Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

[Chris_94_Sprint_TX]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

get the jackets on the kids before launching... unless you have limitations we don't know about, as you gain experience and get better you can likely get that time closer to 5 minutes.. on days that I have someone to drive the truck n unhook me My 30'er can be launched and the ramp clear in under 2 minutes and by myself I'm rarely much over 5 minutes

I lift kids in the boat and tell them to get their jackets and sit down, they put them on while I am backing the boat off the trailer. The ramp I use is very shallow with the drought we are going through, in fact, the ramp is actually closed now due to water level. But I can be off the trailer in out of the way in 5 minutes. But I am kind OCD I like to double tap things before the boat splashes. I like to check the drain plug while I am taking the ratchet strap off the back of the boat (which I generally do while waiting in line if need be). The last few times I have launched I had a bad starter so part of the 5 min was me "persuading" the solenoid to act right, fixed now and the very last time I launched I didn't check my time but I know it was less than 5 minutes. But generally I will NOT rush myself to launch my boat but I WILL move with a purpose and follow ramp rules. If the sign says I can't tie somewhere I won't do it and I take as little room on ramp as possible. My wife doesn't feel comfortable driving the boat yet and she can't back a trailer good enough for her to feel comfortable backing down the ramp. Until about a year ago she had only driven small trucks and is still getting used to driving my Ram.

How about the golden rule? If you have three people infront of you in line would you rather be behind.

a) Three people that take 10 minutes to solo launch and then start to load the family aboard.

b) Three people that load their families into the boat while the other family is loading/unloading, back down the ramp, have the spouse idle the engine idle for 30 seconds, back up another 2', pull out, go park, and meet off to the side of the ramp.

Hint: You'll be boating half an hour sooner behind the 2nd type of family.

The second group is generally how my wife and I launch the boat. The kids get scared riding in the boat going down the ramp so when I get out and get in, I lift them in, then I get in wlk past them and tell them to get their LJs and put them on, they lift the seat grab'em and roll to the back.

Chris

 

[Chris_94_Sprint_TX]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

Combined 2 posts

 

[QC]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

This thread feels a lot like the dreaded launch ramp the OP describes

 

[BTMCB]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

I get a kick out of just how much a "ramp" thread fires up any boating forum. And, truth be told, I would imagine most of the morons at the ramp are not folks who read these forums. Sure would be nice if they did though! But, then this wouldn't have gone 3 pages.....

 

[jkust]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

We all have strengths and weaknesses. My wife's weakness is anything with a steering wheel. She has difficulty parking her CRV!

So yes, she could drive the boat if needed, but its better for the entire boating community if she does not.

Well that's the truth. My wife's weakness seems to be anything mechanical even as an end user but her strength is making gigantic sums of money. She decided recently to go buy her own week whacker...the battery powered kind this summer because I rarely get the gas powered one going cause it won't stay running. Walking around the yard I see all the times each week she dug into the grass. Even a weekwhacker gets the best of her. She is just better in certain roles than others for all our sake. I'll gladly take her strengths and I will take care of her weaknesses.

 

[Brian 26]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

2) Guys are timing their launches and an Augusta-Like Scoreboard posts results at the ramp entrance, pit crews compete with sole proprietor's for launch times, and the crowd goes wild in the process

AHAHAH! Love it! The whole post was great but this one was my favorite.

 

[Southtowns27]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

Although I can't say that I ever see anyone launching alone

If you have a wife who is always in the boat, then they need to learn to drive the boat and get it on and off the trailer.

Really??!? I always launch my Wellcraft 260 Aft Cabin solo. Not because I have unwilling helpers, but because I'm literally by myself. I always launch the boat early in the day while my girlfriend is still at work. I get the boat ready to go in the staging area, then back it in the water. I drag it away from the trailer, tie it up, and start the engine so it can warm up. I then go park the truck/trailer. By the time I get back, the engine is warmed up and I motor over to the transient dock. It takes me a whole 7 minutes. If you have a problem with that, please enlighten me as to how I can be faster.

My girlfriend is with me almost everytime I take the boat out. She has zero desire to learn how to handle the boat. On open water, yes, she can drive the boat around just fine. It is just too intimidating for her to try to maneuver the boat in close quarters. If you want, I can give you her phone number so you can explain to her how wrong she is for not learning how to handle the boat.

 

[QC]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

I was at a crowded launch ramp on Memorial Day this year. Very popular public lake. Smack dab in the middle of LA. Tons of people, plenty are idiots. It is a State Park and there were "uniformed" (tee shirts) people at the top of the ramp who were watching for something, not quite sure what, but they were there all day long. Ramp is probably 50 yards long, so they were not down at the water. I specifically went there to watch the fun, and help if I could. I had a blast, and I helped quite a few folks. All I kept thinking was "why are the people that are getting paid to monitor the ramp not down here?"

Sooooo . . . . I don't like taxes and fees etc. but I would pay $1 extra at the ramp to have an experienced someone directing traffic, and helping out, at the bottom of the ramp. I frequent another busy ramp on Havasu, and they have a guy at the top as well, lining people up. But nobody where the real issues happen. And these ramps are all the same. Boats that won't start, and people blocking the lanes with boats tied up FOREVER at the courtesy dock.

BTW, I launch alone often. I am fast, but I have to use the courtesy dock or I guess I could leave my truck and trailer on the ramp Any other ideas, let me know.

 

[jkust]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

I prefer not skiing with musky around, since a friend caught a 50 1/2 on Minnetonka and a 51 on Independence I've taken those off my list! I haven't been on Waconia in years but there have been times when I swore I was alone out there.

