Boats drifting off…

[Koz]

MY hotel has kayaks canoes, and a pedal boat for guests to rent and we keep them locked up on a wood rack. When a guest rents one, they get a key to unlock and and when they are done they are supposed to lock it back up on the rack.

 

The pedal boat is heavy to begin with and it tends to get filled with water. Frankly, it's a death trap because it's suited for a pond and not a big lake. One day I'm doing a property walk and the pedal boat is missing. It seems a guest didn't lock it back up, but I found it had drifted to the back of our cove so I grabbed my own kayak and towed it back in.

 

A few weeks later I'm on another property walk and the pedal boat and two Adirondack chairs are missing and nowhere to be found. So I grabbed my kayak again and searched our cove using my sides can and down scan thinking some guest might have sunk them in the lake. Nothing.

 

A week later we have a group in house, and one of the attendees hears me talking about our missing pedal boat and chairs, and he asks me to describe the pedal boat. Sure enough, it had drifted away and hung up on his dock about a mile away. I told him how much I hated that thing and he wrote me a check for it on the spot.

 

Whenever guests would take out that pedal boat I would warn them to stay near the shore and not head out to the middle of the lake with all of the boat traffic. If they wanted to cross to the other side I told them to do so in the no wake zones. With two plus sized adults in there it would be easy for that thing to get swamped.

 

So one day I'm out fishing in my pedal kayak and I see two of our guests off in the distance in the middle of the cruising zone in the lake and they're not moving. I watch for a few minutes and the are still sitting there. So I trek on over and sure enough they are too tired to keep going and the pedal boat had taken on water.  I ended up towing them 3/4 mile back to the hotel.

 

I'm glad we're rid of that thing.

[N Florida Mike]

4 minutes ago, Koz said:

MY hotel has kayaks canoes, and a pedal boat for guests to rent and we keep them locked up on a wood rack. When a guest rents one, they get a key to unlock and and when they are done they are supposed to lock it back up on the rack.

 

The pedal boat is heavy to begin with and it tends to get filled with water. Frankly, it's a death trap because it's suited for a pond and not a big lake. One day I'm doing a property walk and the pedal boat is missing. It seems a guest didn't lock it back up, but I found it had drifted to the back of our cove so I grabbed my own kayak and towed it back in.

 

A few weeks later I'm on another property walk and the pedal boat and two Adirondack chairs are missing and nowhere to be found. So I grabbed my kayak again and searched our cove using my sides can and down scan thinking some guest might have sunk them in the lake. Nothing.

 

A week later we have a group in house, and one of the attendees hears me talking about our missing pedal boat and chairs, and he asks me to describe the pedal boat. Sure enough, it had drifted away and hung up on his dock about a mile away. I told him how much I hated that thing and he wrote me a check for it on the spot.

 

Whenever guests would take out that pedal boat I would warn them to stay near the shore and not head out to the middle of the lake with all of the boat traffic. If they wanted to cross to the other side I told them to do so in the no wake zones. With two plus sized adults in there it would be easy for that thing to get swamped.

 

So one day I'm out fishing in my pedal kayak and I see two of our guests off in the distance in the middle of the cruising zone in the lake and they're not moving. I watch for a few minutes and the are still sitting there. So I trek on over and sure enough they are too tired to keep going and the pedal boat had taken on water.  I ended up towing them 3/4 mile back to the hotel.

 

I'm glad we're rid of that thing.

My wife bought one for the grandkids for 500.00 and they used it 2-3 times and that was it. You are right how much of a pain they are. It would fill up with water if we left it in the lake. A friend pulled it out to try and dump out the water and left it there and it killed all the grass up from my boat ramp. I think one reason my lower back hurts sometimes is from trying to move it around ( full of water or not). We finally winched it up out of the water across a narrow section of dock and left it hanging in the boat house. One of the hardest things I ever did was to try and lower it back in the water without it hitting the dock and putting a hole in it.

We finally got some patsies to buy it for 350.00. I was so glad it was gone I didnt count the money and they shorted me 20.00. I’m absolutely sure they reaped more than they sowed on that deal, haha. 

 

[BassNJake]

My lake has this happen every year to what seems like dozens of boats because

A. they drop the water 20 feet and

B. we have a lot of people with "summer homes"

 

They come down for the weekend and beach their pontoon until next time

They come back 2 weeks later and the water has dropped 4 feet so their pontoon is stuck.

Then it pours or come springtime and they let the water back up, now that pontoon is free drifting cover

[schplurg]

On 1/3/2022 at 5:50 AM, TnRiver46 said:

I think I’ve still got a kayak floating around somewhere. It blew off the dock, probably sank or someone got a free kayak 

I probably found it!

 

But really, my Dad's house is in a cove and we have found several kayaks and a canoe floating into the area. We end up parking them on top of our dock or the neighbors so the owner can see it later. Neighbor still has a nice canoe though that nobody has claimed.

 

The wind blows them in, and some debris too. Oh and, perhaps not surprisingly, I catch a lot of bass right there too! In fact it's the best spot I've found so far.

[Bankbeater]

Yes, but it only went out about five or so feet before it got stopped by lilypads.