 5 year old son could move more water with a spoon.

G'day Steve.....

Hey !...what's the little tacker doin tomorra ???.........Just in case !!! ;D;)

TimiBoy

16-05-2009, 10:43 AM

Ah, I love this little story...

I left the bungs out once - as I backed in, there's my Pommie Mate Dave, standing knee deep in the water, watching, grinning, can't wait to go, you know the feeling.

Fortunately the power was on. The bilge pump in the 685 would empty the Queen Mary in two minutes - poor old Dave copped a thick jet of water, straight in the face! I was watching in the mirror at the time. Reckon I didn't bust a side laughing? You'd be wrong!

Cheers,

Tim

Smithy

16-05-2009, 05:16 PM

Another dude plonked his boat on the ramp this arvo at Mooloolaba.

Lovey80

17-05-2009, 06:16 AM

Why do people unhitch thier boats before its in the water?? I mean is it a regularly done method to back it in unhitched or are these guys just morons?

Cheers

Chris

TimiBoy

17-05-2009, 06:27 AM

IMO their key motivation is a generous one. They just want to get on the ramp and off again as fast as possible. So, unhitch the chains before you ramp it on launching, and after on the retrieve.

Very nice of them, but more than a bit silly, in the end...

Cheers,

Tim

TheRealAndy

17-05-2009, 08:41 AM

Am I the only person who never removes my bungs? IF i do remove them, they go straight back in.

Just reliased, not everyone would keep there boat undercover!

GBC

17-05-2009, 09:05 AM

Copped a 'spray' from a gent in a late model bmw at the lights coming home from the Cleveland ramp not so long ago.
It would appear that while he was trying to overtake me up the inside around the big roundabout, some spare bilge water set off the float switch.
The signature 'vents' to starboard and it shot in through the sunroof and the opened passenger window - didn't have the heart to tell him it was fresh salt water.:-X

stevej

17-05-2009, 09:53 AM

Am I the only person who never removes my bungs? IF i do remove them, they go straight back in.

Just reliased, not everyone would keep there boat undercover!

mines stored in the garage, i remove the bungs as my 18 month old likes to undo them and run off with them

playing find the bungs at 3am aint fun

stevej

17-05-2009, 09:57 AM

Why do people unhitch thier boats before its in the water?? I mean is it a regularly done method to back it in unhitched or are these guys just morons?

Cheers

Chris

the other things is big boat 2 tonne, 8mm chain chain too long boat rolls and mass snaps the crappy little chain

keep it tight with one of those spinny thing adjusters( excuse terminology )

Marlin_Mike

17-05-2009, 10:03 AM

keep it tight with one of those spinny thing adjusters( excuse terminology )

you mean a turn buckle spinny thing adjuster??????????? ;D :P

Mike

TimiBoy

17-05-2009, 10:30 AM

you mean a turn buckle spinny thing adjuster??????????? ;D :P

Mike

A turnie, bucklie, sort of spinny tightening adjusty thingy?

Tim

billfisher

17-05-2009, 10:32 AM

I saw a boat get dropped on the ramp the other Sunday, but get this - he had his wife and kid in the boat at the time! The wife and kid got out with some difficulty and they then proceded to try to do the same thing again. The wife was on the winch winding the boat back on without the anti-reverse on! At the same time the owner and a good samaritan were pushing on the transom - which could have turned nasty when the boat fell off again. I stepped over a put the anti-reverse on.

PinHead

17-05-2009, 11:50 AM

Am I the only person who never removes my bungs? IF i do remove them, they go straight back in.

Just reliased, not everyone would keep there boat undercover!

I never take mine out either

Ally Jack

17-05-2009, 09:21 PM

Donny Boy

18-05-2009, 01:19 PM

A turnie, bucklie, sort of spinny tightening adjusty thingy?

Tim
Hey !!

I've got a turning, buckling, spinning, tightening thingy too......

At least, that's what the wife says, every time she watches me trying to get a belt around me guts...

;)

Chrome Dome

21-05-2009, 02:44 PM

1st boat, 1st time in the water - remembered everything....

EXCEPT THE BUNGS

Captain Jack Zero

21-05-2009, 03:21 PM

went out for a days fishing with a mate.launched the boat, parked the car,all jumped in,pushed off,then he realized.....he left his keys at home.nice cold swim back to the ramp.sitting at the ramp shivering,i was thinking that this would be funny....one day.today is that day.

Sea-Dog

23-05-2009, 01:30 AM

Not TOO much to report:

Today, back trailer down ramp.
Undo safety chain.
Loosen winch cable a couple of turns to get enough slack to remove clip from bow eye.
Wind bow rope around winch axles (where you attach winch handle) to control boat as it slides off trailer.
Give bow of boat a bit of a shove to start things moving.
Boat slides about a foot and stops............
Another shove - no movement......

