Was launching my boat at Depot Bay in 1964. Brand new Chev Impala coup. Backed down but after getting the boat in water I couldn't get traction to get back up the gravel beach. That green grassy stuff is slick.(first launch in salt from unimproved site). Cars and boats were three abreast on the makeshift gravel slope. Tried eveything, everyone in a hurry and no offers to help. Guy at resturant above told me to call the number he gave me. Guy answered phone and said yes he had been watching from his breakfast table and would come down with his tractor for $25 as soon as he finish eating.(this is 1964 remember and that was almost a days wages)OK I said but hurry as the tide is coming in fast. The tide came in and as the back seat and floorboard were under water a Good Sam shows up with 4w drive and pulls the car to safey. The guy with the tractor shows up almost an hour and a half after I called him.
He was mad as hell the car was pulled already and I told him he took his sweet time as he had explained he could see me from the kitchen as he only lived a block away on the hill. My car would have been under water to the dashboard had the guy not pulled me out with his 4w drive.(they were not common back then) Anyway, the guy on the tractor wanted his $25 and I told him if he left quickly his wife would not be a widow. I was really mad and he knew I was ready to take his tractor and stuff it were the sun never shines on him. The Good Sam wouldn't take a dime. Hopped in his boat and said someday I could return the favor by helping someone who could use it. I have done that for the last 38 years. I remember what it's like to be young, a lot dumber and really need a hand.

If morons in action is what you want to see, be at Stan Sayers pits from 4 a.m. till around noon on Fri. Sat. and Sun. They'll all be there.

Watched a guy launch his boat at Pt Defiance and quickly discover he didnt have the plug in....pulled it out of the water as far as possible and then ran for his truck...comes flying down cutting off everyone else in line and backs down while getting cussed at....starts cranking it up on the trailer as fast as he can and hyper-extends his elbow and busts his arm....was nasty.

The strangest thing I've ever seen was at the Don Armini boat launch on Elliot Bay. Dad and I had just launched our boat and I was holding it at the dock while he parked the truck. These 3 drunk indians backed a small 15 or so foot boat down to the water and tried to launch it. They were so drunk, they forgot to undo the rear tie downs and they couldn't figure out how to get the boat off the trailer. The driver of the truck would put it in reverse and back down really fast, then slam on his breaks causing the bow of the boat to bounce up about 4 feet and slam back down on the trailer. They were still doing that when dad got back to our boat and we left.

My dad was also nearly killed at the boat launch at Bush Point. They had his boat (16' Sornsen) in the sling and were getting ready to put it on the trailer. He was helping to steady it when some kid who didn't even work there thought he would be helpful and send the cart down the tracks to pick up the next boat. He through the lever the wrong way and the cart came back, flew off the tracks and slammed into my dad. His leg was broke in 3 places, including a 360 degrees spiral break. If he would have been standing 6" further to the side, it would have taken off his head.

My friend came back with both oar locks (for emergencies) broken off his 22 footer... hehe seems he forgot the motor... But STILL tried to fish out of Westport. I dunno how it is down there, but he seemed pretty worn out.

OK here's my stupid boatlaunch story, well at least one of em. This past winter we put in at Shafer on the Nooch. Getting everything stowed in our boat down comes another DB to put in also. They backed it up to the drop, unhooked it and gave it a big shove over the edge. A guys has ahold of the bow line and leans back waiting for the tug that never came. They had forgotten to fasten the line to the bow eye. The boat goes floating down river only to drift into a back eddy, as boat owner and the guy we were fishing with are rowing like mad to get out of the fast water before they head down under the bridge. My buddy climbs down the rocks to get to thier boat and slips on the frozen rocks and lands smack dab on his tailbone, ouch! He gets the boat and gives the line to the guy and I don't even remember hearing him say "thanks"....So now we start our drift with the guy behind the oars nusing a deep cut he got while jumping in to retrieve the boat and my other buddy nursing a sore back all day.

Stupid human tricks, they never amaze me anymore.......

I agree with you guys to see T-Towns finest in action nothing beats the Pt. Defiance launch........

