Mistakes,,, I have done them all (or have I?)

[Cheech]

Thought I had done just about every mistake you could in relation to boating and fishing, but I keep finding new things.

My latest was to leave my rods at the boat ramp this morning, and did not realise till nearly an hour later when I got home. Thank god for honest and good people. Shane and ausfish member Sandbar #[smiley=2thumbsup.gif] found them and looked after them and left a contact phone number where I left them. Fantastic guys. You deserve a gold star #[smiley=addfav.gif] [smiley=addfav.gif] [smiley=addfav.gif](or at least a carton (on it's way)).


Have you done these, and can you add to the list so I know what to expect next.

- reversed the boat in to the water with the bungs out
- dinged the prop in a sandbar
- dinged the prop on the ramp driving the boat on
- reversed the boat into the water with the tiedown strap on
- moved the boat out of the shed and scraped the skeg on the driveway
- hooked up on a crab pot
- left the handheld gps at home
- left the rods at home (luckily rememberd only a few k's from home)
- left the bait at home (actually, this is listed on behalf of Fishing_Dan # :P)
- left the rods at the ramp (new entry as per the above)
- arranged to meet at the ramp, but went to the wrong ramp (actually this was not me, but will leave for the culprit to own up)
- one of my classics, drove to the boat ramp without engaging the towball lock. ie it was just staying on due to the weight. When I pushed the boat off the trailer, it became a tilta trailer. Very happy that there was nobody watching that one!!
- continued to tow the trailer when I know I should do some maintenance, and chewed out a bearing. ( wheel actually fell off when I jacked it up).

One that I am expecting is to not raise the motor at the ramp for the trip home. Not looking forward to that one.

These are the ones I remember doing. I know there are some others my mind is trying to block out.

So what have I yet to do? I know it is only a matter of time.

Cheech

[Panasonic]

done none of them

*shrug

[DR]

arrive at boat ramp & remember the boat key is sitting on the kitchen table :'(

not check the steering after boat has been sitting for a while, find out after launch :-[ & luckily it is turned slightly to the right so you do a 150 mtr circle to make it back to the ramp :-/ tools to fix are in garage as you decided to clean out boat & forgot to put back >:(

[lil_boatie]

forget the anchor is not tied up when you toss it over board :-[

[2DKnBJ]

Can relate to a ew of those myself.
One trip i forgot to fill the tanks up :-?
Lucky i was launching at Horizon Shores.Had to wait a bit until the shop opened so i could fill up.
Cheers Dazza

[Big_unit]

Best one I have seen is,

10.00pm at Hervey Bay Marina ramps. Two guys come back in a fairly big Hydrofield boat, one guys jumps off at the pontoon and goes and gets the 4x4. He backs her into position and the skipper gives the big girl a few herbs to drive onto the trailer. About half way up skipper backs off & 4x4 rolls backwards into the drink at a great rate of knots. Skipper manages to respond quickly and saves the 4x4 from getting wet. The deckie in the mean time has driven back up the ramp and the boat is lurched forward fairly quickly but clean misses the trailer, by this stage there is a real lot of swearing and hand gestures being exchanged. They manage to get the boat back off the ramp and have another go. This time things go really wrong and the 4x4 ends half submerged after the skipper seemed to think that the deckie had hooked the boat onto the trailer. The boat slide about a foot or so backwards which was enough to make the 4x4 roll again.

Moral of the story I guess is keep up the mainteneance on your gear.

Cheers
James

[-spiro-]

Well Craig i believe that u couldn't do much else wrong ;D atleast you shouldn't do them again? good thread ;D

[pyro_104]

Not my boat, but start up your outboard with the flexible drain pipes from the filleting table still hanging out the back. (that one required a swim...)

[Tunzafun]

Cheech,

I can own up to a few of them, some of them more than once (bungs). Another I have experienced is forgetting the winch handle and not having a socket or wrench big enough. Another was buying Nautilus 4 stroke oil (similar packaging and poor eyesight) and not realising until I went to add oil over at Moretin Is. Just made it home that day.

Ross :(

[brett_rokesky]

Anchor not tied off, Boat key left at home,bungs,bungs and bungs

I had a spare key cut to leave in my wallet, and then i leave my wallet at home.
Thank god for an understanding wife.

[Fishinmishin]

I wish i could say I was drinking...but I wasn't. Had the pick and 100mt of rope out in 50mt of water. Started the boat and took off (forgot I was anchored and not drifting). The boat had a sudden shudder then kept driving but a lot more sluggish (I thought it was all the motor) ::). Finally got out to 50 fathoms and went to get the anchor to relise it was left out the whole trip ::) ;D.
Cheers, Jay

[al-straddie]

.....launch boat... all's well... jump in boat, and lift motor lock, only to see my light board swimming behind me.....DOH!! :o

[sf17fisherman]

couple i'm not proud of is
driveing while choke is still on and wondering why the girl is running rough
in the tinny wondering why the motor woun't start to find i didn't plug the fule line to the tank after filling her up
and my latest was driveing to the ramp getting the boat ready to launch and reversing back only to look over and see my sons booster seat in the car that he and mum will need for the day

lucky i'm only 5 mins from the ramp ;D

[Owen]

Loading the tinnie and all the camping gear on the back of the ute and then realising 20 minutes down the road that the outboard is still sitting in the shed :-[

cheers
Owen

[Fishin_Dan]

Have you done these, and can you add to the list so I know what to expect next.

