Quick turnaround at the boat launch ramp

[buster]

We were talking about putting the airboats onto the trailer to pull them out of the water, on Boggers thread. It reminded me of something we used to do years ago that was almost comical since we had this down to a science.

I was always good at backing up a trailer, especially a long boat trailer, so it only took me one shot to get down the ramp where I needed it to be.

We had a 14 ft. aluminum boat with a 5 horse outboard. My son would drop me on the shore after fishing, and I would go get the car and trailer backed down the ramp and into the water . At the same time he would be running the boat onto the trailer, usually even before I got stopped. I would hit the brakes and pull it into drive in one motion, then go. We would be off the ramp and tying the boat down in the parking lot in about 30 seconds flat.

It worked even faster when we put the boat back in. He would ride in the boat as I would back in as fast as I could. I'd hit the brakes soon as the the boat hit the water, then pull the empty trailer back out. We sometimes watched other guys tie up the ramp ten or twenty minutes doing basically the same thing. Sometimes they watched us back down in and pull out in less time it took them to find their boat strap.

Once one guy was in line behind us to use the ramp, and expecting us to take ten minutes or more, he asked if we could hurry since he was late getting to a birthday dinner party for his kid. I said we'd do the best we could.

He watched us launch our boat in our normal fashion, his mouth wide open the whole time. As we pulled up into to the parking lot, he was still looking at us, shaking his head with a big smile and a thumbs up I think he might have forgot about his party

Dave

[Duane Scarborough]

Buster,

Wow, 30 seconds is a very fast ramp time. I've never done it that fast.

But I have always done it pretty quickly. One of my Dad's pet peeves was boat ramp hogs.

He taught me to have everything ready BEFORE you start to back down the ramp. If you've got 2 people, it can be much faster than if doing it alone, but there is no reason for anyone to take more than 3-4 minutes.

What I've never been able to figure, is that at a busy ramp, when people have been waiting for 30 minutes or so to launch, they aren't ready when it's their turn.

There are some STUPID people in this world.

Thanks for the laugh !

Duane

[Papee]

Some times I will tie my mooring rope to the trailer and do the back up and brake deal. I dump the boat then pull the truck forward to pull the boat into shore. This work best where there is a current that carries your boat down stream.

[buster]

Duane,

I have sometimes noticed, the more people are along, the more disorganized they can be. Especially if they have had sufficient beverages. That, is when it seems to take longest.

Papee,

I think I may try your system to tie the rope to the trailer. I think that might work better even in a lake where there is no current. The last thing I would want to see is my boat leaving without me

Thanks for the idea

Dave

[Duane Scarborough]

Duane,

I have sometimes noticed, the more people are along, the more disorganized they can be. Especially if they have had sufficient beverages. That, is when it seems to take longest.

Papee,

I think I may try your system to tie the rope to the trailer. I think that might work better even in a lake where there is no current. The last thing I would want to see is my boat leaving without me

Thanks for the idea

Dave

Buster,

"sufficient beverages", is always a factor.

I have tried Papee's "tie the mooring rope to the trailer" method when I was launching single handed. I does seem to work pretty well with little current. That's as long as it's a dirt ramp, without concrete curbing.

Duane

[buster]

Papee,

I have been using your "tie the mooring rope to the trailer, then back down the ramp and hit the brakes" trick, for a number of times now, and it has worked well.

Yesterday I found a glitch with it though. I was backing down the ramp slowly, and the guy that just launched on the next ramp, backed his boat across my path as he turned around.

Not wanting to run into him, I lightly touched the brakes. Big mistake! At an angle on the ramp, my unhooked boat (probably due to the frogspit bottom) slid back a bit, the trailer tilted, and dumped the boat.

The bottom of the transom hit the concrete like a ton of bricks, leaving the nose sticking up at about a 30 degree angle.

After winching it back onto the trailer I noticed a small bit of fiberglass damage I can easily repair, but I was just wondering if you've had a similar problem, or am I doing it wrong?

I guess I just can't do any braking when backing down the ramp, at least not until it's in the water.

Dave

[Papee]

I never use the "tilt" feature, the trailer I have now doesn't have one. I think I may have only used the tilt once on any trailer I had. I can't use that method with the trailer I have now, I have rollers on it. If I would untie the boat it would slide off immediately. I just back to the water and give it a shove and it rolls off. I use old paper rollers from a paper mill. When I put my boat back on, I just shove it out into the water and pull it onto the trailer using the mooring rope. I can all but pull it clear on the trailer without using the winch. I just let out about 3 feet of winch line and clip it on when I have it close enough and winch it the rest of the way.

I'm thinking about changing mine so I can just run the boat on. If I try it now the boat will just roll back off if I let the engine go to idle while I walk to the front to hook the clasp. It just works so well to get it off in low water situations this way. I just back the trailer in the water and shove it off. As long as it's down hill the boat will slide off and flop in the water. I guess it's a trade off so it may just stay like it is.

[buster]

Papee,

After reading your reply, I am thinking my problem may be solved simply by finding the long bolt that used to stop the trailer from tilting. It has carpeted bunks, not rollers, but it doesn't take much water depth to get it to float.

I'll try it that way next time.

Thanks, Dave

[Duane Scarborough]

Buster,

I've owned or used a couple of larger boats that had tilt trailers, but rarely used the tilt. It only created problems, as you have discovered.

The only times we'd use the tilt was if it was a very shallow angle ramp. It was useful then to keep from having to back SO far into the water.

The trailer I have now is a Magic-Tilt brand, but it has no tilt feature. Go figure. But you don't need a tilt for a boat that will float in a just a couple inches of water.

I'm one of those guys that thinks that the winch strap needs to be secured any time the back of the boat isn't touching water. If you want to tie up a ramp for a while, let the boat slide off of the trailer halfway down a steep 200' long ramp.

We don't have those kind of ramps here in NC, but we did at Lake Eufaula, in GA. I witnessed a couple of BAD launch ramp screw-ups there. One guy not only had his boat slide off, he also had his outdrive in the down position. It ripped the transom out, and flipped the boat over. Very bad. I think that one was a total loss.

I'm glad the damage to the Aircat wasn't too bad.

Duane

[buster]

Duane,

I think I got it all under control now, with very little damage to repair for my "on the job" training.

NOW you tell me your trailer has no tilt. When I redesigned my snowmobile trailer into a boat trailer, I was going to talk to you about the tilt feature on your trailer. Now I wish I had talked to you first, and saved myself some time.

Dave

[Duane Scarborough]

Duane,

I think I got it all under control now, with very little damage to repair for my "on the job" training.

NOW you tell me your trailer has no tilt. When I redesigned my snowmobile trailer into a boat trailer, I was going to talk to you about the tilt feature on your trailer. Now I wish I had talked to you first, and saved myself some time.

Dave

Oops.

I'm just glad that the damage was minor.

Duane