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Yesterday I took the wife and daughter up to the Trinity River, a new site for us. We had a great time. The water was butter. We only saw three or four other boats all day. This will be our new riding spot.
Anyways, as we were heading in, we witnessed the worst display of ramp etiquitte ever. The ramp has no dock. It is a simple one lane concrete ramp into the river with muddy banks on both sides. As we approach the ramp, here is a guy with an older mastercraft and Chevy Suburban backed down to the waters edge. His five or six kids are running wild, some in the boat some running around the parking lot. He and his wife are unloading crap from the car to the boat while hogging the entire ramp. It takes about five minutes for them to get all the kids and crap in the boat. The wife is standing on the shoreline holding what looked like three or four two foot lines tied together attached to the bow cleat. The husband backs the boat down into the water but does not unclip the winch strap, so the boat floats off the trailer and peels all the strap off the winch. He started to pull forward and drag the boat back up the ramp but then realized his mistake and stopped.
So, he finally gets the boat off the trailer but now the wife is standing on the shore holding the bow line up wind of the ramp. She wont get here feet wet or muddy so the boat floats down in front of the ramp. That's right! They held up the ramp for fifteen minutes just getting the boat off the trailer and now they continue to hold up the ramp by blocking it with their boat. My wife has our trailer backed right to the waters edge but can't get it in because there boat is right in the way. I wave to the women to move to the other side of the ramp so the wind will move the boat out of the way. She tugs on the line twice and then shrugs her shoulders as if to say, "there is nothing I can do." As she is standing there the guy has parked the trailer and makes three diffrent attemps to walk down to the boat but remebers somthing else in the car and turns to walk back each time.
Ridiculous! Once he finally gets as much as he can possibly hold he walks back down to the ramp and grabs the line from the woman. She still does not want to get wet or muddy so now they are arguing about whether to get the boat out of the way or for her to get in. They due manags to move the boat out of the way just enough to allow our trailer in the water. As I drive on, his swim platform is within inches of my trailer side guide.
We get out of the water and up the ramp after about thirty minutes of watching these fools bumble around. As we are prepping the boat for the trailer home, this guy has the engine compartment open and is trying to get the boat started, again blocking the ramp.
They turned what is normally a 3-5 minute process into a thitry minute escapade that could have damaged property or injured someone. Besides venting, I guess the point of this thread is to say get educated before going to the water. These folks were obviously new boaters with little to no experience and diffinitly no common courtesy.
Very frustrating.
Anyways, as we were heading in, we witnessed the worst display of ramp etiquitte ever. The ramp has no dock. It is a simple one lane concrete ramp into the river with muddy banks on both sides. As we approach the ramp, here is a guy with an older mastercraft and Chevy Suburban backed down to the waters edge. His five or six kids are running wild, some in the boat some running around the parking lot. He and his wife are unloading crap from the car to the boat while hogging the entire ramp. It takes about five minutes for them to get all the kids and crap in the boat. The wife is standing on the shoreline holding what looked like three or four two foot lines tied together attached to the bow cleat. The husband backs the boat down into the water but does not unclip the winch strap, so the boat floats off the trailer and peels all the strap off the winch. He started to pull forward and drag the boat back up the ramp but then realized his mistake and stopped.
So, he finally gets the boat off the trailer but now the wife is standing on the shore holding the bow line up wind of the ramp. She wont get here feet wet or muddy so the boat floats down in front of the ramp. That's right! They held up the ramp for fifteen minutes just getting the boat off the trailer and now they continue to hold up the ramp by blocking it with their boat. My wife has our trailer backed right to the waters edge but can't get it in because there boat is right in the way. I wave to the women to move to the other side of the ramp so the wind will move the boat out of the way. She tugs on the line twice and then shrugs her shoulders as if to say, "there is nothing I can do." As she is standing there the guy has parked the trailer and makes three diffrent attemps to walk down to the boat but remebers somthing else in the car and turns to walk back each time.
Ridiculous! Once he finally gets as much as he can possibly hold he walks back down to the ramp and grabs the line from the woman. She still does not want to get wet or muddy so now they are arguing about whether to get the boat out of the way or for her to get in. They due manags to move the boat out of the way just enough to allow our trailer in the water. As I drive on, his swim platform is within inches of my trailer side guide.
We get out of the water and up the ramp after about thirty minutes of watching these fools bumble around. As we are prepping the boat for the trailer home, this guy has the engine compartment open and is trying to get the boat started, again blocking the ramp.
They turned what is normally a 3-5 minute process into a thitry minute escapade that could have damaged property or injured someone. Besides venting, I guess the point of this thread is to say get educated before going to the water. These folks were obviously new boaters with little to no experience and diffinitly no common courtesy.
Very frustrating.
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