Daves Idea - Stupid boat mistakes:

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Radiowaves

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Dave had a good idea --- We should start a thread of stupid boat mistakes:

- Left ladder down
- Still tied to dock and pulling out.
- Wife throws rope to someone on dock without tying to cleat.
- Pull boat out at ramp with engine trimmed down!
- Gas on auto shut off and starts to bubble out filler hole.
- Hitting sand bar
- Dropping phone, keys, beer, money, wallet, etc in water.
- Leaving anchor hanging down while driving home.
- Wearing a hat in the wind....see ya!
- Falling in!

Any others?

Originally posted by Dani-Lu

This one could have been very embarassing, like most mistakes on the dock. I started pulling out of slip when my wife screamed to stop. I forgot to disconnect the dockside power cable from the dockside power box. Another foot or two and I would have taken the dock box with us! Close call, but no damage.

Originally posted by jtsmlarson

How about forgetting to take the transom straps off the boat and trailer before launching. Forgetting to put the plug in. Forgetting to lower the VHF antenna's. I could go on and on. Not all of these are mine of course!!
 
Someone going from I/O’s to inboards for the first time and forgetting the 4 levers instead of two. Now in reverse about to hit a pole, needing to go forward quickly and pushing the throttle forward instead of the shifter… ending up going faster in reverse… Crack … Boom.. Split… Downed Pole, Cracked Platform… Bent Prop after running over the pole…

Red face Captain. Admiral very “quiet” dock neighbors consoling but giggling on the inside.. Not a good end of the day for this “person”
 
Not me but my friend thought he's bridge could clear a real bridge...Wrong!
Went out as a flybridge came back as a cruiser :)
 
Left the dock with the power cord still attached. Heard the "Thwongggg" as it pulled out and skidded across the deck and out the hawse pipe. Luckily the breaker was off at the dock.
 
Spun Magma grill off the mount, right into the Great Salt Pond! (thank God for lond handled net)

Left dock with power cords attached.

Tried passing friend's boat in Champlain canal, got caught in his wake and hit the side of the canal.

Ran out of beer.
 
Back in my trailering days........I released the winch lock.........THEN backed the boat down the ramp......Good thing I forgot to raise the drive too.
 
I once saw some guy at ramp forget to put his car in gear and it rolled part way in.
 
Here's a little side note to this topic
STUPID THINGS I'VE HEARD WHILE WORKING FOR SEATOW
Q. Do you have a VHF radio?
A. Yes, but I don't know how to use it.
Q. Do you have a GPS on board?
A. See above answer
Q. Where are you?
A. I'm in the bay, but I can see a big white building(the courthouse). This answer really does us no good since you can see the courthouse from Amityville to Patchogue.
Q. Do you have an anchor set?
A. I'm aground, why do I need an anchor
Q. Where am I towing you to?
A. I don't know.
 
leaving your chum pot down and leaving...dragging it along the way...yea, I meant to do that...

thawing out a 5 gal pail of clams by tying it to my aft cleat...forgetting that its still in the water as I leave the slip dragging it until it falls off...getting to the fishing spot (5 miles away)...looking for the pail o' chum in the boat...realizing your an idiot...going back to where you hit planing speed...finding the chum fully thawed and floating...priceless!

Having your anchor come free from the bow pulpit while underway...oh boy...

while docking the boat, having a friend ask if you need help, you reply no just have a seat and I'll take care of it...him not listening and walks aft opening the transom door and tries to fend off the dock with his big toe as i need to tap the power forward to stop my reverse momentum and dropping him into my slip...as my boat is now still moving backwards and he's by the prop...holy crap batboy!

Leaving the drain plug out after you float the boat off the trailer...gee I wonder why the boat seems to be dogging...hmmm, oh crap.
 
oh yea...one more...thinking you can clear a low bridge (WHB) because you only have a center console...forgetting that you have an 8' antenna..what the hell is that whap whap whap snap sound...doh!
 
Getting clothes wet after a fall in, hang them on boat windshield to dry, went below, came up, blew away.....rode home in a towel!
 
Leaving aft seat cushions in a bowrider up in "sunpad configuration" while underway. Hit boat wake. See something white out of corner of eye whiz by. Eventually notice one is missing and go back and find that those things sure sink fast or maybe are grabbed by passersby. And they aren't cheap to reorder from the factory.

And of course there's: try to start the engine after the kill switch lanyard accidentally got pulled on somehow.
 
I did that but left them up on the trailer on the LIE!
Hopefuly I didn't kill someone, never found it!
 
Ronp,
Did that one too...mine was when I was the starter boat for a local shark tourney and I was late...try explaining that to 80 boats waiting in the ocean in 5' seas...
 
Rich,

That's funny, here's my sea tow experience 20 years ago with a trailer boat. Me and some
buddies broke down in the middle of the LI sound, between Connecticut and LI, it was a fogy day with poor visibility.

Q. Do you have a VHF radio?
A. No
Q. Do you have a GPS on board?
A. No
Q. Do you have a compass?
A. Yes, but it is broke
Q. Are you anchored?
A. No
Q. Can you drop your anchor?
A. That's going to be tough one.
Q. Why?
A Because the anchor is in my truck back at the ramp.
Q. Is everyone ok
A. Not really, we ran out of beer a half hour ago.
Q. Where are you?
A. I can see Stony Brook Hospital off the right hand side of the boat, can't see much more that that. I made a right at the last buoy coming out of Smithtown bay and traveled for about 20 minutes before the motor craped out.
Q. How fast were you traveling?
A. Don't know, speedometer stopped working a few years ago.

It took him 3.5 to find us, really nice guy, looking back, he must of thought we were a bunch of a$$holes
 
Jumping off the dinghy for a swim with Maui Jims on the face, 30 minutes later (where are my sunglasses?)

Running with the swim ladder down ... Twice. It still won't fold up right

Trying to "inboard dock" with twin I/O's except wheel is hard to port

Running aground in Warwick cove because I forgot about the middle buoy (admiral did it first, then I lost bragging rights)
 
The biggest bonehead I ever made was with just me and my 2 young kids on my first boat, bowrider on north shore of LI.
I anchored real close to shore at a very high tide, very late in the day.
We decided to walk down to short beach to get ice cream.
Started watching some things, took a longer walk.
Came back to boat to see it beached on the rocks!
Had to wait for tide to continue going out, then come back in before we could pull out.
Ex-wife was ready to kill me as I was suppose to have them home by 6, didn't get home until 8:30.
 
Did the same over at Gilgo years ago..............beached the small boat at high tide........came back few hours later....OH $HIT........went back inside the bar .... till the next high tide.
 
Watched a guy at Townsend Marina out in Greenport panic big time during docking and go right into and almost completely through the entire floating dock. Big Silverton boat. Everyone was running to help. Felt bad for him until he tried to blame his admiral. Chewed her out. We all saw what happened and he was totally in the wrong. Ugly.

Watched a guy come in way too hot at Tobay bow first. His wife was on the bow. You guessed it... he rams it into reverse and she goes flying. Tumbled right onto the dock face first. She was still holding the rope!Nasty scrapes but no serious injuries. He was wasted and didn't even know she got hurt. NCPD was there and took care of him.
 
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