The Launch Goes Wrong!! | Boneheaded Boaters of the Week

Welcome back to Boneheaded Boaters of the Week! As usual we review some clips of some people doing some silly things on a boat mixed in with some people doing incredible things on boats.

We have several good ones this week including a close call at the ramp.

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[whyamibeingpesteredtogetahandl]

RNLI Scotland clip is so radical. These guys are local fishermen(usually) that risk their lives, voluntarily, to save others. Maximum respect.

[SaltWalkerOutdoors]

I just bought my first boat a week ago and went to my local boat ramp today and luckily everything went smooth!

[anthonypearl]

That’s why I love having a pier. I only take the boat in and out once a year thru that crappy boat launch

[loganholmberg]

IMO most launching and loading attempts fail cause somebody doesn't want to get wet. I just take the socks off and put my boat shoes or sandals on and get to it. Somebodies got to do it and its allot less grief if you just volunteer.
Nevermind the amount saved on gear. My Dad's got all kinds of crap hanging off his trailer so he can drive it on and off. It bloody amazes me that for an event that involves water how much crap people go through and spend to avoid getting wet. 😂

[MaxRunia]

IDK about newer jet skis but my 2004 seadoo required you clamp off the water intake if you were going to tow it.

[myotheraccount]

That last one looked like the guy was like "I'm gonna watch you dock it."

[olivei]

We use the strap method of launching. Only way to get a fixed-keel sailboat deep enough to float off a trailer. It's a bit of a challenge and some one always forgets to undo the bow strap. Pretty cold water in April.

[markmcknight]

Love the guy waving goodbye to the van

[kecronin]

That coverd pwc gettin towed was probably just stolen

[noodengrthree]

25 years ago my bro and I were waiting our turn to launch our PWC. A DNR officer was ahead of us and when he backed up the trailer stood vertical, the boat slid off unmanned and he was left very red faced since he had not latched the hitch correctly

[paulne]

I have an old truck, camper and boat. (Grownups boat) I have an eye screwed in behind my left rear tire. When I back down, I have a big rubber chock with a chain and a quick disconnect, that I hook to the eye and jam the chock behind my tire. When I am done, I just drive up to level ground, disconnect the chain and put the chain and chock in my truck. It drags behind my truck, out of the way. Old school stuff.

[nothingsurprisesmeanymore]

That RNLI boat in Scotland coming in to harbour is like a clip from a film, that's scary stuff.

[timboc]

Those Negative tides can sometimes hurt! 😆

[jamminwrenches]

I've heard of water socks but sheesh!

[Sick-o]

“Well over 200 PWCs showed up this event”
Remind me to stay off the water whenever the next one of these rolls around

[randombird]

Those seadoo pontoons are technically not even out yet, and already they are breaking them.

[ick]

Ok I watch this to see if I made it on!!! Lol... So at 3:59 I had to rewind it to see if that was me!!! Nope not me... Lol

[goingfubar]