- reversed the boat in to the water with the bungs out - Nope
- dinged the prop in a sandbar - Nope
- dinged the prop on the ramp driving the boat on - Nope
- reversed the boat into the water with the tiedown strap on - Nope
- moved the boat out of the shed and scraped the skeg on the driveway - Nope
- hooked up on a crab pot - Nope. But I keep warning you when they're coming up! ;)
- left the handheld gps at home - Nope. ALWAYS steal your spots!!! ;D
- left the rods at home (luckily rememberd only a few k's from home) - Nope
- left the bait at home (actually, this is listed on behalf of Fishing_Dan :P) - Yeah thanks mate!!! Of all the stupid things to do... Especially as I specifically went to Sams Seafood that day to get that much bait!
- left the rods at the ramp (new entry as per the above) - Nope
- arranged to meet at the ramp, but went to the wrong ramp (actually this was not me, but will leave for the culprit to own up) - Geez you're a good mate aren't ya! ;) The Ol Cruiser has never been pushed so hard in her life.... And my mate still gets a little scared when I mention Four Wheel Drives can go over median strips at 80kph!
- one of my classics, drove to the boat ramp without engaging the towball lock. ie it was just staying on due to the weight. When I pushed the boat off the trailer, it became a tilta trailer. Very happy that there was nobody watching that one!! - Nope
- continued to tow the trailer when I know I should do some maintenance, and chewed out a bearing. ( wheel actually fell off when I jacked it up) - Nope


What are friends for hey... We do the stupid things so that you learn from our mistakes!

Next time you want me to stupidly catch lots and lots of fish with you in your boat, give me a yell... :D :D :D

[major-defect]

lI think I've got most of yours covered and here a few more.Leaving the fuel tanks at the servo,losing my brother out of the boat while flying along at 2 in the morning just after spotting large croc.Oh and my latest one,having the winch let go while backing up to ramp dumping my boat ,brand spanking new engine straight into the bitumen{luckily it was freshly laid and there was no damage done to motor lifted some bitumen though]. Oh and taking ice cream instead of the bait in the ice cream container.I know thers lots more I'll just have to think on it.

[skippa]

yours covered and here a few more.Leaving the fuel tanks at the servo,losing my brother out of the boat while flying along at 2 in the morning just after spotting large croc.Oh and my latest one,having the winch let go while backing up to ramp dumping my boat ,brand spanking new engine straight into the bitumen{luckily it was freshly laid and there was no damage done to motor lifted some bitumen though]. Oh and taking ice cream instead of the bait in the ice cream container.I know thers lots more I'll just have to think on it.


Geez Paul,

I think I'm glad I didn't go fishing with you while we where up there ... :-? :-? ;D ;D

Ouch on dropping the boat on the ramp, but especially love taking the ice cream instead of the bait .. ;D ;D

How come your not fishing now ... is it raining ..... still ::) ::) ;)


Cheers,
Tony 8-)

[saphire]

What a great thread.
Makes me feel like Im not that bad on the water after all.
There is so much to think about when taking a boat out. Also if traveling with family and friends its so easy to get distracted.
Oh well....there lies the challenge.

[Angla]

Great thread Cheech

Moveing the boat around on the driveway and go to change it from the front draw bar to the tow bar. So I Put the brakes on and take off the safety chain then lift it off the tow ball. 2 tonnes of boat starts heading for the garage door because of the slope and brake not on really strong. 3 FOOT --- 2 FOOT --- 1FOOT --- BANG CRUNCH.
So I pull it forward and its just put a couple of small cuts in the door but not creased it.......Thats not so bad...and no damage to the motor....till the wife says what about the Statesman....say no more.

Always keep a spare key for the boat in the glovebox of the 4 x 4 because 100 km is a long way to go back home from the ramp

Angla

[MIKOS]

Cheech,

Got to the ramp one morning and forgot the bungs :'(

Went out another morning from jacobs well in the dark and mind you I have done this trip many times before when I reached that bloody big intersection at the end of the channel where you can either turn right and head towards Tipplers or go left to the pin when I saw another boat stopped in the middle of the channel.These guys must have not been regulars and were definatly lost and decided to pick me to follow ;D.any way they followed me past gold bank and I stayed going supposedly for the yellow marker and kept to the very right of the channel that was when about 15 foot in front of me I saw the outline of a huse pelican take off and at that time of the morning the brain still took a little while to function and I realized SANDBANK #:o :o.This poor old pelican was just having a sleep when this idiot me came along and scared the crap out of him ;D.I quickly cut the throttle and looked behind me and was waiting to run up onto this bank and saw the two guys behind me stop very quickly also.They managed to pull up in time and me being the wonderfull navigator ended up high and dry in the pitch black ;D

I will not try to cut any corners anymore ;D

Mike

[oddbudman]

I once took off with my transom mount kota still in the water.
Luckily I managed to catch it just before it managed to dislodge itself from its clamp mount.

On the weekend I remembered the bungs 1 foot from entry into the logan river.

[SELY]

Pulled the spark plug lead off the 2-stroke on a tender beached at Tiplers one New Years Eve in the hope of avoiding the tender being pinched. Returned after some refreshments some hours later and was half-way out to the mother ship before I realised why she was running rough. The damn thing was arcing well enough to start and run! At least I thought to turn it off before grabbing the lead to reconnect it. You've got to love those little Mercs.

[Mogwai]

done all of them :( and not raise the motor at the ramp for the trip home :'( but lucky the motor ddi not get hurt

[fish2eat]

There are TWO types of boaties

1. Those who HAVE left the bungs out

2. Those who WILL leave the bungs out

;D

[Bream_Reaper01]

Only 2 come to mind,
No1. ready to leave my yard with boat in tow,after running the boat and all safety checks etc,forgot to disconnect earmuffs and hose.Nice neighbours took hose back into yard for me.

No2.We used to have rocket launcher for anchor,brother didn't tie it up and we were in the Brunswick River,hitting wake the anchor literally launched straight back past his head,anchor rope grabbed the tip of his new $180 rod and reel,and dissapeared overboard.

[Commodore]

Geez Cheech, none of those happened when I was with you….. ;) ;)

My pb, in my last rig, 4m quinine, previous trip I had a small split in the keel :(, had a mate weld it up (1st mistake, he’s a lot better at it now), next mission to Mud, just arriving and thought umm something’s not quite right, get deckie to lift floor and have a look, he says I can see blue???? :o ^%$@@$#%$ bastard split again about 40cm and we are going down :(, get a shore and survey damage ::), decide bilge pump can handle the leak at low revs, took 1 ½ hours back to Manly, lucky it was calm. :-[ :-X

Same rig, tiller steer, dark windy night from the SE, heading to Mud, thought we would never get there, Deckie says are we going to a new spot after about 40 min past St Helena???? :o I had been keeping my head down and making natural adjustments into the sea and was focusing on the wrong flashing light, we were heading to Days Gutter…..
:-[ ::) :-X
Chong

[Elysium]

the best one I have seen is this....