Forgot to unclip winch hook from bow eye :-[

Another time - didn't quite back trailer far enough into water - wheels in water about 10 Cm deep.
She'll be right - trailer has tilting cradle at rear.

Boat slowly gets most of the way off the trailer, bow high in the air, bow line controlling rate of descent. Boat grinds to a halt.

Outboard not tilted fully up - skeg now sitting on ramp, me hanging onto bow line.
I had to pull down hard on bow line to get boat a little more horizontal.
Skeg grinds along ramp about 10 Cm and stops again.

Repeat process - she floats. Not much damage - just removed the paint off the bottom of the skeg and roughened the surface a little. Still felt like a putz though. :(

I always put my bungs in at home where I can go through a checklist at leisure before departing. (So far)

garman1

23-05-2009, 09:56 AM

There is a niche market for a label maker....to produce a label that you put near the winch and it reads

1 Are the BUNGS in
2 Is the motor TRIMMED up
3 KEYS in ignition, fuel bulb primed
4 Are the BUNGS in, just checkng
5 Winch rope & Safety CHAINS off
6 Are YOU holding the bow ROPE
7 PUSH and PRAY !!!!!
8 Don't become a star on "funniest home video"...

lampuki

23-05-2009, 10:07 AM

Scarborough boat ramp, a couple of years ago....This huge Dominator with twin hondas was being trialed by a client of a local dealership. The sales person was explaining to the client (could have been a potnential client? I dont know) how easy it was to reverse the boat off the trailer......He trims down the hondas, puts it in reverse, and applys the power, not realising that he had trimed the motors down to far.....he really made a mess of it, and I cringed as I watched the boat bounce backwards until he was in deep enoguh water....It was bad and there would have been seem pretty big chuncks out of the legs of those shiny hondas.....

Sea-Dog

23-05-2009, 10:07 AM

What about a REALLY loud alarm linked to a float switch in the bilge.

At least if you stuff up by forgetting the blasted bungs again - you will know about it very quickly.

So will others at the ramp, but a quick dash to the transom with bungs in hand and all is fixed.

Marlin_Mike

27-05-2009, 04:37 PM

Not a ramp oops, but 3 boat Oops!!! never the less

honda900

27-05-2009, 06:19 PM

Yeah but it could always be worse..:o

http://www.youtube.com/v/5IEk3OHTy00&hl=en&fs=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T2lYFsQMFw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOmvW05f7so

Sea-Dog

27-05-2009, 09:24 PM

So why couldn't he get it off the trailer???

Camera needed to zoom in to show what was going on.

Stacer 5.0

31-07-2009, 08:25 AM

First time with my new boat, all too keen to get her on the water, left the bungs out and when I went to put them in I noticed the earmuffs for flushing were still on from when the previous owner demonstrated how the motor run...Im glad it was a quite day at the boat ramp !!

Jurkyjj

31-07-2009, 08:29 PM

Quite possibly the ugliest thing that I have heard and seen at the boat ramp happened about 3 years ago down the pin. Dad and I were undoing the boat and putting all the electrics away into the car when we had this clown come flying around the corner and pull up right next to us. These three clowns got out of the car, smokes hanging out of their mouth, sucking on stubbies and generally just acting stupid. Dad and I just looked in amazement as these guys proceeded to smash stubbies on the ground and act like total wankers. I said to Dad, "just let them go first and we can put the boat in after wards". In absolute amazement we watched this guy reverse the boat down the ramp and heard the worst possible sound in history....."CRASH!!!". The ###### had unchained the boat before reversing the boat down and with the speed that he was reversing the boat down....the boat had rolled off the trailer and smashed along the ramp.....high and dry..... deadset the funniest thing that I have EVER seen.
These guys were asking for everyone to help them to lift the boat up and into the water.....everyone just turned their backs and walked away.
We slowly put our boat in the water....parked the car and drove away in the boat for a relaxing trip and a great time.
What total wankers!!!

Jason.

Robbo76

16-10-2009, 06:33 PM

My old man and I went to the Barron river one arvo to give the 4.5 Quintrex a run. I had reversed the boat halfway down the ramp and had to stop and undo the rope we had forgotten. As we were chatting and undoing the rope, we forgot that the boat was not in the water and pushed it off the trailer.

The nose shot up in the air and we heard a loud crunch. (lucky the motor was up) The butt of the boat was sitting on the concrete! :-[ After my oldman finished laughing, we winched her up and continued our river run. No major damage done.

Lesson learnt though!

