I always hear stories about launch ramp incidents, but this is the first time I have witnessed something of this level of stupidity, and of course it had to involve a blowboater.
I was sitting at the local marina watching the scenary go by when a sailor, and I use that term lightly, rolls by in his Honda CRV pulling his 12-14 foot blowboat. He did not have the hitch locked down or the winch line hooked up, he hit a bump in the pavement causing the trailer hitch to bounce off the ball and onto the ground, he slams on his brakes and then the boat slid forward on the trailer and slammed into the back of truck. A couple of guys that were standing right near him when it happened helped him hook the trailer back up, lock down the hitch and connect the winch line. He then proceeds to the ramp to launch. As he is backing the thing down the ramp, the trailer hooks to the right and the stern of the boat slams into the ramp wall. He straightens it out and finally gets it in the water. He then pulls the trailer out and heads over to park in a no parking zone along the waters edge. There is no fence or barrier of any kind at the edge, just an unprotected drop from the pavement to the water. Instead of parking parallel with the edge, sailor boy decides he is going to back up into his non-existent parking spot. Whether it was lack of paying attention or lack of brain cells that caused him to forget that he had a trailer hooked up to the back of his truck, but he backed that trailer right off edge. Luckily for him it was a small trailer and he was not going very fast, so it just dropped off at the wheels and he was able to drive the truck forward and pull it back up onto land. The last I saw of this moron he was heading out onto the lake with 3 girls in his boat. Haven't read anything in the news about a missing boater so I can only assume they all made it back to shore... or they just haven't been reported missing yet.....
I was sitting at the local marina watching the scenary go by when a sailor, and I use that term lightly, rolls by in his Honda CRV pulling his 12-14 foot blowboat. He did not have the hitch locked down or the winch line hooked up, he hit a bump in the pavement causing the trailer hitch to bounce off the ball and onto the ground, he slams on his brakes and then the boat slid forward on the trailer and slammed into the back of truck. A couple of guys that were standing right near him when it happened helped him hook the trailer back up, lock down the hitch and connect the winch line. He then proceeds to the ramp to launch. As he is backing the thing down the ramp, the trailer hooks to the right and the stern of the boat slams into the ramp wall. He straightens it out and finally gets it in the water. He then pulls the trailer out and heads over to park in a no parking zone along the waters edge. There is no fence or barrier of any kind at the edge, just an unprotected drop from the pavement to the water. Instead of parking parallel with the edge, sailor boy decides he is going to back up into his non-existent parking spot. Whether it was lack of paying attention or lack of brain cells that caused him to forget that he had a trailer hooked up to the back of his truck, but he backed that trailer right off edge. Luckily for him it was a small trailer and he was not going very fast, so it just dropped off at the wheels and he was able to drive the truck forward and pull it back up onto land. The last I saw of this moron he was heading out onto the lake with 3 girls in his boat. Haven't read anything in the news about a missing boater so I can only assume they all made it back to shore... or they just haven't been reported missing yet.....
