embarrassing boating stories

[Glenn]

1 hour ago, skunked_again said:

tried to put the boat on the trailer with the trolling motor down.

Welcome to the club!

[Michigander]

One of the first tournaments I fished in my bass boat. Was so surprised excited getting ready for my number because I was first, well, kind of forgot that the trolling motor was down.... No damage but I'm sure everyone had a good giggle at the huge rooster tail coming off the front of the boat.

[mcipinkie]

Well, This was sort of embarrasing.

[Michigander]

40 minutes ago, mcipinkie said:

Well, This was sort of embarrasing.

Boat no supposed to go on land....

[@reelChris]

I was skipping docks during a tournament and a bad hop wrapped my line around a cable coming out of a pontoon boat's engine.  I trolled closer but couldn't untangle it reaching from my front deck.  I didn't want to cut my line and potentially foul the other boat's prop, so I stepped off my boat onto the pontoon and freed the worm.  I turned around to discovered that my boat had floated out of reach.  I didn't think it was that big a deal because the water was 80 degrees and only a foot deep.  

 

I took off my shoes and socks and threw them into my boat, then hiked up my pants and jumped into the water.  I climbed aboard and started moving to the next dock until I realized that my phone was missing.  When I jumped into the water, the phone flew out of my open cargo pocket and into the water.  I spent several minutes looking for it until I found it with my feet.  I dried it off and, to my surprise, it continued to work until weigh in, when the screen suddenly and permanently stopped accepting input.  

[Tucson]

On 8/19/2020 at 1:36 PM, Dirtyeggroll said:

Backed in with the transom straps still attach and took ~15 minutes trying to get the boat to float off of the trailer before I realized.

 

Tinkered with the motor and things for about an hour because it wouldn’t start. Kill switch was flipped off.

Done them both.  Someday I'll learn to check the kill switch before I tear into the motor.

[moguy1973]

Mine would have to be forgetting the drain plug.

 

Was out by myself.  Put the boat in the water, parked the truck.  Got back to the boat and the lake was on had a long no wake zone to get past a wake barrier in front of the marina.  Went to full power and the bow rose up like I had the motor fully trimmed out and it wouldn't get up on plane.  Shut it down, went to the back and opened the back hatch and found it was full of water.  Then I saw my plug laying in the splash well in front of my motor.  Luckily my arm was long enough to reach down into the water to put the plug in.  Hit the bilge and pumped the water out.  Took about 5 minutes or so and all was good with nothing but a wet arm to show for it.

[Junk Fisherman]

There were 25+ mi/hr crosswinds and heavy rain at this launch as I was attempting to put my boat on the trailer solo.  I had my one Talon down and was tied to the end of the dock.  With the motor idling, I had to untie the bow, raise my Talon and drive straight onto my trailer.  My boat was positioned to go straight onto the trailer.  The waves were whipping, it was a narrow, 1-lane launch with docks on both sides.  So I untied the front, ran to my seat, hit my Talon button but as I sat down and grabbed the throttle, I slipped on the wet seat and hit the throttle way too hard.  Going way too fast I drove up way too far on the trailer and my port side of the bow was resting up on the wooden dock.

 

In hindsight, I should have walked slower and probably had more time to drive my boat on the trailer before the wind would turned my boat off course.  Thankfully, there was nothing jagged or sharp on the dock and I didn't damage my boat.  I had a pretty good scuff mark but a little bit of Goof Off took off the scuff.  So I got very lucky.   

[Glenn]

This one happened last summer...

 

Launched the boat and headed out of the marina, did a left turn to head up river and the steering seemed a little hard to turn, but it turned nonetheless.  Drove far up river, navigating it's slow bends as I went with no problems. 

 

I arrived at my spot and turned a hard right as the boat came off plane, but it again was a bit stiff and didn't turn as sharp as I intended.  I didn't hit anything, just didn't stop where I wanted.  Not a big deal, but now I was wondering what was going on.

 

So I walk back to the engine to take a look.  That's when I spotted my steering stops still in their locked position.  Doh!  I forgot to take them off prior to launching.  Boy did I feel dumb!

 

Thankfully they're rubber, so they weren't deformed too bad, and eventually went back to their normal shape.  

[@reelChris]

34 minutes ago, Glenn said:

That's when I spotted my steering stops still in their locked position.

 

I had to look those up.  For anyone else who's baffled - "The Steer Stop prevents outboards equipped with hydraulic steering from 'wandering' when trailering. Units clip onto hydraulic steering rams on either side of outboard to keep engine straight and prevent damage to motor supports."

[skunked_again]

I had forgot about this. Tried to sink the new tin boat on Melvern Lake.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

This one happened last summer...

 

Launched the boat and headed out of the marina, did a left turn to head up river and the steering seemed a little hard to turn, but it turned nonetheless.  Drove far up river, navigating it's slow bends as I went with no problems. 

 

I arrived at my spot and turned a hard right as the boat came off plane, but it again was a bit stiff and didn't turn as sharp as I intended.  I didn't hit anything, just didn't stop where I wanted.  Not a big deal, but now I was wondering what was going on.

 

So I walk back to the engine to take a look.  That's when I spotted my steering stops still in their locked position.  Doh!  I forgot to take them off prior to launching.  Boy did I feel dumb!

 

Thankfully they're rubber, so they weren't deformed too bad, and eventually went back to their normal shape.  

I launched an ole junker boat when it was about 20-25 degrees once, an hour from home. The steering cable was frozen, but I figured I would just turn the wheel really hard to break it loose. Well I sure broke something loose! But alas, we had rode an hour in the truck so we were going to fish one way or another. The boat would only go dead straight so we got up on plane and I had my buddy jam a paddle into the water on the corresponding side when we needed to turn. 

[Glenn]

2 hours ago, @reelChris said:

I had to look those up.

Oh, sorry about that.  These are the ones I have.

[jaimeastin]

Ramp was full, so I launched my boat fast and left it on the shore... Came back and jumped in boat with my dog... I'm thinking, why is my boat so low?!  Did not put the plug in... So I had to run the pump while everyone looked.  I soon after installed an auto pump.  I keep multiple plugs on the boat as well.

 

1/1/21, I went fishing.  I came home that night and I have never done this... But I backed my boat into the garage door.  I felt so embarrassed.  My wife ran outside and I quickly fixed it by pushing it back out... It is not really noticeable, but i hate the fact that it happened.  I was talking on the phone and what is usually a quick forward and reverse became a back & forth nightmare.  It is still not where i want it...