Do Musky really attack people with any frequency? I can tell you as a scuba diver, northern are the absolutely most scared fish. If you see them it's for a millisecond they they are gone.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

Any other ideas, let me know.

Apparently QC you could check into picking up a wife who knows how to properly run all aspects of truck/trailer/boat under strenuous and busy weekend conditions.

Those are preeeeety rare in my neck of the wood!

You got any of those out there on the left coast?

 

[QC]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

You got any of those out there on the left coast?

I'm thinking fewer . . .

 

[roscoe]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

I was at a crowded launch ramp on Memorial Day this year. Very popular public lake. Smack dab in the middle of LA. Tons of people, plenty are idiots. It is a State Park and there were "uniformed" (tee shirts) people at the top of the ramp who were watching for something, not quite sure what, but they were there all day long. Ramp is probably 50 yards long, so they were not down at the water. I specifically went there to watch the fun, and help if I could. I had a blast, and I helped quite a few folks. All I kept thinking was "why are the people that are getting paid to monitor the ramp not down here?"

Sooooo . . . . I don't like taxes and fees etc. but I would pay $1 extra at the ramp to have an experienced someone directing traffic, and helping out, at the bottom of the ramp. I frequent another busy ramp on Havasu, and they have a guy at the top as well, lining people up. But nobody where the real issues happen. And these ramps are all the same. Boats that won't start, and people blocking the lanes with boats tied up FOREVER at the courtesy dock.

BTW, I launch alone often. I am fast, but I have to use the courtesy dock or I guess I could leave my truck and trailer on the ramp Any other ideas, let me know.

No worries - soon.
With the new self-driving cars recently demo-ed, you will be able to program the truck to park itself after you launch.

Mercedes-Benz reveals recent test of self-driving car - latimes.com

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

I guess I could leave my truck and trailer on the ramp

Seen that one before, a couple of times.... :facepalm: (no it wasn't me.... )

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

Do Musky really attack people with any frequency? I can tell you as a scuba diver, northern are the absolutely most scared fish. If you see them it's for a millisecond they they are gone.

You usually hear about one event per year, generally someone wearing a ring in the water getting bit in the hand. I know there have been a few in Lake Waconia over the years.

 

[slag]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

With all due respect - either leave kids in truck and have wife or you back boat off, or put kids in boat before splashing and do the same.

There is no reason to be tying up the ramp because you are not dividing responsibility

+1. I'm a father with 3 boys, 6, 10, and 12. We have a system down. We prep the boat in the parking lot and put life vests on the kids at that time. We hop in the truck, back the boat into the water, my wife and kids get in the boat, she lowers the outdrive, starts it up, and then drives it away from the dock while I park the truck. I then come back, she motors up, I hop on the boat, and away we go.

Using small children to justify poor dock etiquette is not really an excuse. We've been doing this for 4 years now.

 

[Water logged]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

I was at a crowded launch ramp on Memorial Day this year. Very popular public lake. Smack dab in the middle of LA.

QC, just curious, what lake is that?

Glenn

 

[aspeck]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

moosehead ... LOVE YOUR POST! Sometimes these threads get a little humorous because of all the passion generated by the topic. So much passion at times that people are arguing basically the same thing, but are convinced the other is all wrong. There are many ways to launch a boat quickly, efficiently, solo, or in tandem. The key is to learn a system that works for you and your family, and respect everyone else that is at the launch ramp. My wife knows to stay clear until it comes time to pull the trailer, or boat and trailer out of the water. Other than that it is a solo launch and goes much faster because things are not forgotten or assumed the other has done it (Tie down straps removed, plug in, etc, which are all done away from the launch ramp).

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

So this year I managed to get the wife to both drive the boat ON the trailer when loading, and she will now back the trailer down at our lake ramp. (the cabin is 1/2 a mile from the ramp, so one person takes the boat, the other takes the vehicle.) Its SOOOO much easier now that she will do one of those two, I don't have to swap back and forth. Keep in mind I was one of those guys that could launch or load in under a minute when doing it solo, now its 30 seconds!

Anyway, OP... My only suggestion is that buying a pass at a private ramp is money well spent. I've done it here on the missouri river, and before that I had to content with all kinds of idiot. My only issue now is that the private ramp is the only one on this side of the river, and the owner only very sporadically enforces it, so there are lots of [non-pass holding] newbie boaters parking on the ramp trying to get the engine running.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

This thread feels a lot like the dreaded launch ramp the OP describes

... right?!? I left it a day or two ago thinkin', "that's getting unnecessary." Checked in today and ... well, wow.

Imagine you are in a Crowded Boat Ramp, filled with Iboat Forum Members in this Thread (cue "The Twilight Zone" background music):

...You have now entered the Iboats Twilight Zone: A boat ramp full of noobs is looking rather appealing.

Bravo Moosehead. I'll meet you and noobs there.

Truth told, at the ramp we use the day can go any number of ways. God forbid you try and get out around 4PM when the tournaments have weigh in. Then there's the poor dude who can't get his boat going. Yeah, he shoulda' made sure before he dunked it ... but is it killin' me? One day we're all moving like lightening, and the next the ole' Stringer decides she's had enough and I gotta' drag the boat on the wagon like a dead tuna ... and I hold up the ramp.

For the most part around here, people get it (not always though). Generally we cut up with each other, help out here and there, point and laugh a little (maybe post pictures up on the web) and go on with our day. Hope y'all can do the same.

 

[moosehead]

Re: Boat Ramp Etiquette - Am I being to pushy

Thanks gents. TZ was pure genius.