So another being stupid boat launch story for you all. Back in the day, way back in the 80s when I was a kid out fishing with my dad and grandpa in Eastern Wa. they were bringing the boat in and I was trying to be as helpful as your average 10 year old can be. (i was getting in everyones way!!!!) Dad told me to get lost before I got hurt. I went over to a horse pasture next to lake area to pet the pretty horses. some jackass blows his air horn scares the horses one of them bites me on shoulder i stumble back trip on logs or some **** and fall in lake. I get fished out and I have to go to doctors and get some stiches from horse bite. What a goof!!!!

Down in Shelton in the 80's I watched a guy take his new aluminum boat and motor out for a test although he didn't clamp the motor on, just set it on the back. About the same time a big barge went by. Test drive went fine but as it was on the beach next to the ramp the waves from the barge hit. I looked over just in time to see the back of the boat pitch up and down, while the running engine then hit bottom and lifted it off the back and into the water. After some exhaust bubbles the guy looked over and saw what happened. I thought I would never quit laughing.

one of the funniest things i saw at a launch was when a guy was lauchin his 18'lund and backed into the water until the bed of his truck was filled wit water. then he got in his boat and went to pull it off and forgot to untie his boat from the trailor and for got to put the emergency brake on and pulled boat trailor and truck all the way under water. he started swearing so much and the swam into his truck and pulled it out. all i could do was laugh and asked him if he needed help. everyone gave him a hard time.

FUNNY BUT SAD.

Back in 1991 while fishing out of Olson's Resort in Sekiu, some drunk tied the bow line of his 16'
Glaspar to the dock piling. At low tied the boat
was hanging from the top of the piling.

Cigar

My father, who was always comical at the boat ramp, launces his boat at Coulon in Renton and runs all the way up to I-90 to fish. He'd been fishing for an hour or so when he starts thinking, hey, I didn't put any money in the meter for parking. So he high tails it back to the ramp only to find his trailer and van still running and still parked in the ramp. There was another time at Neah Bay. It was not the launch that got him but the dock. Him and two other friends of his are out fishing in the kicker boat in nasty rainy weather. My dad is the only one with rain gear on, so he has everyones cigarettes in his coat pockets. Did I mention that they were pretty sheit faced by the time they came back to the dock? Well my dad jumps out of the boat onto the dock, which was slick from the rain and proceeds to slide across the dock and into the drink. I can still remember how blue his face was and how instantly sober he became.

was at pt defiance one morn. a couple guys were launching a 12ft or so alum boat from a trailer. once the boat was afloat, the guy tending the boat told the diver to hit it. not realising the dock line was wrapped up in the trailer, the boat made it all of the way up to the top of the ramp before anyone was able to stop the driver. if he had his way he would have parked it up on top with all of the trailers.

Skagit river during humpy mania watched a guy park his sled in the back of his pickup while trying to drive it on to the trailer. Broke the winch stand clean off the trailer and caved his tailgate into the truck bed.

Columbia river during spring kings. 2 guys blast up in their 20 plus foot Wooldridge jet right into the middle of everyone else. One guy jumps out, runs up to their rig, backs her down, forces everyone else to wait or get out of his way. Guy #2 drives the boat up on the trailer, straps her down, jumps into the truck and off they go with the boat motor still running. Watched them drive up the ramp, through the parking lot to the highway and nobody said a thing. Always wondered how long that motor lasted before it seized.

Skagit river again. Watch a guy launch about a 28 footer at Conway. Wondered what the hell he thought he was doing putting that big of a boat in the river. Got her launched, took off up river at about 100 miles an hour and run a dead head right through the hull. Stuck. Parked it right there. I don’t know how they got it off that log.

Can you believe it..... another nut today.

Unfastened everything, backs down the ramp... boats slides off the trailer completely...

Whata dummy!

Downriggin'

I had some friends that went out to some lake and they just got a new speed boat, that was supose to go around 65. Well, when they launched it (first time) they could only get it up to 25. The went to a friends house on the lake, he looked at it, and swam around it, and underneath it. He came up and said "i've found the problem, the trailor is still on!"

Skeets

I think there is a blonde joke in there somewhere.