After getting quite grumy due to alot of people using the ramp, this guy finally got his chance to reverse down. (heard him quite often say "what takes so long to launch a boat")

Anyways...he was halfway down the ramp when his boat decided it was taking too long as well and launched itself off the trailer and onto the concrete boatramp..

It seems fibreglass skiboats dont like concrete!!!!!

But on a personal note...I have done the bung thing (more than once)

[Alex9797]

All of the above myself.

The funniest one i've heard was from a guy who purchased a new tinnie from a dealer. Launch day arrived with much fanfare however the boat would not leave the trailer. Phone call to dealer who dispatched employee to assist. Three grown men still attempting to move the boat from trailer. Much scratching of heads. look under boat.


Boat screwed to trailer whilst putting in floor. ;D ;D ;D

[Big_Ren]

Recently did an overnighter to the Banks, had mixed a beautiful brew of burley (stinking mulch of pillies, bran, chicken pellets, tuna oil, sand and plenty of water) in a plasterer's bucket. :-? Quite a rough trip out and deckie was seated in stern quarter, white-knuckling most of the way. About a third of the way out, hit some decent swells. Deckie was getting greener and greener, wave by wave. Boat suddenly launched off the top of a sizeable swell, engine roars and above the squeal of the outboard, just heard the deckie yell "Ren...stop the f%$king boat." Well, I pulled up mightily quick to see what the commotion was and realised to my dismay that I forgot to secure a lid to said burley cocktail, of which had launched itself and deposited half its contents over deckie. After cleaning up and apologising, proceeded on our way and hit another swell, grabbed some air and the stinky deckie once again wore the dregs of the bucket. How he didn't spew, I don't know but it was the start of a long night, with no change of clothes for him and feeling green to boot. Luckily we scored a decent feed and thankfully he has been out again, incident-free. ;)

Cheers
Paul

[major-defect]

Finding an escaped mackeral under the floor of the boat...a week later!!!

[INDULGENCE]

This happened a few years back but is true, I saw the result.
A mate had a few drinks with the boys on a sunday afternoon and was late home with the new boat.
Parked the boat in the garage with the ute outside and pulled down the garage door as he took off to resolve his problems with the wife.
Next morning alls well with the wife got up late and jumped in the ute to go to work and you guessed it the door followed him down the drive.The ute still connected to the boat.
G'day greyman hows Illuka (sorry to dob you in)

Wally

[redbullburley]

this one only happened on sunday took the boat out with the brand new motor on cruising along on the way back to the ramp next thing plonk brand new outboard falls off
luckily the water was only about 2m deep

that was after i tried to take the safety off my lighter with the knife which snapped slicing a big slit in my finger

[land_based]

launched my old tinny wothout tilting the motor, wondered why it wouldnt go into the water ::)

[BigBadCr0c]

Trying to anchor up whilst using two anchors on the one rope 8-). Throw out anchor one then quickly reverse up and throw out anchor two at the end of the rope.
Ooops. In a split second as the anchor hits the water realised that I forgot to tie one end up first.
Ended up dragging fishing line with all the big sinkers to drag the rope back up.

Bgood
Andrew

[major-defect]

And another time I was winching the boat up and hadn't put the ratchet on.Went to put it on and let the winch handle gowhich of course hit my hand.It swelled up like a balloon.the nearest hospital with an xray machine is 3/4 an hour away at Innisfail so of we go.The doc says nothing broken are you alergic to anything i says not that I know of and he gives me 2 codral forte for the pain.2 hours later my wife is dragging me into the local doctors unconcious and in convulsions from a severe alergic reaction to the pills, he had to give me an adrenaline shot.I nearly died!!! Would you beleive my brother is more of a disaster than me and my father, we won't even go there.It seems at least 1 of my girls has inherited this should i say disaster gene.I can tell you a fishing or camping trip with any member of my family is definately not boring.

[RCG008]

This is great. Now I dont feel so lonely. :o

My best one was when I got home late one friday night from the local fisho after too many cans. Had to prep the boat for the next day. Forgot to lock the hitch onto the towball. Next morning I thanked my lucky stars as a Southerly had cancelled fishing and I went to unhook it. The road to the ramp is extremely bumpy (as are all NSW roads) and it could have been quite a mess. Moral to the story: I have never ever prepped a boat in an intoxicated state since.

I didnt learn my lesson with some rigs. Saw a nice 3-3.5kg kingfish take my bait and hook only 3 metres from the boat. No more beer and rigs.

I wont bore you with the countless anchor stories. :P

[Bosunsmate]

Only left the bungs out once..........very very embarrasing when ya gotta go get the car and recover a full boat on a rather busy day (Easter public holiday). Have done many of these and will no doubt do one or two of them again..... :D

[StevenM]

Left bungs out once

Left bait at home once

Left rods at home once

Drove back from the ramp to the caravan park at 1770 with the motor still down once

So I am learning from my mistakes but as per the above posts I have some more learning to do.


Cheers

Steven

[roz]

Hi Cheech,

I will have to fess up to a few of those, mainly leaving stuff behind.

But I will dob in a gent right here right now!!

The chappie who I won't name, always used to follow the same method of boat launching..... Reverse down the boat ramp, break hard, boat would then slide off trailer and into the water...jobs done!!!

But on this particular morning, he had obviously forgot to check the tide chart....and it was still dark,

you know what I am going to say next!!!

Yep, he launched his 5 metre glass boat onto the boat ramp!!! :o

[Lone_Wolf]

left bait at home on the weekend, even after reading this and saying... "never would do that" :-[

[insideout]

a guy(not mentioning names) up north bought new fishing boat ,had a successful day fishing ,went home at night ,went to wash up ,found he had left rods iin rod holder on top of boat, but found them in a melted state for he had hit low lying power cables!!! lucky escape!!

