Mistakes I have made

[ozynorts]

I have so far been pretty lucky. I am on my 4 winch handle though. I had a near miss today though. I was getting the boat ready for a trip out to Musgrave tomorrow and was cleaning the side pockets out and glanced at my oil box. HOLY CRAP........ It was lower than I had realised. Note to self, check oil level EVERY time you fill up.....

[deckie]

Those winch handles are a donation to the ramp gods, like leaving an umbrella on the train. If there was a lost and found box at a ramp it'd be full of them.
Last week on a VERY quiet day came back into the ramp and there was a bloke with a jetski taking up both lanes of the ramp with his cute diagonal backing ...told him "no hurry at all mate" on the way to grab the trailer, then 5mins later started backing down and no room, so waited assuming he would spot me and move his rig off, still nothing so wandered down and politely asked him if he was ready to move off yet and he seemed a bit shirty about it, next thing i know i;m telling him to move the f'ken thing or i'd move it (and him) for him..u get the picture. Another minute or two later and he gets in his car (with an evil eye on me) and takes off so i back down thinking "Why the hell do so many take so long", "i;ll have this done in 1 minute and off i go"...so i hook up and go back to the winch and find NO WINCH HANDLE...took me bloody 10 minutes of searching the carpark and finally found it in the dirt but in the meantime i was taking up space on the ramp when someone else had came in. Felt like an absolute tossa of course.
Must be some sort of winch handle fairy that knows just when to strike.
No idea why winch handles suddenly grow legs and jump out of peoples tow rigs, or decide it'd be nicer just to stay at home today.

[WalrusLike]

I haven't lost the winch handle yet..... but probably will now I've said that. I try and keep it in only two places: drivers side floor after putting boat in water and anchor well after the retrieve.

Works so far....

Also my handle has a latch so it can't fall off unless deliberately removed... are they all like that?

[ozynorts]

no they are not all like that. I have lost them driving off the ramp and not realising until getting home. I have lost one after launching and had a lot of fun winching back on without it. A tip for those who may do this, supercheap have them quite cheap.

[The-easyrider]

A process i got into the habit of is as I store my whinch handle in the back of the patrol when it comes out I leave the door open until the handle goes back in

[justlovefishing]

we have heaps of winch handles under the counter at the yeppoon coast gaurd from the ramp. I have done the dreaded leaving the bungs out a couple of times over the years also. Best I have seen was at townsville. 24ft boat behind a holden commodore being launched with tide moving fast. Never removed the strap from the stern of the boat. Advised him and were told to piss off I know what I am doing. Next thing boat and car disapearing in to water.

[Fed]

You guys are beginners.

Can you imagine standing at the ramp on a dark cold night, wringing wet and looking at your new Fairlane, all you can see it the very tip of the aerial and a feint glow from the interior light?

[WalrusLike]

Fed that's our terrible nightmare. Bummer mate...

Long time ago? How did it happen?

[Fed]

A very long time ago Wal.
It was a fatal mix of stupidity, beer, reversing lights because it was dark and automatic choke because it was cold. The perfect storm.
I did manage to get back into the car though but by then it was bobbing & sinking.
Lesson learned, there is no way you can open a car door when it's half submerged and getting out of a window when there's a waterfall coming in is pretty hard too.

[WalrusLike]

Live and learn eh Fed!

The fact it can happen is what is useful to know for us all, if we are aware of the risks we can use care in the spots it's needed, thanks for sharing.

Someone I know who is not on this forum had a incident recently....

A while ago he had made a live tank under floor. Gate-valve through transom to fill it. Water level should stop it overfilling. Unfortunately some of the glassed timber frame had swollen and cracked away from supports. He opened the valve, got distracted, then forgot to close it.

When the carpet floor stated squelching he knew he had a problem....

The water was entering the live tank reaching the cracks then flowing in to the bilge. The wet carpet also alerted him to the fact that the autobilge pump wasn't functional.

Hundreds of gallons of water takes a long time to empty via a 12 volt shower pump.

[juggernaut]

Going back quite a few years now I was on my younger brothers boat with the missus and older brother. Younger brother was driving at WOT back to the boat ramp on the Swan River here in Perth in a ski area and wasn't paying attention to the lateral markers (neither were any of us for that matter). Next minute the boat is airborne, lands again and gets airborne again and we finally come to a halt in the water. Missus face planted the windscreen and my older brother and I who were standing up down the back of the boat nearly ended up through ther windscreen.

For a moment I thought we hit a bloody ski ramp or two! When we had come to a stop in the water and picked ourselves up off the deck and it came clear we'd all missed lateral marker and hit some underlying rocks - which I later discovered the local birds use as an island at low tide.

After complaining of spilt beer, we assessed the damage - the outboard had kicked up twice during the ordeal and over extended and smashed fibreglass transom cowling around the outboard that doubled as armrests where my older brother and I had been sitting moments before my younger brother had attempted to fly his fibreglass 18 footer.

Remarkably the old Chrysler outboard fired up and as expected there was a horrible vibration when in gear - yet we still had forward motion and headed back to the nearby boat ramp at low rpm. When we got it on the trailer only superficial damage had been done to the hull and the vibration was caused by some weed that had been picked off the rocks whilst the prop was doing an impersonation of a whipper snipper.

