posted 07-30-2012 12:40 PM ET (US)        

Here is the pilot episode.

http://www.upnorthlive.com/news/story.aspx?id=781964#.UBa1Fo5tJ0U

posted 07-31-2012 07:29 PM ET (US)            

It was a 4 lane launch too, and this was at 6AM in the morning! So almost everyone there mostly knew their business, all fishermen, all heading out into the ocean. (Some just backed down and slammed the brakes having the boat slide of with barely the trailer tire hubs submerged. The bow would drop/splash in with about 1' of water.)

posted 07-31-2012 08:32 PM ET (US)            

The new ramp has one lane, but it's wide enough for three
trailers and nice long courtesy docks on each side (and you
can dock on the far side of one). Things have been much more
peaceable.

The only argument I've seen in the last few years
involved me. It was sloshing pretty good one Friday last
year. We launched and while I was parking the trailer Linda
moved the whaler a ways down the dock and tied it off.
A fellow my age and his college-age son launch their RIB
on the same side. Junior has the bow line and a long stern
line. As soon as the boat comes off the trailer, Junior takes
off like a locomotive pulling by the bow line and well ahead.
He's got no way to stop it. I'm just walking down the dock,
realize what's going on, and grab the stern line stopping
the boat about 3" before his motor would have hit my bow.
Junior wants to get in a fight with me because I touched "his"
boat. He's screaming that it's illegal to touch someone else's
boat. And goes on and on. Dad turns up after parking the
trailer and calms Junior down somewhat. Turns out I know
Dad's name and know he's been around small boats a long time.
Dad had told Junior to do the locomotive act.

posted 07-31-2012 08:45 PM ET (US)            

Guess what happens at the ramp?

While waiting for guests to arrive, I watched boat after boat launch, realize they had left the plug out, then reload on their trailer to put the plug in.

posted 08-01-2012 01:39 AM ET (US)            

On an early June Friday afternoon about 2 p.m. were were boating on an arm of Lake Michigan. We passed a small county park with a boat ramp and courtesy dock. The water at the dock is very shallow, and there is a small dredged channel that leads to it from open water. We very slowly motored into the dock at the ramp. There was a cross wind blowing about 20-MPH so we took the downwind side of the courtesy dock, which was in the middle of the two lane ramp. There were no boats at the dock and no boats on the ramp area. There are no signs designating one side or the other as launching-only or loading only. We are the only boat and only people in the park.

At the instant we have the boat tied up a woman walks down the ramp--it's at the bottom of a bit of a hill--and comes to the dock. She asks us to move our boat to the other side of the dock. She explains her husband is backing their boat down to launch, and he can only back up to the ramp on one side--the side we are on--and can't back up to the other lane due to having to look in the wrong mirror or something like that. So could we move our boat to the other side.

Moving the boat to the other side requires untying it, restarting the engine, backing out of the dock area into the narrow dredged channel--the dredged area is only a few feet wider than our boat--and making an all new approach to the upwind side of the dock, which won't be easy with the cross wind and narrow channel. There is much too much wind to just move the boat with lines to the other side of the dock.

I explain to the woman that we will only be at the dock for two minutes, because we are just going to walk over to the outhouse--about 50-feet away--and make use of it. Then we will be immediately leaving the dock. If she and her husband can wait two minutes they can use either side of the ramp they like, as we will be gone. But I tell her that I decline to move the boat to the other side.

The woman tells us that we are improperly using the courtesy dock. She insists the dock is only to be used for launching or loading a boat, and we must not use it for two minutes to go take a pee break. So now we are not only on the wrong side of the dock, we are not even allowed to be on the dock at all in her view of how the world works. She is now a bit agitated with us.

We leave the dock and head for the outhouse.

The husband has now been very slowly backing their boat toward the side of the ramp where we have our boat tied. The wife walks over to the car and explains to him we are not moving immediately. Husband pulls slowly up the ramp a bit and begins to back down to the other side of the dock into the empty side of the launch ramp. Ahah--it turns out he can back down to that side of the ramp.

Literally two minutes later we're back and ready to leave, but I don't want to leave the dock while Husband and Wife are in the process of launching. There is not really enough room in the dredged channel for two boats at once. The courtesy dock is short, and if they push the boat off the trailer it could swing downwind if it gets past the end of the dock. So we wait for them to get their boat off the trailer and tied to the dock before we leave. I don't want to be in the process of pulling away from the dock while they are in the process of launching.

posted 08-01-2012 08:21 AM ET (US)            

The one time I used the Monterey ramp was in 1983 while attending DLI. That's also the one time I have seen a fist fight at a ramp.

posted 08-01-2012 03:02 PM ET (US)            

That launch ramp at Shelter Island provides a never ending source of amazement and ramp entertainment. It is the busiest ramp in the county, lined precariously close with jetty rocks jutting out into the water and near the docks, and a very narrow entrance to the bay. Two boats are a tight fit even if they are small.

posted 08-02-2012 11:02 AM ET (US)            

Bingo.