[Alex9797]

Thought I had got over all of these things AND having read this this post still managed to leave the kids life jackets at home last weekend.One hour return trip as you can never be too carefull with the little ones. My mistake ? listining to my wife telling me that they will go mouldy left in the boat ( the life jackets not the kids )


Alex

[SeaHunt]

Yes bungs, who hasn't , just once though. :-[
Launched boat onto concrete ramp when the winch gave way, I always leave the safety chain on until the last thing now.

Most annoying was pulling up a fiesty and not very happy mud crab on a fishing line, little bugger released himself into the boat and ran amuck trying to amputate some toes. :o
People were jumping all over the place, I finally cornered him only to see him escape under the floor. :-/
Spent two hours unscrewing seats and pulling the floor up later that night trying to er rescue him. :D

One very lucky crab was eventually released unharmed. >:(

[lock]

Absolutley clasic stuff people it makes me home sick (currently in ireland). ;D ;D ;D ;DBy the way i have done just about all the stuff on that list. :-/

[Feral]

A few years back, a mate scored a boat of an old fella that had had it paked in the shed for years. Motor was siezed up solid, so put a new donk on it, and took it down to deep water bend to test it out.

All went well, but the bungs were leaking (between the bung holder and the boat, not the actual plugs), so home they went. Parked it up the driveway, got out the old silastic, a good dollop around the outside of each bung. Now this bloke had a couple mates there just to help him out, as you do, and it was taking a few stubbies to lubricate proceedings. So by the time they found the silastic etc etc, they had had a couple or three.

Then one of em says - how are we going to know the leaks are fixed.
Bright idea - lets stick the garden hose in the boat, fill her up a few inches, that'll do the job.

So a few more brews while waiting for the boat to fill up. Got deep enough, all congratulated themselves over a successful job. Realising they were a bit to far gone to take the boat back out, decided to settle in for the afternoon, and have a few more brews or three.

About 2 hours later, one of em says - whats that funny creaking noise? dunno have another beer was the answer.

About 15 minutes later there was this almighty crack, the boat plunges to the ground, right wheel has snapped off the boat trailer, water everywhere, boat badly damaged. Guess who had left the hose running in the boat all that time?

Result - boat and trailer totaled. Morale of the story - beer and boat repairs dont mix!

[BillR]

Great to see I am not the only one. Done them all (bungs 3 times) and dropped the boat on the ramp, just the transome but very red faced.

On a personal note I have totally submerged the wallet (yes boat licence, car licence, notes and every thing else normally in a wallet) twice by wading out to boat without emptying pockets first.

Beautiful clear water down the pin one day and approaching a sandbank to do some pumping so asked the son in law to jump off the bow and hold the boat. You guessed it. Straight down over his head. He thinks I have it in for him now.

Oh yes, packet of prawns left under seat in hot sun for two days.

Bill R
(ps I had more posts than this. Seems to have been lost in the new format change)

[harry_h01]

Well I took the boat out on Wednesday. First time on the water.

I had read everyones comments and the mistakes made. I even made a note of some of the common ones.

But did it do me any good, no way.

I made some simple mistakes but I am glad I made them on a day the ramp was empty and no one was around to see me pulling my hair out.

So what were my mistakes:
1. Left the chain on when trying to push the boat in
2. 35 mins trying to get the motor going before my brother rang and told me you have to push the key in to get the choke to work
3. I didn't set the canopy up before taking it off the trailer
4. I planned to change the trailer rollers on returning to the ramp. First one was simple, second roller set - broke the head off the bolt; third roller - broke the head off the bolt. I stopped there before doing any more damage
5. Last one - unpacking the boat at home and heard a chirping sound - I had left the sounder on

So 5 mistakes on the first trip, and I hope I have got them all out of the way the first time around.

But my wife did learn a few things also, like don't try and open the esky with the hold down strap in place, the difference between prt and starboard.

So the day wasn't a waste and it was good to finally get her on the water.

Harry

[Horrie]

Aaah.
This is a brilliant thread for us boating newbies. ::)
I have listed all the boo boos and inserted the word "DON'T" at the top of the list.
I now have a ripper check list. ;)
Thanks folks.

Horrie

[zario]

Good stuff!
Late last sun night in the Bohle river my mate hit a sandbar at mach 10 about 5 seconds after i warned him about approaching terrain. We ended up getting fully airborne and had to drag the tinny off the sand.
All we could hear was the blokes camping on the bank pissin themselves laughing for a few minutes.

another time i dropped my car alarm remote in the water while launching boat. instantly killed it

[snasman]

can relate to a few of those ,1 of the best I saw was few years back up at Bribie a fella and his mrs rocked up in a nice cat ,he lined it up at the ramp and told his mrs to back it in ,they started arguing she didnt want to do it, after some lovely language she got in the car and started reversing down the ramp with him giving orders it was fairly obvious she had never done this and was on and off the brake every few cm and each time the boat would slide a bit further back off the trailer (the fella had unhooked his saftey chain and winch)I pointed this out to the fella and was told to mind my own bussiness(not in those words ) so me and dad climed into my boat and sat just off from the ramp to watch the show and sure enough half way down the ramp off she came with a loud cracking noise ,then the language really started fiberglass boats and concrete ramps dont mix well together with out water under them,so I said to the fella have good day fishing mate and off we went (got into the macks that day )BOAT RAMPS WHAT A SOURCE OF ENTERTAINMENT.

[2rods]

Well Ihave had 1 or 2 misshaps on the water but all were minor :)

Have seen some ripers though.

I was at Dundee beach (near Darwin) a few years ago when I spied a bloke trying to break into a 4x4 at the ramp >:( >:( so over I go and front the fella all ready to give him a clip round the ears >:( Well when he turnd around he was all sunburnt and blistered (like he had his head in a chip cooker) after my shock subsided I asked him what he was upto.... here was his story.