This took place quite awhile ago, back in 1984, I was driving a racing ski boat for a Dr who owned the boat. Now every year there is a waterskiing race that goes from Long Beach Harbor to Catalina Island and back, basically 60 miles of open ocean waterskiing. The boat was a 19' Race craft with a Blown 454, V-Drive and a two speed Power Glide transmission, and the most radical cam, when idling through the harbor this boat would actually lurch in stead of just going straight the lop of the cam would cause it to change speed. Now the Doc would be on a ski rope 120' behind the boat which is quite aways back on a slalom ski ( yeah a single ski I just drove the boat) and it would take me and the navigator to put the ski on the Doc and then we would have to pick him up and throw him in the water. It was a week before the race and the Doc wanted to get some more practice in so we went down to San Pedro CA at Cabrio Beach there was a public boat ramp, and we got in the water and started with the Doc behind us, now we had been warned a couple of times about waterskiing across LA Harbor because of the large ship traffic you were supposed to go outside of the breakwater and then you could come back on the Long Beach side, and most of time it was no biggie ( however I was in law enforcement and I knew most of the Port Wardens, and their super fast drug enforcement boat which was what was supposed to able to catch the drug runners we could out run it while the Doc was skiing, and it was very helpful that I knew the Port Wardens) anyway since we going out of the breakwater the Doc wanted to head towards Catalina Island instead, I wasn't real happy about that, but it was his boat ( one of the problems I had was the boat the Race Craft was more of a lake boat not what you really want in the ocean as it only had about 8" of freeboard, the distance from the water to the top of the sides and out in open ocean that can get very interesting really quick) so I head out of the harbor and immediately we have serious water, as we would loose site of the Doc between the waves. Now this was starting to get kind of serious situation between the water and then the boat started to act up. Now because this was a racing boat it didn't have your standard setup instead of controlling it from the right side, the controls were on the left, and it didn't have a standard floor it was just the bottom of the boat, so you had exposed drive shaft that was spinning and the transmission had what is known as a scatter shield which was really a kelvar cover in case the transmission were to come apart it would literally be a bomb going of. So now the boat is acting up and not running smoothly and I turned on the radio because the waves were doing like a 6' to 8' swell with 3 to 4 foot wind waves on top, and then the radio said that there was small craft warnings all along the Coast. Now after the Doc had fallen for the sixth time he was kinda giving me some static about it and I told him that we needed to head back because there was something wrong with the motor, we then fished him out of the water and headed back to the boat ramp. Now it's one thing to go hauling ass out in the harbor, but when you get near the dock and the ramp you are required to go 5mph or less, and they are very serious about it. As I was I approaching the dock and had slowed down the boat was surging and it wasn't the cam, it was like it would speed up and then when you changed the throttle it would slow down on its own. Now at high speeds you didn't notice it but at slow speed it was obvious, also while going slow and you wanted to go faster then you had to feather the throttle or the motor would just die, it would restart fairly quick but it was annoying and you had to be careful when coming up to the dock. When we got to the dock I got out to go get the vehicle with the boat trailer, I was very good with putting the trailer right were it needed to be even with other idiots on the same ramp. Well while I was getting the trailer in place the Doc decided to do a high speed run up and down the harbor to try and see what I was talking about, and at high speeds it was ok but when you had to go slow or change gears it was a serious problem. Well he made his speed run and was all set to give a bunch of crap about how I didn't know what I was talking about and I didn't know how to handle the boat. Now the Doc would always come straight into the ramp area at a high speed and then put in reverse to slow down and keep the wake from surfing the boat in to fast. And that's exactly what he did, except this time when he put in reverse the motor died, and the boat is heading right for the trailer but way to fast, he is trying to restart the motor and it's turning over but it wasn't starting, ( also you had to start it in neutral because of the cam) now I'm at the front of the trailer and I know that if I don't stop it or slow it down it's going to be halfway into the Van that we are using for the tow vehicle. Well the bow is over the end of the trailer and the motor finally started and the Doc puts it in reverse and hit the throttle, and it actually slowed the boat some, and in the meantime I'm grabbing the fixture on the front to hook up the winch mount and the boat slammed me into the back doors of the Van and I broke the mount of the boat, now the boat was on the trailer when he put it in reverse and you hear the motor rev up then a very loud bang and clang and all of sudden the motor is rev up and then shuts down. The Doc had destroyed the prop, and it's one week before the race, needless to say it was a crazy week because it took a very specific prop because the engine was to powerful and if the prop wasn't right it could come apart or if the pitch was wrong it could actually cause the boat to go airborne and destroy the boat and kill whoever was in it, ( really bad for one's health) he finally found a prop that had just been cast and it was sent to us to put on Friday and the race was on Sunday. We figured out what was the problem with the motor, the carburetor had a diaphragm and it had a rip in it and that's what was causing the problem that was fixed on Tuesday and the prop was late Friday night when we finished it up, and we still had to test it out in the water to make sure that it was going to work ( because of the rush and it being a special prop it cost $1500 in 1984 dollars which in today's prices probably between$13000 to $15000 for just the prop ) and so me and the Doc took it out and everything was fine, all set to go for the race in the morning at 7am and I went home to get some sleep because I knew that the next day was going to be harsh. I was pretty upbeat about it because it was a very fast boat, we had trained for close to six months ( in the beginning we had to replace two different navigators because they were completely clueless on how to handle the job). Now this was the real deal with professional boat racers where in this race ( name dropping time, there was Ellenbrock racing team with old man Ellenbrock himself was there, there was a team from Holley, Spectra boat's team and quite a few others) so I showed up around 5am and the race had been set back about an hour, so I get there and boat is down and on the trailer instead of in the water, ask the Doc what's going on. Well the night before he had decided to do one more run and blew the impeller, and without it there was no water going through to cool the water and we didn't have a spare and neither did anyone else. Now I was really pissed because I had put a lot of my time in to this and now it's looking like it was done, two hours before the race was to start. And then just as I was getting ready to go, the Doc's wife pulls up with another boat, saved. Well it was the family boat but it had a detuned Ford 427 that was at 400hp ( and yes Ford made a 427 at a little over 400hp from the factory and a police interceptor that was 600hp from the factory and that's the motor in this boat) the boat was a 21' Spectra with all the stuff for a great day at the lake, however the gauguess sucked the handling was different and it had a lousy compass which did affect the race (we were off course like 20 miles) and effected our finish, came in fourth instead of second because of the extra distance. Anyway it was a total blast and I would love to be able to do it again even with all the little things that made life so interesting.
😎😎🚤🚤🛥️🚤😜👍👍

[malfunctionjunction]

The guy named his van "BUBBLES".

[capn_ron]

It always puzzles me how people bury their vehicles at the ramp. Do that many people forget to put it in park?