Boat ramp entertainment

[wayno60]

I do...... if their like what muddy T said, the backwards base ball cap hero's with the doof doof blaring out , mate there on their own but yes the older guy on his own or mum, dad and the kids that are having a hard time and who would appreciate the help im the first one there.

[Te Whiti]

Well my post/experience is a bit different to some of the above ones..

I have been one of those guys who dearly needed a hand. And i've also been one of those guys in the past who has given a hand when i knew it was needed.

But it's one experience I will always remember. 6 years ago and very knew to offshore fishing/boating. 3 of us beachlaunched a 4 metre tiller steer on Homebeach Nth Straddie.
Being knew to offshore fishing and never having beach launched before we picked a spot for entry which was relatively steep (thinking similar to a ramp)....we hadn't considered what the beach would be like at a tide later on for the retrieve.

A number of hours go by, squire coming on board, we head in feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves.

Tide is now getting quite full and the beach even steeper....we back the Jeep Grand Cherokee down (had been owned a few months but a new second-hand), hitch the boat, only to start getting bogged.....things went from bad to worse very quick on the incoming. soft steep sand, bigger surf, cars bogged, unhitch the trailer, too late, car is stuck.

Now what followed really interested me, here's a few guys thinking they had done the right thing, but just had it all wrong.We weren't trying to be reckless or being cowboys but just inexperienced trying to have a fish (2 brothers and an old man) we were in a real state and needed help on an otherwise pretty lonely beach.

Some blokes would rock up and then would park their 4wd up on the beach and proceed to crack the beers whist talking and watching our desperation as the Jeep was b*lls deep and going under... and then you'd get some other champions who'd come along and offer some genuine support. They couldnt help us in the end but I sure appreciated the gesture.

So I am one of those guys who's made a meal out of it, I reckon there's a lot more out there, who if honest, would say they have as well at some stage. But everyone's got to start to learn from somewhere.

Sorry about the ramble, but the thread brought back some memories...

Mark

[deckie]

Can be a great way to pass an hour. Ramps are fun on Sundays as long as its not you doing the launch/retrieve. Wont go near one on the weekend these days unless late arvo/eventing. Usually a friendly place and a good spot to kill an hour relaxing and enjoying a beer. You can offer help, especially for guys shorthanded on larger rigs, and invariably accepted with a smile..but we've all met the weekend warrior who even takes offence to you suggesting something. In which case whynot just sit back and enjoy the show .

Recently up at Akuna Bay having a coffee at the marina and a 40ish guy in a 4m tiller steer tinnie lauching by himself with noone around. Pure entertainment out of the blue. He backed it down and the back roller was still out of the water..struggled to get aboard then spent 5minutes drying his feet and sorting stuff out, put the motor down with prop half out and started it. Bang first time which i thought was great for an old 2 stk, the noise was deafening (if u know this place u know how quiet it is normally) then he proceded to rock himself back and forth with the motor in reverse trying to dislodge it from the trailer asnd back off the trailer...then again and again, then he stood up and tried rocking it again but more violently. Motor stalled so he just pulled it again and she fired and started trying to dislodge it the same way again with his weight. Then he leaned precariously over the front to check he'd taken off the cable and by now we were having a good chuckle coz u could tell he was trying the impossible...we yelled out but he couldnt have heard anything wth the motor going. Finally stopped the motor and we yelled out.."back her down a bit more" and all we got was "yeah yeah" and a dismissive wave of the hand like mind your own business. So he got out and backed it down another maybe half metre and did it all over again to no avail. Eventually he backed it down far enough by which time we were loving watching it. He tied up, parked the car, then came back and the donk wouldnt start. You could just about see the steam rising from his head. Eventually took off at 8knots in a crawl zone.

1 minute walk around and go help ? or do just enjoy the show ? We didnt go help no...but had some bonus entertainment for 10 mins..so shoot me

[PinHead]

Don't they make ramps 2 or more lanes wide for people like me? Gotta get the trailer moving from side to side all the way down..if any narrower and I would never find the water..what is wrong with jack knifing on the ramp? Oh..and once the trailer is in the water what is wrong with spending time getting the motor started etc...others can wait..I never see a sign stating time limit on the ramps.

Now..to all the expert trailer reversers..try this one..berthing a 30' boat..3m beam into a 4m wide berth with the wind right across the boat..damn I hated berthing at times.

[deckie]

Don't they make ramps 2 or more lanes wide for people like me? Gotta get the trailer moving from side to side all the way down..if any narrower and I would never find the water..what is wrong with jack knifing on the ramp? Oh..and once the trailer is in the water what is wrong with spending time getting the motor started etc...others can wait..I never see a sign stating time limit on the ramps.

Now..to all the expert trailer reversers..try this one..berthing a 30' boat..3m beam into a 4m wide berth with the wind right across the boat..damn I hated berthing at times.

..and why do they always put those pesky wooden poles just where u dont want them ?
Not so bad when you have duals but with a single donk its a nightmare till you've done it 50 times. Bastard to get used to dual binnacles just looking fwd...left in fwd, stbd rverse, ease the throttle on the left , or was it the right to turn stbd ? Then bring port to neutral, strb in rvse, ease throttle of port back, or should it be stbd...AAGHHH !!!!!!
Then like u say, try turning around at the helm and doing it all looking backwards not even looking at the controls, in a gusty wind and backing into no space...double AGHHH !!!! Takes years to get confident.
Then just when u think she's lined up, gun the throttles a bit and kind of hope for the best and make sure u stop short. Hopefully you've avoided the half mill of pristine f/glass next to you as well as the poles. Should have some sort of remote joystick thingy

[PinHead]

..and why do they always put those pesky wooden poles just where u dont want them ?
Not so bad when you have duals but with a single donk its a nightmare till you've done it 50 times. Bastard to get used to dual binnacles just looking fwd...left in fwd, stbd rverse, ease the throttle on the left , or was it the right to turn stbd ? Then bring port to neutral, strb in rvse, ease throttle of port back, or should it be stbd...AAGHHH !!!!!! Then like u say, try turning around at the helm and doing it all looking backwards not even looking at the controls, in a gusty wind and no space...double AGHHH !!!! Takes years to get confident. Then just when u think she's lined up, gun the throttles a bit and hope for the best, and stop short. Hopefully you've avoided the half mill of pristine f/glass next to you as well as the poles. Should have some sort of remote joystick thingy !