Rob

maru222

16-10-2009, 09:30 PM

many years ago
brought old second hand boat, about third trip out
backed boat down to ramp,while still on trailer ,lowered outboard leg into drink
pumped petrol,turn key- nothing
pump more petrol,turn key-nothing
i did this about 6 times
finally "i a dumbie" i forgot this outboard has a toggle switch on dash for the electrices
turn on switch, turn key -- BANG .the cowling blow straight up in the air about 4 meters and exposed outboard on fire
it took me the remainder of our holiday away to clean the carbies from fire extinguisher powder

dave

Jabba_

17-10-2009, 07:22 AM

Not on a boat ramp, but funny non the less...
2 weeks ago i was picking up my deckhand from his house... His street is a dead end and is too small to swing the boat around, but it does have a vacant lot which is perfect to do a U-turn.... anyway at 5am I drive up onto this lot to do a U-turn,, I go as close to the neibours fence at possible then I swing it tight.... This time I misjudged my trailer and I hit the brick fence with the wheel arch, and about 7mtrs off the fence tumbled to the ground..... Holy shiet I said to myself...

FNQCairns

17-10-2009, 07:28 AM

Sugar! better you find it a crappy fence than some kids!

cheers fnq

colourco

17-10-2009, 02:27 PM

I often stop at the ramp on my way home and have a couple of cold ones watching the boats launch. They really should charge admission as its rare not to get a laugh. A classic was when this car pulls up with a 14 foot tinny in tow. 5 Huge Maoris (KIWIS) climb out beers in hand and start fiddling with the boat. Drinking, chatting, fiddling, drinking....Due to the size of them no one said a word. Anyway they eventually decide to reverse the trailer down the ramp. Either too drunk or too stupid but there was no way the boat was going straight. The other 4 helped out where they could by phyically pushing the boat and trailer to get it in line. Eventaully the trailer jack knives and come to a grinding halt. The driver gets out to see what has happened. A few more beers were consumed and eventually they decided to lift the boat off the trailer and carry it down the ramp - obviously one handed as the beer was still tightly gripped in the other. They put the boat in the water at the edge of the ramp and instead of dragging in to the dock they start loading up there. 4 climb in the boat which has now bottomed out on the ramp. The 5th guy (beer in hand) pushes and pushes and pushes and eventaully frees the boat from the bottom. He starts walking the boat out and when he gets to the edge of the concrete (a large step to the sand) he disappears. His quick thinking mates lean over the side (the boat nearly cap sizes) and with one hand each (yep you guessed it beer in the other hand) they drag their mate out of the drink and into the boat He comes out of the water still holding his can. The boat now has 3 inches between the top and the water and off they go. I really wanted to get some supplies and watch the retrieval but the missus calls.

dreemon

17-10-2009, 08:51 PM

Colourco, Great story ! bring a vid camera next time;D

I wish those boys were at the ramp I was at today to help me push my boat back into the water , one of those careless milion plus dollar boats left a GIANT bow wave next to the ramp and fully swamped my boat and onto the bank, my 8 yr old and me had to struggle to get it floating and with all the extra weight of it being filled with water didn't help,
I've got 2 pumps but there under the sealed floor, will be fitting some large bungs in the floor next.

I'll be getting a camera soon, don't these guys ever look back? or care?

Eelman

22-01-2010, 02:00 PM

Yes, I've forgotten the bungs twice. It seems there are so many of us that don't learn after the first time! The first time was at the River Heads boat ramp. All good with getting the water out, but not before my near new phone was floating in the salt water. With it not able to switch on then, I decided that it wasn't worth going out on the water with no comms.
The second time was at Coochin Creek and I managed to get the boat back on the trailer and emptied the water out, taking special care to keep my phone from drowning. Mission accomplished.
I've also had the trailer jump off the car driving along the Esplanade in Hervey Bay after going over one of those big speed humps. The safety chain saved me there!
Just recently I learned that it's always a good idea to drop the anchor onto sand banks when pumping for yabbies, especially with a rising tide. I had to try and swim and chase my boat for 300m and with the boat still drifting, and after 10 mins of swimming and still about 200m I finally got the attention of another boaty who picked my up and took me to my naughty boat! All good and we caught a few little fish. Could have been alot uglier. A better plan would have been to stay on the sand bank and wait for a boat to come along.

Pazz01

22-01-2010, 02:48 PM

We've done the standard and left the bungs out once.

Seen a brand new signature hit the deck because they undid the chains etc before backing down.

And finally it wasn't really an accident, but on the way home the trim buggared up on the outboard. We tried winching the boat on but the leg was hitting bottom. So we had to undo the trailer hitch drop it down to the ground, grab a few blokes to stand on the front of the trailer while we winched it up and then proceeded to drag the trailer up the ramp until on flat ground. Lets just say we remodelled the trailer a little after dragging it up for about 50 metres. Worked out how to unscrew the ram to release the fluid so we could physically lift the outboard onto the lock.