He and a mate had been out wide off dundee and where heading home after a days fishing when they noticed that the boat was getting slower and slower and sitting low in the water :-? :-?

So they turn the bilge pump on and booooooom the boat blows up :-? :-[

All they get was the esky that was floating (but empty) the boat was glass and burnt to the water line then sunk, and the 2 of them are burnt and still about 8kms out just before dark. They then spent the night in the water and came within 500mtrs of shore before the tide turns and out they go again :'( :'(

Next tide they come in but are on the southern side of the Finnis River.. by the way its full of croc's. so after a bout 1 1/2 days at sea they hit land then have to swim the finnis to get back to the nearest people :o :o

After he told me the story I was more than happy to assist him to gain entry to his vehicle and offered him a beer as well 8-)

I have never turned on the bilge pump again.... until I have had a look and a smell from under the floor ;D ;D

[Cheech]

One that I was hoping not to have to admit to,,, but nobody has owned up to.

Anyone pulled up to the ramp and pulled the boat up onto the sand whilst going to get the trailer, and, had the boat float off :-[

May have happened to me once when there was a dropping tide and an onshore wind.

[PinHead]

Aaah.
This is a brilliant thread for us boating newbies. #::)
I have listed all the boo boos and inserted the word "DON'T" at the top of the list.
I now have a ripper check list. # ;)
Thanks folks.

Horrie

mate...don't think it is newbies that makes these mistakes...

1. couple of months back..bought some new crab pots etc..head off down the Pin..launch the tinnie...load the pots..head off to do some crabbing and fishing...get to where we are going to put the pots..ask son where the floats and ropes for the pots are..he didn't know. On the phone to the wife..a quick look by her..there they are..sitting on the garage floor.

2. I have left bungs out..once.

3. 3 weeks back...put the cruiser on the mud..had to call the VMR..felt like a complete idiot.

4. Last weekend...leaving Couran Cove..untied 3 ropes..hit reverse..going nowhere..left one rope tied up still...I always use 4 ropes to tie up the boat ..only undid 3....now with an audience in the resort apartments I felt like a complete goose.

And as I have been boating and fishing since I was 12..that gives me about 38 years experience and I still make dumb mistakes..but now I have a valid excuse..seniors' moments.

[skippa]

Aaah.
This is a brilliant thread for us boating newbies. #::)
I have listed all the boo boos and inserted the word "DON'T" at the top of the list.
I now have a ripper check list. # ;)
Thanks folks.

Horrie



And as I have been boating and fishing since I was 12..that gives me about 38 years experience and I still make dumb mistakes..but now I have a valid excuse..seniors' moments.


Senior moments, I'm in that age bracket too, but I have never made any of those mistakes that I remember...... but I do have alzheimers tho ...

Can't wait to read this thread 2morrow again ....... its been a good laugh #;D ;D

Cheers,
Tony # ;D

[shayned]

Low free board, clamp on seats inthe tinny, turned it in hard while leaning out to grab a bouy apparently these seats aren't self clamping. You know what, nearly every stupid mistake I've made, usually happens just after I say,"Hey watch this!"

[JEWIENEWIE]

As mentioned above, prepared boat for early morning start the night before, while very intoxicated due to a mr Jim Beam with a mates help. Woke well before light, jumped in truck and headed off to ramp only 10ks away, just got to ramp when mobile rings, its my mates wife, curios as she thought we ere going fishing, said we are, then she said we better go back and hook the boat on!
I remember my mate reversing up to the boat the night before but failed to hook her onto truck.
Jewienewie :o

[Grand_Marlin]

I always check the water tell tale is pumping water when I start the motor.

One morning there was no water coming out the tell tale....

I poked a bit of thin wire down the tell tale .... still no water.....

Further investigations found the earmuffs still on .....

:-[

Pete

[Grand_Marlin]

Only in America...

We were at a place called Lake Travis, in Texas - holiday place to the rich and famous. (we were just visitors ;D)

Standing at the Bar having a Bud Light ... listening to a bloke who worked at the local Marine shop telling his mates about a new family to boating.

The family turned up at the Marine Shop and wanted to buy a boat to go out on the lake.

They decided on a 24ft glass boat with twin 115 OMC's on it.

They didnt know a thing about boats, so this Marine Shop Worker gave them the run down on everything they had to do ...

The family gave them a cheque for $100 grand, and drove off with their new boat.

A few hours later, the Marine Shop gets a call ... got the boat in the water ok, motors start ok, but boat wont get on plane ... must be something wrong with motors.

The Marine worker went down to the marina and checked out the motors .... start ok, idle ok ... everything is ok .... but boat wont get on plane.

Thinking there may have been something, somehow, stuck on the bottom of the boat, the Marine Worker puts on the mask and snorkel and jumps in ... only to find the trailer still connected by the electric winch and safety chains to the bow eye of the boat ;D ;D ;D

The family thought that when he said back it down the ramp and disconnect it, that it meant the trailer from the car, not the boat from the trailer !

Cheers

Pete

[tincanpeter]

Haven't left the rods behind but guilty of most of the other mishaps. The worst I had was while putting my tinnie in at the boat ramp at Coochin creek at LOW tide. Because of the short ramp and large hole at the end of the ramp. The boat reared up in the front and when it rightened it self, I had quite a bit of water in the tinnie. Being smart I decided to let my mate take the wheel while I took one of the bungs out and hence let the water out. Worked fine until my mate hit a submerged rock. By then I had just finished replacing the bung. But cost me a new prop and a headache for hitting my head against the outboard.
Never fished Coochin at low tide again

[maztez]

Hey gang this thread is priceless. ;D ;D As a fisho (of sorts) for some50 years ::) ::) Ive probably been guilty of many affore mentioned happennings however we are supposed to learn by our mistakes but being mere mortals I guess many more mistakes will occur in ones lifetime ( just have to hope their minor ) ;D ;D
Thank you all
Terry

[GBC]

1.Fishin the Fraser Classic one year - by about day three the system is getting worked out and we're fired for one more fish because the weather's coming in - screaming 8 mile out to the gardeners in the cruise craft and the oil alarm came on - IDIOT.... motor goes into limp home mode and with a boat load of ex-mates I had a LOT of time to remember I owned a two-stroke.
2. Ever had a bird's nest? - Try putting in a turn too quick in a trawler towing triple gear - the effect is called a Roman Candle and takes anything up to two days to sort out the mess. Explaining it to the owner back in Brisbane over the HF resulted in one of the most embarrassing public (open airways with all your peers listening in) dressing downs ever seen.