And it's not enforced on boats with semi-permanently installed drain plugs such as the one on our 28 foot Marinette. That plug has not been out in years, and MOLLY V is launched daily in both Wisconsin and Michigan. She is a Michigan DNR inspected charter boat, and the DNR had no problem with her not having a plug to remove on a daily basis. There "is" a plug, but it's a pipe thread one and is not anything you do "right now".

This is all about small boats that can be expected to have water in the bilge, and the need to get that water out of the boat before another launch is made elsewhere. You are supposed to remove it on the ramp, so that the water drains right back to where it came from.

Dave

posted 08-02-2012 11:30 AM ET (US)            

quote:

---

The DNR is aware that many different drain plug locations and styles exist, as well as assorted draining systems for livewells and ballast tanks. Even with those differences, all boats are subject to the law and there are no provisions in the law to allow waivers for specific boats or types of boats.

---

posted 08-04-2012 10:49 AM ET (US)            

The plug out rule may be a revenue stream, however, it is a good habit all around.
Reduces spread of some species.

Allows your bilge to dry.
Allows your boat to drain when parked outside. Much weight and a lot of headaches are avoided. Dealers and Mechanics call it "sinking on the trailer". They do look for that inside waterline in cases of warranty and water damage to equipment
When traveling, keeps boat from gaining weight in a rain. Free surface, sloshing water, can make your whole day when trailering. At 8 pounds a gallon you can gain a lot of weight, and it will always be in the wrong place.

posted 08-04-2012 01:05 PM ET (US)            

I have a 23 Conquest. It's not a wet boat, it doesn't take on water when in the water, and it has a screw-in plug.

posted 08-04-2012 01:41 PM ET (US)            

Going back to launch ramps, I am likely to be pulling my boat from it's slip and start trailering it again, for a number of reasons. I am dreading the ramp because of the sheer number of people who don't seem to have acquired the skills to get a boat on and off the trailer.

posted 08-04-2012 02:02 PM ET (US)            

http://ocean.floridamarine.org/boating_guides/tampa_bay/pages/ boat_ramps/anclote_river_park/index.html

posted 08-04-2012 06:28 PM ET (US)            

Until I hit the link, I thought you were talking about the ramp down by Desoto Park.

I launched a number of times over a two year period at the huge (at least to this northern midwesterner) site adjacent Fort Desoto Park. 11 ramps. Very nicely laid out, complete with a wash down area.

posted 08-06-2012 10:47 AM ET (US)            

Even in a private club, we find similar cases. Throw it in and take off, blocking everyone else. Park in front of a needed facility and take off for the day. Block access and take off for the day. Just throw it in park and go.

Just oblivious and not always nice when reminded. Explaining to a woman that she has put her kids in danger by letting them swim on the ramp did not produce a Thank You.

Of course, this situation is improving as we speak.

posted 08-06-2012 11:51 PM ET (US)            

After two weekends at the ramp, watching what I described earlier in the thread, I've concluded that it is the larger fiberglass cruisers, go-fasts and ski boats that forget more often. The aluminum fish boat guys don't seem to have the problem.

I took one of the dock kids aside and explained the new rules to him, and how people weren't accustomed to it, and how he should be looking at every transom as he assisted a launch and all I got was the "whatever dude" look.

posted 08-22-2012 02:58 AM ET (US)            

4 nice long ramps, 6 lanes of launching. The outside of the outer docks are for docking only, not launching. One set of docks is out of commission due to sand, so now it's only 4 lanes.

I come in early from salmon fishing.
Weather kinda rough, and I have but one 28" salmon in 2.5 hours of trolling.
As I near the ramp, I see a large crane and flatbed truck at the top of the ramps. The harbor is removing old, dilapidated boats. One is sunken at the base of lane #1.
In lane #2 is a partially sunken boat with a dive crew. The large crane is going to load the vessel onto the flatbed, which is occupying the top of lanes #3 & #4. Lanes #5 & #6, which are not useable, and would be a great place to position the flatbed, is empty.

I watch in disbelief as the Harbormaster has all useable lanes blocked, and the lot has about 40 trailers to go!
Knowing this scene isn't going to clear up anytime soon, I eyeball the narrow space between the the dock and the end of the flatbed down lane #4. Close. Hmmm... No choice. Gotta get the kids from school!
I'm able to squeeze the trailer in and pluck my boat out of the mess as more and larger boats begin pulling up to haul out.

I didn't want to stick around to see what transpired, but I know those guys in 22'-25'ers were not going to squeeze through where I did.

Harbormaster. What were they thinking? Or not thinking.