The worst part was it was a perfect day and the ramp was packed. When you see people messing around at the ramp, it gives you the sh*ts, well we were the ones messing around holding everyone up.

Pazz

Boomi Boy

22-01-2010, 03:25 PM

Not a ramp vid, but perhaps puts "forgetting the bungs" in perspective!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwitV6VWUYU&feature=related

maztez

22-01-2010, 03:34 PM

Bazzawookooka

22-01-2010, 03:47 PM

Howdy all,

I think the funniest thing I ever witnessed was the flotilla of boats being launched at mooloolabah on the morning they sank the HMAS Brisbane. There was just about every type of water craft imaginable being launched, coaxed from trailers, taken from car roofs, unloaded from box trailers... you get the idea.

On balance I think the pick of the bunch was a modest glass half-cab with an old evinrude on the back - you know the ones with an engine case that could double as a swimming pool. Anyway, she launched from the trailer with 5 blokes in her, proceeded to turn over on and off for about 5 minutes (all the time blocking the path for others to launch) drift a little (it was a very still morning at the ramp) and not start.

About another 5 mins later, just as everyone had lost interest, she fired. Full throttle for the (I'm guessing) 120hp 2-stroke and that got everyone's attention.

We all turned to see her go but the whole rig was now encased in a blue cloud. We could hear her and her crew, but it was some minutes before she emerged.

Anyway, I still think about that morning and the cloud hovering close to the water.

Cheers,

Steve

nidrac

22-01-2010, 04:43 PM

Last sunday at the ramp in Seaworld Drive we were attempting to retrieve the Viper ....driving onto the trailer . A good breeze making the task just that little bit harder and rather busy at the ramp .
Brett waited till it was clear with no one beside us so he could compensate for the breeze swing ...drove half on when a bloody ###### on a seadoo or similar guns it right beside us sending a wave that picked the boat up and moved it off the trailer ... the guy didn't know how close he came to !!!!

yeah mate i know your pain... not having a go at all jetskiers just the ones that don't turn around and look at what there jet does.. had our 6m platey coming in to drive it up (was hard enough as it was with about 5knts of current and about a 25knt wind going the same way across the ramp) got to the last 5m and a bloke on a ski comes flying at about 20km/h straight across the ramp (same way as the wind and current) then does a 180 in the lane beside us less than 2m from the ramp and our trailer, i was waiting for either the motor to stall (this is why they were running it so close to the ramp) or him to clip the ramp and get launched straight into or under our trailer... lucky nothing went wrong but certainly made everyones heart jump...

Nidrac.

Brogsy

22-01-2010, 09:58 PM

Bought my first boat couple of months ago an obviously have already forgot the bungs. Mistake learnt, i think. But when i was looking in the months prior, i was down at a boat shop having a look at the tournment range, more dreaming then shopping. A bloke there said they took out a brand new 1750 Tournament the week before. Got to the top of the boat ramp, shackle off, Strap broke, tournament rep's jaw dropped, boat shop's employees running everywhere, boat slid into the water from the top of the ramp. Fibreglass everywhere. Ooops, guess it happens though

maztez

23-01-2010, 07:08 AM

Sometimes one could write a book on things that have been seen or happened at ramps . One to mind happened whilst Brett and I were in the Boyne -Tannum Hook-up last year .
We launch in Gladstone and on this occasion we were retrieving the Viper plate 'Full-E Sic'. Brett had driven on the trailer (new in march )when the winch strap winch was used to pull the boat the last couple of feet , the stitching on the strap that held the hook came undone ....just lucky she didn't come off the trailer ...

TimiBoy

23-01-2010, 08:38 AM

Watched a fella AT THE MEMBERS RAMP in Raby Bay the other day...

Drops her in with the wheels out of the water, starts her, and wonders why she won't fall off the trailer. Then lifts the engine, and she slides off a bit. Puts it in gear, and she slides off with the prop bang bang banging on the concrete underwater. Over to the pontoon and waits for deckie to park, then off they go in a cloud of smoke...

I only hope their seamanship was better than their "launchmanship"!

Cheers,

Tim

gr hilly

23-01-2010, 10:32 AM

i was watching a brand new 20 ft hains hooked up to a landrover ute backing down the ramp at low tide,the wheels of the trailor hit the water and the driver got out as he did the boat and trailer and ute started to continue on down the ramp. bingo the the ute droped of the end of th ramp and vanished and the haines had its nose pulled down he stood there screeming saying what the f do i do i had to run for cover as i could not stop crying in fits of laughter, not nice i know nice i know but he was told by two people not to go down the ramp that far
hilly

Sea-Dog

29-01-2010, 04:07 PM

Not a boating mishap, but I had to confess....