[snapperdan]

One morning I got a call from the water police that my centre console was sitting in the bottom of Sydney Harbour. I am of the oppinion that I left a p;lastic bag on the deck that combined with a fair amount of rain clogged the self drainer ( no bilge pump) and became a self filler. Luckily I had no proof of this so insurance gave me a brand new 100 yammy to replace my one with 350 hrs and a raymarine color sounder / plotter. Still had to cough up a few though to get her back on the water.

Lost all my good fishing gear paddling the tender out to the mooring in 18 metres water.

Let my brother drive the boat who proceded to run head first into a wharf.

RUn over a dead dog and get it caught in the prop.

I also set up the rig at home and had the lures already attched and rods in the holders. The lures got caught in a tree as we drove off and suprise suprise when we arrived at the spot, we found that all rods were spooled. It was a fun trip back to the ramp that morning.

[Streetkid]

Me and a mate pulled up on a sand bank at the pin to pump yabbies and after five minutes he looks up at me and says "you did put the anchor in didnt you?" then looked up to see his boat about 300metres out from the bank. It was the middle of winter and one of us had to swim to get the boat back, turns out he had blue undies on.

[fishlady]

Watching a Dr friend on an NT ramp beside the busy beer garden of a yacht club. Tide is out a bit so very clever and enterprising Dr lowers jockey wheel, ties rope to tow ball and trailer and pushes trailer out to dinghy and got dinghy on OK. Not such a bad move..... in fact he thinks it worked so well that he drives not just far enough up the ramp to hitch up the trailer but......... all the way to the wash down pad. There he stops his new landcruiser and jumps out just in time to see the dinghy and trailer stove in the back of the new car. Trailer brakes could be handy for these remote retrievals!

[Wyoming]

What a bunch of losers! I have never even approached this level of stupidity, except for the time.....

[Burley_Boy]

MAJOR DEFECT...... You made me spill my beer, damn I laughed, sorry.. [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Ok done the bungs, once, done a few of the other ones but thats called gaining local knowledge... ;D

SnapperDan you beat me to it but I can embelish 8-)
Put rods in rodholders.. drove to ramp, snagged the shade sail over the boat on the way out the drive ... and then.... child comes home from school and finds braid on the footpath, decides to wind around wrist, comes home.... braid a bit tight by now and circulation lacking.. gets cut off :-X
I don't do that one anymore...

Thanks for the posts guys
BB

[MulletMan]

Yeh well I had a ton of fun today at Raby Bay!
Was trying to replace some timber and rusted out steel brackets on the end of my pontoon when BANG!
The whole damn lot snapped off and dumped me, tools, bolts, clamps straight into the drink!
All the miserable bolt had to do on its lousy three threads was hold on long enough till I bashed it right through with a hammer - that wasn't asking a lot of it I reckon .......................but no, it decides to let go and I finish up swimming 'bout like Ben Crop looking for my tools!!
Geez!

[hotsy]

After a fair time of no use of the boat I drove to the ramp, realised I had left the power lead for the winch at home, retied the boat, drove home and returned to the ramp. When pushing the boat off my hand got too close to the spinning winch handle, SMASH, one very split finger. Boat was in the water now and I wasn't going home. Wrapped the split finger up in a towel and went out for a couple of hours and didn't lose a bait! Took the boat home and off to hospital for stiching up. What a day!

[cooch]

Easter time at Pt Broughton (1991)and friend of my old man takes the family up to our shack at Fisherman's BAy with the brand new boat....
Friday morn and they all pile in after launching at the ramp.......turns key.....nothing...... :-/
Tries again....nothing..... :-/
Checks leads.....all look fine?
Bilge pump works! Some power must be there.
Hour later....back on the trailer and into town to local boat mechanic......Good Friday......not open of coarse. >:(
26 degree day gone begging.
Saturday morning and straight to boat yard. By now filthy....kids moaning...leaves boat there after told to come back in the afternoon.......another day gone!!!
Back at 5 to see how they got on??

Very embarrassed drive back to bay with control now in neutral..........

[spuderico]

Hey cooch I just had a simular experience recently with my new purchase. Throttle very secondhand and hadn't put it into neutral properly and was packed up ready to head home from fishing after sun down and ......nuttin. After many minutes and lots of cursing finally worked it out. Was far too far to paddle :'(

[Shafty]

Went out in a mates boat - who was keen to learn some tricks thinking I was experienced. I thought so too until I found that I have been guilty of most of these faux pars.

Anyway went fishing, and took until the third move to realise the sounder was on demo mode. Thought the boat was swinging off the reef into deeper water. 1st time with this type of sounder which was found to be stuck in demo - though blamed the frosty ales the night before for the delayed realisation...still got heaps of fish - gota love Weipa.

[catchy_fishy]

Soooo glad to hear of th emistakes. Made one last week and another today.

Luckily small by comaprison, but i'll be making that list.

1. Yes I've left the bungs out. It gets worse, first time I took the boat out I noticed ahole on the underside of the hull. Really pissed off that I bought a "lemon" I decided to take it in and get a quote on repairing it.

Not knowing what I was asking I said I wanted a bung put in that hole. The repair guy rightly tells me that if I do, it'll just bust off with the first beach landing I do - hmmmm. He quotes me on a brass bung that will sit flush inside the hole - new on the market, etc. Very pricey.Turns out the bung fits on the inside of a storage compartment, and has about 5mm of space before the hull.

So It had a bung already - and the bung was out. - I realised a few days later when I was on board, on my drive way and saw brick paving underneath - I felt so stupid.