LOL..I had dual sterndrives..and still not that simple as the props were out behind the boat..i would have given my left one at times for a bowthruster. The hardest thing to do was not touch the sterring wheel..do that and it got even worse..LOL Forget the pristine glass next to me..I was always paranoid about scratching my glass. The remote joystick..ahhhhhhhhhh..IPS..awesome stuff.

[bugsytwoshoes]

I've been there, backed my tinny down the ramp while my so called mate went across the road to buy bait. Got to waters edge unhooked boat then decided I wasn't quite down to the water far enough got back in car and reversed down another metre, applied brakes, turned car off, stuffed around for a minute ( ramp not busy ) got out, BOAT GONE , @#%&$*%# , boat out almost in the middle of the Tweed River. I'ts the middle of winter and I'm stripping down to my undies on the ramp beside a very busy road and I'm a big fat ugly bastard swims out to boat and after a hard time trying to get in the boat I come back into the ramp to pick up my so called mate who by this time had gathered every passerby,jogger,and dog walker that he could find and gave them all a running commentary on my misfortune. I told him to get in the boat and shut up and he informed the substantial crowd that he wasn't going anywhere with me in my undies crowd were shaking with laughter.

[Richo1]

Hardest bit is getting out of the water after you have done the 100m dash in record time!
A good mate did a similar thing to me in FNQ. We were doing a stealth raid on a prawn farm for some live bait, pulled up in this croc infested mangrove creek. As we got out I said make sure you put the anchor out his reply was "no worries" as he threw the anchor out. About 50m away doing comando crawls through the mud & mangroves I had this gut instinct that something was wrong. Looked back at the boat to see the bitter end of the anchor rope falling into the water and the boat drifting away with a run out tide.

Had 2 options;
1) walk into the prawn farm and explain what we were doing there
2) swim for the boat
Well my mate just looked at me with an expression that said "no f*&^ing way am I swiming" so I decided to risk the swim rather than get caught by the shot gun weilding prawn farm owner. It was the fastest 100m swim I have ever done and reckon it would have made Ian Thorpe look like an a hippo.
Fortunately I didn't have an audience and the crocs weren't hungry that day - guess it was Karma catching up with me, and haven't been to a prawn farm since!

[netmaker]

had an occasion 1 weekday at wello pt. broke the pull cord so doing a fix on the outer most ramp lane. no-one at ramp till bloke shows up and gives me curry for taking up his ramp lane. thing is the 1 i took up was the shallowest and it was low tide. this bloke tho said he liked to use the lane i was in!! there are 4 of them there. imagine my quiet mirth when i am fixed and ready to go and old mate has his bilge pumps running flat out. he was so busy giving me sh!t he forgot to put his bungs in. he was still pumping when i left - and taking up the best ramp lane! i didn't say a word. he knew i knew - didn't need to say a word.

[Jarrah Jack]

There was a guy at the ramp a few days ago who drove up on the trailer with the motor down. Crunch, very easy to do. He went to drive away with the motor still down. A few of the boys yelled advice but were given the finger as he drove up the ramp scraping the skeg off.

[Dan5]

There was a guy at the ramp a few days ago who drove up on the trailer with the motor down. Crunch, very easy to do. He went to drive away with the motor still down. A few of the boys yelled advice but were given the finger as he drove up the ramp scraping the skeg off.

Seen that a few times.......yeow.......brand new 150 honda at Dinah beach ramp......lifted the ass end of a 6mtr boat up off the trailer.

Years ago at the Daly ramp when it was brand new we launched a 13'punt off of a brand new trailer i built........problem was we launched it off the top of the ramp and about 40' from the water........DOH.....jeez it slid off so nice......LOL.

Dan

[Giffo65]

I was at the Tallebudgera ramp one day putting the boat in,bloke and his wife next to me with an old glass runabout.He is pushing and pushing trying to slide it of the trailer,I made a comment about it being hard to move,he said, yeah it had not been off the trailer in ages.I walked over and pointed out that it would be easier to launch if he unhooked the winch rope from the boat.This poor buggers missus is now in fits of laughter, and saying she can't wait to tell her friends about it.I said to him,don't worry mate, I have done myself before.As I drove up the ramp I could still hear his wife giving him a ribbing.

[Jarrah Jack]

Once you do that once Dan the safety chain becomes god. Would love to see it on video though. Just don't try with the new boat

[Dan5]

Once you do that once Dan the safety chain becomes god. Would love to see it on video though. Just don't try with the new boat

It was a laugh.....i was in the ute and old mate was used to his old trailer........undone the winch undone the chain.........rolled back a foot....wooosh off she went.........crunch bang.........was an old shitter anyway so we weren't too worried.....was a good laugh though

[rosco1974]

i recon the best place i have seen for this sort of entertainment is the ramp down jacobs well.even the locals turn up around lunchtime sundays with deck chairs and eskies to watch it.