I went to cook last night's dinner on the barbie.

I needed to give the barbie a bit of a clean and hose off then I turned it up full bore to dry the plate.

Burgers went on one end after giving them a bit of a spray with cooking oil.

The I threw some snags on the other end of the plate and gave them a spray.

When I sprayed the snags, the oil instantly vapourised on contact with the hotplate.

I didn't think she was that hot, so I tried again...

Once more it vapourised...

I put the can down on the tray next to the hotplate.

I let her cool down whilst I had a swig of the stubbie.

I went to give the snags another spray after the hotplate had cooled a bit and I noticed that there were TWO CANS sitting there...

One was cooking-oil spray, the other was bloody fly-spray.

I removed the meat from the barbie and cranked her up flat out again.

Sprayed the oil on - plenty of smoke, but no vapourisation.

Sprayed the fly-spray onto the sizzling hotplate - instant vapourisation.

Threw out dinner and went out and got take-away. Bugger >:(

'ave a go

30-01-2010, 04:35 PM

Hastings ramp. Coming in with a large boat. 40knts hot northerly. On the beam. Perfect 3 point. Bloke on pontoon says can I hold the rope. Shut motor down, prepare boat Look-up, dipstick has let go of rope ( too much windage I guess & maybe would've been pulled in) meters from rock wall. Though I was gone. No damage. Never trust ANYONE except yourself.

Daisy Burnett

23-02-2010, 10:32 PM

No I have not forgotten the bungs YET. I did forget the tie downs one dark early morning and was wondering why the bloody boat would not slide off the trailer, but that was just dumb. This one is just plain funny. My wife and I took her father and his partner out in our old tinny when we had it in Townsville. After a pleasent day on the briney we were coming back to the ramp. Now usually I would edge the boat up to the ramp and tell the missus when to let herself over the side to hold the tinny while I grabbed the car and trailer and whinched the boat up. This day as I was over the stern lifting the outboard to the half raised position in preperation for edging up to the ramp I hear the missus say "ok dad go now" I immediately thought "WHAT THE??" I turned around and saw two things, firstly we were still at least 3 meters short of the ramp and second was the top of the father inlaws head disappearing over the side into about 10 feet of water. Other's at the ramp (and me) saw the funny side and this is still a running joke in the family.

Cheers
Daisy;D ;D ;D

Lureaddict

24-02-2010, 04:01 PM

We have all left the bungs out at launch at one stage or another.
:D I watched as a guy backed down the trailer to retrieve his boat at the Colmslie boat ramp...not known for its length at low tide. He backs down and I watch as his trailer disapeared out of sight I thought to myself that is the end of the ramp right there. He pulled forward till his trailer was visible again and proceeded to winch on his boat. All was fine except now he had a whiring noise coming from the trailer as he pulled forward. He drove slowy forward head out the door looking back at the trailer. He then tried reverse.....No Go. Forward again whiring noise reverse No Go.This went on for 10 minutes..... I had watched for long enough to get my fill of entertainment...... I had to tell him. "Mate your mud guards folded down on the tyres"!!!!!!!He replied" Thats good I thought is was the bearings".;D

gazza2006au

28-02-2010, 10:29 PM

i have had my share of amusement for others

18.5 foot half cabin all fibreglass 140hp evinrude heavy motor no bungs reversed into the port botany ramp in sydney forgot the bungs boat filled up very quickly i was happy my commodore still pulled the boat up the ramp filled with water sat on the ramp while the boat was draining than off we went

another time another boat

we were out at the hawesbury river on the ouskirts of sydney at the F3 boat ramp just coming home after spending the night and day out at the heads we all had no sleep and were tired we got back to the ramp put boat back onto trailer drove home no one noticed when we were putting the boat on the trailer one of the center rollers had nipped the fiberglass hull and punched a hole the size of a 5c piece in it so we headed home and planed another trip out so our next outing was the georges river in sydney we launched at picnic point drove along for about 15mins got stopped by waterways on jetskis they done a good check over our boat to see if we had all safety gear they asked where was our bailer as we didnt have a bucket my cousin showed them a 2L coke bottle they said that is ok best be on your way now so we drove all the way into botany bay between the the captain cook and tom uglys bridges we sat for about 5mins rigging up our fishing gear when we notice water coming up from under the floor!!!!!!!!!! what a nightmare i thought what are we going to do! OH NO MY BOAT IS GOING TO SINK i panic and asked my cousin to use the coke bottle to bail the water while i drive home this was a good half an hour drive home alot of no wash and 8 knot zones and shallow water everywhere so my cousin bailed as much water as possible untill the boat was empty by than the boat was up and running up on a plain the water stopped coming up through the floor (seat holes,cracks etc...) we eventually made it back to the boat ramp loaded the boat onto the trailer and i could bairly drive up the boat ramp in my commodore V6 3.6L in low gear than we removed the bungs and drove home my home is a good 40mins drive by the time i got home water was still pissing out the bungs man i count my self lucky it could have been alot worse that day the whole cavity between the hull and the floor was filled with sea water