Only last week (I've had the boat since Dec) I found another two bung holes, that have never been plugged.

2. Forgot to remove the tow plates, with the brakes and lights etc from the trailer -twice on the same day - cringed as I saw it.

3. Brought the boat home, left it attached to the landy for the week, and then today moved them apart. I forgot to undo the elctrical socket from the trailer to the car and drove off - - sssnapppp.

4. Nearly left the keys behind - One day soon I'm sure.

Catchy Fishy

[saphire]

What a great thread.... Glad it still active as I get such a laugh out of it.

[Wyoming]

OK, I really did c0ck up just a little yesterday in the company of 2 Victorian visitors - how embarasing!

Now, everyone nows that you don't pull your boat up onto the beach on a falling tide.

Hell, I knew that

Anyway, yesterday I fished with my 2 Victorian mates and they made me go to the Little Ship's Club at Bulwer, just for a few minutes to get a quick drink. That was at 11.30 AM and we left the LSC at 9.30 PM..... no further explanation is necessary.

[blaze]

been there, Im blaming me mate that went to sleep on the beach, your excuse is way better.
cheers
blaze

[hogesTS]

haha yeah we did that a couple of weeks ago camping on Nagi (bout 50kms east of TI) came back about half an hour late and only made it halfway to the beach before we were scraping on the reef. put out the anchors and waited for the tide to come back in at about 11pm when we had to walk 50m out to push her back in. was bloody scary thinking about the croc slides i'd seen on the beach that morning... :o

[Wyoming]

Hoges, there were not too many croc slides outside the Little Ship Club, but the most dangerous things were the two Victorians.

[aquarius]

G,Day Neil, Looks like you guys were late home for dinner yesterday...lol
Oh well just think you saved fuel by not motoring around the bay.
Cheers Brent :D

[kevy]

fishing wide of cape moreton one sunday morning with regular deckie who,s prone to be side tracked quite easily, i supply the pillies, him the squid. all the time telling me what a good deal hes got with the squid. upon opening plastic bag & newspaper he produces a nice fresh cabbage, it appears that he grabbed the wrong package out of the fridge. ( we caught no fish on the cabbage) another time he left the muffs on the motor after flushing. kept an eye on him most times " BUTT" cheers kevy. :-[ :)

[bo_sawyer]

on saturday left the boat in the water a bit before going to sleep,

long story, short; the tide went down and the back end of the boat ends up on a 1 1/2m tree stump with the good part of the motor stuck in the hollow tree stump!

[mickstar001]

SUNDAY BACKED THE PROP INTO THE GATE WHICH HAD CAUGHT A GUST OF WIND AND JAMMED THE LEG OF THE MOTOR IN ME GATE - COUPLE OF SCRATCHES AND A NEW PAILING ON MY FENCE WAS THE END RESULT :'(

[Grunter71]

Many years ago, watched some blokes beach launching a boat off the beach with an old landy.

They didn't like the boat to have its own battery, so they would take the battery out of the landy after launching and put it in the boat, and then reverse the process for retrieval.

They launched and had the battery loaded eventually and drove, very sluggishly. Look in the bilge....no bung..... Back to the beach to put the boat back on trailer and drain water.

Bloke jumps off boat and runs up to old Landy. Won't start. Back to boat, retrieve battery, install in Landy and reverse down the beach.

[-Henno-]

Oh gawd, I can't really contribute but have never laughed so much at this site.

I don't know what got me the most, the guy that brought the ice cream fishing or the guy that brought the cabbage!

There's a show I like on telly called Mythbusters and they actually thought the guy leaving the boat ramp (as in putting the boat IN the water) with the trailer attached to his boat was a myth and tested it. The boat went slowly and no surprise was not gunna plane. The guy they borrowed the boat off then told them that he had had customers actually do this and knew other guys that owned boat shops that had seen this one as well. Its bloody commonplace in the good ole US.

Imagine the look on ya face when you opened up a cabbage though,.... priceless stuff.

[kevy]

true story, i kid you not. that guy was a nice bloke "" BUTT"" had to watch him like a hawk, cheers, kevy. :( ::) ::)

[lucylass]

was sitting in the office with a boat ramp right next door when i heard a big bang followed by a van driving about 20kms per
straight down the ramp and into the water, as i watched the van go head first into the water, bounce over the rocks and settle into the water, i tht ...................now theres something different.

i went out and saw a man standing at the top of the ramp with his metal dinghy still in his hands, mouth open.

he had transported his dinghy in the back of the van which he parked at the top of the ramp, when he pulled the dinghy out .. the nose of it caught the handbrake and let it loose.

had to get a tow truck to get it back out cause every thing siezed

all i can say is lucky he hadnt backed the van down the ramp.

[dop]

Hi all
Just joined ausfish.Went to jacobs well a few fridays ago. arrived 3am, good nobody around, did usual things before reversing, bungs ect .Reversed down ramp,perfect. Out of car ,undid safety chain,grabbed bow rope and gave 480m boat a good shove into water .Bow rope decided to break, away goes boat,passed end of wharf,guy fishing on wharf nearly had stroke.Decided to go for swim ,got to boat just past vmr completely stuffed after swim,got into boat and guess what,left the bloody boat keys in car .
Say no more ,true dick -h
regards peter.

[Jackinthebox]

Hey guys, here's another one.... or two......

have homemade berley pot hanging over the back on a cord, then finish fishing, pull up anchor, start motor and drive off. Then u hear a clunk and find you are down one berley pot!

Also lost a transducer off my portable humminbird a few years back in a similar way. We were 5 mins into the first session on a two week mission in the Whitsundays, little did we realise we were about to become sounderless for the whole trip! We stopped to fish a dropoff on our way out of Shute Harbour. After 5 mins, and not realising that the stupid suction cup transducer had let go & floated under the outboard leg while we were fishing, decided to start outboard and motor off ..... with similar result to berley pot story mentioned above!

Cheers,


(fishing buddy also threw the anchor and chain overboard on this trip, damn that D shackle!)