Still reflect how lucky my older brother and I were that we'd stood up moments before the unintended "attempted flight" as the outboard motor would have surely caused serious damage to our arms if they'd still been on the smashed armrest.

[Crunchy]

Going back quite a few years now I was on my younger brothers boat with the missus and older brother. Younger brother was driving at WOT back to the boat ramp on the Swan River here in Perth in a ski area and wasn't paying attention to the lateral markers (neither were any of us for that matter). Next minute the boat is airborne, lands again and gets airborne again and we finally come to a halt in the water. Missus face planted the windscreen and my older brother and I who were standing up down the back of the boat nearly ended up through ther windscreen.

For a moment I thought we hit a bloody ski ramp or two! When we had come to a stop in the water and picked ourselves up off the deck and it came clear we'd all missed lateral marker and hit some underlying rocks - which I later discovered the local birds use as an island at low tide.

After complaining of spilt beer, we assessed the damage - the outboard had kicked up twice during the ordeal and over extended and smashed fibreglass transom cowling around the outboard that doubled as armrests where my older brother and I had been sitting moments before my younger brother had attempted to fly his fibreglass 18 footer.

Remarkably the old Chrysler outboard fired up and as expected there was a horrible vibration when in gear - yet we still had forward motion and headed back to the nearby boat ramp at low rpm. When we got it on the trailer only superficial damage had been done to the hull and the vibration was caused by some weed that had been picked off the rocks whilst the prop was doing an impersonation of a whipper snipper.

Still reflect how lucky my older brother and I were that we'd stood up moments before the unintended "attempted flight" as the outboard motor would have surely caused serious damage to our arms if they'd still been on the smashed armrest.

You don't mentioned how the missus fared after all this...

[juggernaut]

You don't mentioned how the missus fared after all this...

Haha...she lived.....I'm onto missus version 2.0 she was old version 1.0.....so being an ex I didn't think to mention it.

And before you ask......... the "upgrade" wasn't caused by the incident.

[Relaxedcamper]

Yesterday was a great day. The sun was shining and the wind was about 4 knots. Packed up the family 'nice and early' and arrived at the ramp only to be greeted by an entire car park full with trailers also being parked on the approach and departure road from the ramp.

Holy crap look at all these people.

Drove into one of the rigging lanes and was thrown then wondering where we were going to park if we launched the boat. The suddenly I saw someone coming in so I decided to 'GO FOR IT' and get it into the water and nab the car park.

Back the boat down the lane and trailer into the water.

Shit can't undo the d shackle on the safety chain. Why didn't put some spray on the thread over winter.

Used all my super powers and some help from the man above after uttering my request for help and finally got it undone.!!!

The boat is now in the water and docked and the wife swings her leg over the side to get in and drops her car keys in the water. You know the sort that have the expensive blippers on them.

Shorts rolled right up. shirt off. "Yeah mate, she did drop the keys.......How long will I be?.....Sorry about the wait I just need to get the keys.....Yeah thanks for your patience mate?!?!?!"

Got them Yeah!!!!

Ummm.....well you all know where this story is going.

15min out on the water my wife says 'You did put the bung in?'

Oh......Um.......NO!!!!!.

Stop the boat, drop the dacks, lose the shirt and out the back we go. The bung was just hanging there and I was able to screw it in. Sweet.

Bilge pump on........A minute or two of pumping and were off.

Arrived at our destination just off from the edge of a shipping channel, fished a while and decided to try something different.

Turn the key....Dead. What the!!!!! I have had both batteries on a ctec charger on and off over winter and they both were charged when we left.

Now turn the battery isolating switch to 2 and off we go.

The little feller catches the biggest flat head on the smallest rod. 46cm fish on his much loved canoe rod. Nice job.

Oldest boy feels the need to go to the toilet. No worries we have a small chemical on on board. He opens the lid and is greeted by 'floral smelling water with masses of black specks in it'. The toilet seals had broken down and all the top tank flushing water had leaked into the bowl and mixed with it the decayed rubber seals. Needless to say he didn't need to go after that.

Return to the boat ramp. Docked beautifully. Ran up to get the car and on my return the two boys are both crying. The oldest one had knocked the little fellers rod into the drink. This time the extendable gaff came out and I fished it off the bottom the ramp now all covered in slime.

Did I mention that the ramp was as busy coming in as it was going out.

Got home and rinsed the car keys in fresh water, dried them off and opened them up. A tribute to Toyota, both blippers were totally dry inside, and they both work perfectly.

We are getting a new chemical toilet, I have ordered new battery from my marine mechanic and he is going to load test the other one to see if it is also on the way out. I am now keeping a spare bung or two in the boat in a highly obvious place somewhere and finally the best lesson learnt.

Don't get your routine rattled otherwise mistakes will happen.

Cheers.

[WalrusLike]

Porta loos.... I have had three. First was a reliable Thetford Portaloo that lasted many many years.

Next was a unknown brand that came with the boat. Not as quality a feeling on its handles and latches etc but worked ok till one trip where the toilet footwell area had foul water sloshing. A seal had gone...

Last one is a new Thetford Portaloo and it is even better than the original. Best you can buy I reckon.