TiNTiN

28-02-2010, 11:30 PM

watched a guy with a new xr8 ute back a boat down the ramp and the right wheel came off the side.. so i quickly stopped him from going any further and started wondering how he was going to get it back up?????

he said " all good mate i got a few big blokes that can come down and lift it back on"
5 mins later 5 big blokes come down and get ready to lift the car back onto the ramp, but before they do he takes the hand brake off to make it easyier.

1 2 3 they lift the car back onto the ramp and the car and boat roll straight into the drink...... i had to walk away as i didnt want them to see me laughing sooooo hard i had tears streaming out my eyes....!!!!!!! after about 5 mins i kinda felt sorry for the guy as he just wrote off his 2 day old xr8 ute.

ahhh i couldnt stick around to see how they got it all out but you can only imagine...
cheers TiNTiN

therapy

01-03-2010, 08:30 PM

Arriving back at the ramp on the esplanade just off the Hornibrook and wanting to put my boat on and go home, my way was blocked by an elderly gent trying to reverse a trailer down behind an ancient old hi-ace. He had an uncanny abilitiy to jack knife this thing in a matter of metre's and then would drive forward to straighten and begin again for the same result. I felt sorry for the old digger and ended up saying to him,"reverse and stop when I tell you to stop". Reverse..."Stop!!" and I shuffled and bounced the trailer until straight. "Reverse...Stop!!!" and I shuffled and bounced the trailer until straight. Eventually we managed to get his trailer to the water after much shuffling and bouncing and after helping him to load his boat he was on his way. Then I could finally get my boat out and get home myself...

Cheers..........Terry.........

Pridey

02-03-2010, 01:14 AM

Awesome stories.

Have left bungs out twice. Once as a kid in the old mans boat. Once a few years ago in mine. Never seem to forget to bring them. Also never a massive drama, they go back in pretty quickly.

Funny story 1.

Planned a trip to Cattle Creek, Mid Wet Season, Convince mate to use his Wrangler to tow my boat instead of taking my Jackaroo at the time. Was to be an overnighter so didnt bother checking the tides. oop, 10m king tide. Came back to Ensulator creek (where we put the boat in and parked the car (usually 3-4 m above high tide line) 2 days later. Car had been up to the window sils with sea water (twice) Pulmous stones and shells in the cup holders. Trailer well camouflaged with sea weed. Pretty sure I found Nemo in the glove box ! Track back to road completly gone... soft beach sand, several hours and bogs later we managed to get out of there. Although it did look like we were going to loose it all to the Coral Sea for a while.

Second Story.

Casting for bait on the sand bars around the mouth of the Haughton. Going mad, getting some great mullet and strangely enough some really good sized prawns. Loosing track of time, walked a few hundred away from the boat..

Ooopps... boat drifting... run! oops, too slow.. out going tide... crap! Hmm, Crocs.. Tiger sharks.. awkward looks between mate and I... who is swimming ?!

!@#$... 20.. 50 m .. no other boats around..

Start stripping off... (speed rather than getting cloths wet.)

Yay! Old mate powers past and pick her up for us..

Fun And GAMES !

Vromme

02-03-2010, 12:16 PM

Not much room on a particular ramp a few years back due to an inconsiderate or incapable fellow boatie. Asked girlfriend to let me know how close the trailer was getting to the edge of ramp on passenger side as I didn’t want trailer to fall off (my mirror wasn’t automatic or wide enough to see properly).
Started heading back thinking gee must be getting pretty close, next thing - bang - trailer falls sideways onto axel.
Girlfriend “Okay your off the edge now”
Priceless. Needless to say she was blond!

Noelm

02-03-2010, 12:37 PM

this is not a mistake, it is just plain old being an idiot, a couple of weeks ago, my local game fishing club had it's yearly comp, lots of big trailer boats, the ramp is good, but only two lanes, in the afternoon, one stupid boofhead comes in and had a fish to weigh (the weigh station/gantry is at the end of the ramp jetty) he stops his boat, goes and gets the car and trailer, backs down one side, gets back in his boat and motors away to the end to unload his catch and weigh it, after about 25 minutes, the people waiting were getting more than a bit hot under the collar, so a few more photos and onto his trailer he goes, pulls up to the top of the ramp and stops again, gets out and wanders away to talk to some people, by now the people waiting are about to kill him, plenty of yelling and gestures, he just slowly walked back to his car, and drove away, but only as far as the turning area, he stopped and got out again and wandered back to the weigh station, still completely oblivious to the kaos he was causing!! what a numbskull! lucky he is still alive I reckon.