[ozrick]

Quite a few years ago while me and a mate were up north near mission beach we thought we would try our luck at this beach ....instead of parking my mate thought he would drive the F!00 down the beach to the rocky outcrop down the end ....all was fine till we tried to leave that afternoon...the car sank down into the sand to the diff and we were not going anywhere .....anyway it was getting dark and after much digging and scavaging bits of what ever to drive on we had the car linned up for a downhill run onto the wet / harder sand ...welll soon as we hit that sand we sunk really bad, night was falling and the tide was comming in ...we both dug and cursed till we were stuffed then climbed into the back of the car to get some sleep only to be woken by waves crashing over the bonnet during the early hours of the morning
We thought the car was done fore but thankfully it wasnt a large tide ....later that day we managed to get a council backhoe to pull us out ...he damn near got bogged him self .......very sft sand around mission beach....lol ;)

[Jackinthebox]

Ha ha ha, what a classic bunch of stories!

Just read back through the previous pages and nearly pissed myself ! Loved the one about the boat on the trailer being leak tested by filling up with water from the hose!

I have a mate who has just left on a trip around Oz with tinny on top of camper trailer behind the fourby and heading into the wilds of Northern Oz - I'm sure he is the long lost love child of Mr Bean so no doubt I'll get some new material for this thread soon!

It'll only be a matter of time...........

[hogesTS]

ah arent bogged 4wd's fun!
A few years ago my family was camping at Noosa nth shore with our 86 pajero (4cyl). On the second night some bogans in a ford ute rock up with a jetski in tow, and proceeded to haul the ski on the trailer over the dunes by hand, then spend all day jumping waves etc. When they were finished they were too stuffed to haul it back over the dunes so offered me $50 to pull it out with the 4wd, seemed like a good deal at the time.
So after hitching the ski up to the back i set off to the cutting to get off the beach, but all the tracks went north up the beach, so i had to go through all the soft stuff as the tide was coming in. So of course i got bogged up to the running boards(dont change down gears in low range. doh! ::)) but luckily had a shovel in the back, so jumped out and proceeded to dig in the dark, with the waves lapping at the doors to discover that the guys who owned the ski had disappeared!!
Well i eventually dug it out (I was only 16 at the time too) and made it back to the camp, coolant boiling away, but man i dont think i have been as scared as i was that night!! and all the guys could say was "gee mate you took your time"!!! >:(
F***ing jetskiers!!

[catchy_fishy]

Couldnt understand why my sounder kept saying the depth was about 0.2-0.5m below, when I knew the depth to be much more.

On inspection I found the nut was loose that secures it the transducer, and it had swung around pointing upwards.

I was looking for birds above instead of fish below. >:( >:(

Mike

[HBK]

took a girl fishing as a first date...she didn't find it arousing 8-)

[major-defect]

Remembered another one.My brother my girlfriend at the time and myself were in my fathers little boat.We were moving spots when my girlfriend and brother start yelling that we're being chased by a shark they can see a fin coming up behind the boat.I slowed the boat a bit and lokked back and couldn't see anything so took of again.They both start yelling it's back go faster, but it's flat out. I looked back and saw it and for a sec I thought it was a fin to then realised it was the small back sand anchor we'd forgot to pull back in.They both felt really stupid after freaking out.

[vossy]

Have done the leaving the bung out trick a couple of times, but the best one I've seen is a day I went out fishing witha mate and his old man. It was the old boys pride and joy. To cut to the chase we had to put out a bow and stern anchor because of the flowing current, but you guessed it we pulled up the bow but forgot the stern anchor. The boat drifted back , and as we took off the rope pulled off the tie down point along with part of the gunwale. You think the the lod boy was happy jeesh!

[Tinn]

A mate of mine went out fishing got on to some good fish filled the esky full of fish. They returned to the ramp and one of them took the esky out of the boat and put it on the ramp and that is where it stayed for some other lucky person to find an esky full of fish plus some gear inside the esky. ;D ;D ;D ;D

[fastmantis]

The only ones i have done is as most left out the bungs and the other was when i was cleaning out the boat at home i had the anchor on the ground to wash the rope and of course when i had finnished the clean went to drive off and the anchor dug into the ground and left me wondering why the car wasnt pulling. only damage was the anchor got bent. but din't do it again :D

Mantis

[gotya]

Good Friday. The Maiden voyage with new boat. Packed the boat with all the gear. esky in with supplies and ice, rods, net and gaff and top up the fuel and off we to the ramp. Waited in line for 15 minutes so double checked everything. Launch the boat no problems found a found a car park 10 miles away and walking back to the boat UM WHERES THE BAIT still at home .....UM.....*%#@#.....buggar!
Oh well it's time to give the SP's ago. No fish but i'm learning to play with em.

[gotya]

opps doubled up

[Mozza]

I've got a couple of doozis:

Fishing at Shady camp (NT-Croc Paradise) there was a fair bit of fresh coming over the barrage. We pushed up into the current as close as we could without the guys on the bank and barage tossing their lures into the boat. Anchored up and started threshing trhe water to foam with our lures.

Cant' remember much because what happened next kinda sticks in the mind.

The anchor pulled and we started drifting downstream with the current. With the anchor out our drifitng speed was perfect. I was at the back of the boat and you know happens next... The anchor suddenly sticks and the jerk is enough for me to get extremely well acquainted with the motor. Unfortunately in my desparate attempts to avoid being croc food (they line up here at 10-20m intervals), I had to sacrifice my new abu6500 and ripper rod to the water gods.

Shady camp accounts for a number of stupid things in a boat:

Jumping out onto one of the other smaller barrages right next to a 1.5 m croc (twice), tourists in a hire boat gathering all of our trolling lines around their prop.

A mate taking me through the densest part of the croc herd at low tide at full speed - that was just plain stupid and I still have nightmares.

Elsewhere becoming distratced by the lure swinging in the wind and attempting to reattach to guide at full speed in creek and attempting a short cut thru the mangroves. (that was funny)

I've got more.

Mozza