Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Today was unseasonably warm, around 75 or so, so I went out to the Marina to take out my new boat for its second voyage. Was very windy so Lake Wylie had a little chop to it, but was smooth sailing on the pontoon. I definitely didn't miss my bowrider today, and am extremely happy with the pontoon. I had a great time cruising.

Normally I keep my dumb moves to myself, but at the risk of totally embarrassing myself, I'll share what happened. As I was coming in, my neighbor from the slip next to me was leaving the marina, and as I passed them, they told me I had a buoy under my boat! I didn't doubt that as handling was a little funny. I docked the boat and looked under and sure enough a "No Wake" buoy was stuck about midway back. UGH!! If only I could get it out without anyone knowing. I thought about going back out and trying to reverse the boat to free the buoy, but wasn't sure that would work, so with a red face and tail between my legs, I went for help from the marina. We ended up having to lift the boat out of the water, and the buoy came free. I'm lucky someone didn't have a camera or video, or I'm sure it'd be on You Tube by now. I'm sure I'll hear more at the marina about it though. It turns out that I had left the helm to drop my fenders and although I thought I had plenty of room, the wind blew me over the buoy. Anyway, maybe this'll give you a chuckle and you can say "glad that wasn't me!", as we look forward to good boating weather to come.

Red faced Bernard

Jesus, what a MORON!.............................Ok, that was a joke. I got ya beat. Twice now I've taken off and forgot to pull up the anchor. Both times I had boats come cruising up next to me to tell me.

we all do wierd things... someone here (me), on the maiden voyage, left the boat key in the truck, and had to swim to shore.... yeah, i had untied from the dock before starting motor... never again.

So did you observe the "No Wake" speed or not. I'll bet you were able to get up plane faster ..... considering the extra bouyancy! LOL!

Dan

It has been many months since I got to use my favorite word on here





DUMBASS

what a dumb ass.... kinda reminds of the guy that was getting ready to launch his brand new toon for the very first time. Had the trailer backed down in the water ready to go.. but the motor just would not fire... he said he checked the kill switch, battery connections, everything.. just would not fire... after about 10 minutes of holding up other boaters wanting to launch he pulled his boat on out and headed home... back at the house he was back up on the toon trying to figure out what the hell was wrong, he had lights, stereo, just couldn't get the motor to fire.... then his neighbor came over and helped... first thing the neighbor said was " dosn't look like the throttles in neutral ".... he pushed the throttle up an inch or so, turned the key just enuf to bump the motor.... problem solved... but what a dumb ass... I bet that will never happen to me, I mean to that guy again....

Ya'll just have no idea.....I dont post my stories on here, I keep that to my fishing forum but I might have to gather them up and write a book.

What a bunch of idiots!!!!!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2321&p=14346#p14346


UUUHM check out the date!

I almost did it--I have a wireless Motor Guide and I thought it would be cool to drive it without me in it-but luckily I put my son in the boat. As it turns out the control fob doesnt have a very long range and I headed the boat down the lake wide open and then couldnt turn it or shut it off--If my son hadnt been in the boat to turn it off it would have been long gone.

With a V hull boat, trash, sticks and other things in the water is pushed to the side and out of the way.

With a pontoon, everything seems to be sucked between the toons. I'm forever getting sticks stuck on my motor, and I can easily feel them. I'm forever having to stop and back off them.

But, nothing as large as a buoy.

bpsNC wrote:I docked the boat and looked under and sure enough a "No Wake" buoy was stuck about midway back...

Uhhh, "No Wake" doesn't mean you're allowed to sleep behind the helm.



Last summer at a busy public launch I was landing my bowrider, trying to hurry as there was a long lineup. In my rushing, I began pulling out the boat only to hear the sound of Alpha 1 dragging on pavement, followed by my wife's yell to stop 5 seconds too late. Tail between my legs, I had to climb on the trailer to reach into the boat and hit the tilt button and let my audience watch the trailer suspension drop an inch while the I/O tilted up. Not my proudest moment!


LC.

I figured lots of folks here aren't lucky enough to be back in the water yet, but at least you can look at what happened and say "at least I didn't do that!" And yes, your favorite word describes it pretty good - DUMBASS! Think I'll have to name the boat "No Wake".....


Bernard, still red faced

Nothing ALL of us have not done, or at least something similar. I have done the "panic - it won't start - wait its in gear" more than once, and the famous "it wont start start on the ramp" trick, and the "swim after the boat because my son let go the dock line to go to the bathroom" routine.
And lets not even go to all the stuff that was MY fault...thats how we all learn, brother. We goof up, and try not to repeat it. That's why all of us here know so much, because we all screwed up enough to have seen everyhing!

Alright Ill throw yall a bone.


Dec 5, 2011
So to get ready for a trip with a guy coming down from Maryland Saturday, Wade and I figured we would run the boat and check some good locations for hungry fish.
Truck ran, boat ran, found all the tackle I was looking for, and even remembered bait. This was already better than most trips we take! Since the weather was so nice, temps in the low 60's, sun shining we didn't even have to take a ton of clothes either.

We hit two places Wade has been catching some small fish in the 30-40 lb range, we got three good bites and caught a 30 and a 37 lb blue. One other just came unbuttoned after hooking up, and then while a baby fish was trying to steal the bait, it got hooked, ended up being a stupid 8 lb channel cat. Of course Wade had to keep the streak alive and lose my third anchor of the year, (3 each of the last 4 years)

Off to the next hole, and while scanning the bottom with sonar, I spied a great looking place that may hold some spawning catfish during noodling season...we HAD to check it out. I had been doing some house cleaning on the boat while Wade maned the wheel, but took over in case I destroyed a prop, this way I would be pissed at myself and not Wade.

We had to go around a now exposed island to get into the channel on the other side. Before we knew what happened, we had bottomed out. So far the prop was ok, and we dropped the trolling motor to get us out....yea right. We were now in 18" of water....STUCK. Water temp, 48*.
The river is EMPTY, not a boat in sight since its winter, and the water is down. What the hell are we going to do??

Dark is closing fast on us, and we decide its get out and hoof it time. I carry two ATV covers I bought to go around my console and sink cabinet, so me and Wade strip off shoes and socks, and climb in these things and into the drink we go. This is when we find out they are not water-proof....they are water resistant.

30 Minutes of heaving and sinking into the mud, we get it into deep enough water to float. What didn't get wet from teh lake water, was now drenched in sweat. We idled back to the ramp to dry off without freezing to death, but when we got there we both felt good enough to go fish some more!
Turned out we had worn our welcome, we didn't catch another fish.