Schuey

21-03-2010, 07:14 PM

I got a few.

Until recently I have always done alot of fishing solo, so therefore I dont really have a deckie to blame.

A couple of the worst.

1. After re-doing my trailer bearings with a mate and say to him "tighten that last one up and i'll go start the weber". Fired the weber up and went to see ol matey and he's finished the job. He says "Bearings done, wheels all tightened, no worries". So next time i pull the boat out of the garage at 4a.m I'm flying down new settlement road at 80 km/h and it's dark. All of a sudden i hear this loud thud and look in the rear vision mirro and there's sparks fying everywhere. At 80 lm/h an hour my trailer tyre has come off and the hub off the trailer is dragging along the bitumen. Numb nuts forgot to tighten all wheel nuts ....

2. Cant blame anyone for this. Was towing my plate centre console from one ramp to another for the use of a filleting table. Forgot the safety chain on the boat + the strap. So i hit the gutter coming into the boat ramp and off she slides with another thud. Stopped the ute and get out and she's sittting there cold on the bitumen, really makes your guts turn. Lucky it wasn't glass.

3. Done the bung thing too - pretty standard for any fisho worth his salt.

deckie

21-03-2010, 08:46 PM

This is going back a long way and not at a ramp but similar to Schuey's tralier wheel. When i was about 14 i was playing cricket down on some playing fields at Manly Vale on Pittwater road....heard this loud god awful sound and we looked around to see nothing ..then all of a sudden a small wheel appeared running down the road , hit the curb and jumped clean over the fence and onto the cricket fields then slowly ran at least 100-200m across a cpl of ovals and finished next to a cricket pitch about 3 fields down. We knew some poor bastard would follow to get his wheel soon and being kids we paid out on the poor fella. He slowly walked across and got his wheel and after being heckled by us he deliberately rolled it back right across the middle of all the pitches so noone could play...lol8-). 40-50 kids yelling at him didnt phase him one bit :PBad day but at least he got his evil back on us.

Gon Fishun

05-09-2010, 08:47 PM

Not to late I hope. About mid 70's had a 14 ft bondwood with 40 hp Johnson forward control.::) Put in down at Frankston on the old ramp past the carnival park. Late afternoon time to leave and the weather had roughed up a bit as it does,:P backed the V8 HK kingswood down the SLIPPERY ramp :(as they were in those days, put the boat on with the help of my cousin and proceded to drive off,:-?no way:wut: just smoked the tyres. All the time we had an audience. 8-).
Well I got the cousin to hop in the boat and fire her up , he was no slouch new exactly what to . We rolled back enough to get a good grip with the prop and like a well oiled team we roared up the ramp amongst cheers, tyre smoke, 2 stroke fumes, rooster tales & well dones. ;D.That was our bit of fun.:jester:

wayno60

05-09-2010, 09:24 PM

Camhawk88

06-09-2010, 10:12 AM

At Townsville Coastguard ramp about 5 years back at 4 in the morning waiting for mate to turn up with his boat.
There were a few blokes putting in nice and early so they could get a park (almost impossible at this ramp after 5am if weather is good). One bloe dropped his 5m tinny in on the outside lane. His mate was holding the boat while he went and parked next to the coastguard, pointing towards the ramp. He got out and was halfway down the ramp when I saw something move. He had forgotten the handbrake and the ute and trailer rolled straight into the pillars and wire cable barricade. The front wheels were over the edge of the wingwall, hanging precariously about 3m above his boat below. Luck for him he hit one of the bollards which got caught up under his cat and stopped the ute and trailer from ending up nose first in his boat.
I was happy for him but an evil part of me still wanted to see that ute go over the falls!

Noelm

06-09-2010, 01:46 PM

had a small "ooops" myself a week or two ago, I put the new Cat in that I have to see how high it floated with the current motors, the boat had no batteries, no controls, nothing, (lucky it was during the week) anyway, got the boat off, had a look, moved some sand bag weight around, took a few pictures, and then time to go back on the trailer, hook up the cable, start winding when all of a sudden evrything just goes "loose", the small gear that engages the larger one on the winch decided to shed a few teeth, I could get some tension, but when I wound around just a bit more, "dzztt" no tension, so back into the car, reverse right into the water and try to pull the boat up as far as possible by hand, lucky for me a couple of guys came along and helped me drag it up the trailer far enough to tie it on and get out of the water, when on the flat I just hit the brakes a bit and the boat slid forward into position. Would have been a bad one on a Sunday with a dozen boats waiting to use the ramp!

Giffo65

06-09-2010, 04:29 PM

After coming in to the Tallebudgera ramp on the southern side one night,we were strapping the boat down when we heard screams for help from the ramp.Two very pissed blokes trying to retrieve their tinnie, but had backed the Tarago over the side of the ramp and kept reversing, had water up to the back window, Ha Ha.Another time was at the traffic lights at Springwood, when light goes green,bloke towing about 6m glass boat takes off and has not restrained the boat,he pulled the trailer from under the boat,boat lands on the road at the intersection.Poor bugger.

MTAQ/BTAQ

06-09-2010, 04:55 PM

I have 2 good ones - first one, I used to own a caper cat (small 14 foot sailing catamaran), we were sailing off the beach and decided to have short lunchbreak. Cat "parked" nose into the beach, mainsail is down and jib (front sail) left flapping. Tide slowly coming in and we were watching it from 10 metres away - no lie - a little puff of wind reversed the cat neatly out about 2 metres, the cat turned around and started to sail away - we were able to catch it fortunately.

Second one - I am now a boat/jet ski licence provider - about 6 months ago a group on the Brisbane River asked me to do 5 jet ski licences for family and friends, they had there own pontoon on the river and "boat ramp". The boat ramp turned out to be a steep muddy (it had rained heavily the night before) grassy slope of about 50 meters down to the Brissy River.

I say that my 2 wheel drive will not be able to launch the jet ski, they say thats OK we can use our Mercedes 4 wheel drive OR BMW 4 wheel drive - which one do you want. They hook up the Beamer to my jet ski and launch it. I do the licences for them then they go to pull the ski out, guess what, the Beamer cannot get any grip, thats OK we will hook the Merc up to the Beamer and do a tandem pull. Guess what, the Merc is now out of traction. OK we will borrow the neighbours Nissan - with all 3 hooked up they finally pull the ski up the bank - took pics on my mobile phone as I knew no one would believe me.

D river

06-09-2010, 05:34 PM

My mates old boss bought a new haines n on his first outing asked damo "how much fuel you think this thing will hold"damo says " prob bout 120L or something like that" his boss says "must have thrown in a big tank for me were up to 320L" damo says"what the f*ck stop stop stop you silly c*nt thats the rod holder" ha ha ha ha needless to say 1 brand new boat off to be split and re foamed

NTMID8

06-09-2010, 05:41 PM

My first time launching, few people around and i was a bit nervous. Put the boat in the water no probs, jump aboard and go to put it in reverse, dont ask me why but i went forwards!!!! quickly chucked it into reverse (mean while on the ramp next to me a second boat has pulled up) and due to the forward moment coupled with the sudden reverse i conduct a 180 deg turn within the pontoons, narrowly missing the two boats right next to me!
I was pretty red faced and the two blokes next to me where less than impressed:-[:-[:'(

Jabiru658

06-09-2010, 06:22 PM

I confess to having done the 'forget the bungs' thing once. I had the teenager out with me and we were launching the polycraft 4.55 and I said to him grab the bungs out of the box in the centre console and put them in. He grabs 2 bungs and proceeds to screw the left and right bung in. The trouble is my 4.55 also has a centre bung (not sure if that's standard or was added by a previous owner but it has 3). I hadn't had it long and my previous boats had only had 2 so (given I hadn't told him and the 3rd one was at the bottom of the box) it's sort of understandable what he did.

He's in the boat, I've pushed him off and am about to get back into the car when he yells out 'water is coming into the boat'.

I yell out 'did you put the bungs in?' and he says 'yes', so I yell turn on the bilge pump (no it wasn't auto activating then, although NOW it is and it doesn't need key in/main power to run).

Then I realize I've still got the keys *oops* (now I use a rope on the front of the boat as well, but I've hopefully learnt my lesson now).

He drops the portable rope ladder over the side and I swim out (leaving the car and trailer on an increasingly busy ramp) *doh*.

Get out there only to find out that this particular middle aged, fat bugger can't climb up that short little unstable rope ladder.

I throw the keys into the boat, he starts it and motors slowly back towards the beach with the bilge pump going flat out.

When we reach the beach I realize it's the 3rd bung *sigh*.

Walk wetly and dripping back around to the ramp, get in the car (with cloth seats) and park it.

Go Fishing anyway...

Noelm

07-09-2010, 01:53 PM

I just remembered a "key" one, I was going out alone and one of my mates was at the ramp, he said, "I'll park the car for you" so I motor around and wait for him to come back, I go over closer to him and he tosses the keys like he was in the Olympics, they went about 10' over my head and into the water, so here I was, middle of winter and my keys are sparkling in about 3M of water, I had no option but to tie up and swim for them, still never forgiven him for that.