Funny Boat Stories

[058]

Some people have no class, The "thankless" guy and now the Bayliner guy...Reminds me of a day at Tulloch. My wife and I would grab a few beverages after our boat was back on the trailer and go to the ramp for the evenings entertainment, we weren't disappointed this time, here comes a Dodge van backing a empty trailer down the ramp just as a 20' daycruiser painted to match the Dodge was approching, the young lady was having a hard time backing the trailer down the narrow ramp and got it crossed up a bit, the guy seeing this starts yelling and cursing. After several minutes of this abuse the young lady starts crying. My wife not one to stand by when this type of thing happens goes over the the lady in distress and talks her into leaving the van right where it lay, crossed up on the ramp. The guy is now livid. His "1st mate" is now gone and he doesn't have any help at all with his boat. Nobody would help him because they all saw what an a$$hole this guy was. When we left the ramp he was still wrestling with his boat by himself.

[EricinNv]

Easter vacation of '68 or '69, Parker strip. The Christmas before, my folks had bought me my first set of water skis. Now was my turn to learn how to ski. Being a short & fat 11 year old, I was having my difficulties getting up. Dad decided to take a different approach and thought he would have mom drive, little brother as the observer, and would have me "take off" in 4 or 5 feet of water, so that he could stand behind me and hold me upright until the boat popped me out of the water. We were at a little beach area maybe 50 yards up river from our launch ramp (yes, the infamous one) and simultaneously there was a guy standing on one of the slips with a single ski on and his wife was ilding their boat away from the dock. It was obvious to me,as I was paying more attention to him than to my own going ons, that he was about to do one of those hot dog shore starts from the slip. Well by this time my mom has the slack out of the tow rope and dad hollers "HIT IT"! By not having my grip ready pulled the rope handles from my hand after it jerked me out of the water a couple of feet. But I was back up to the surface quick enough to see what happened to the "Hot Dog" skier. His wife heard my dad holler "Hit it" and thought it was her husband. The poor guy had probably 10 feet of slack in his rope and tried to go with it when she launched him off the dock. Best damn superman imitation I've ever seen. As she circled around, he gave her the best X-rated tongue lashing I'd heard up to that time. To this day I still have the urge to holler "Hit it" whenever I see a guy getting ready to take off.

[flattie]

Has anyone ever hit a dock going 35mph on water skis? I have I don't remember much other than I thought I was dead. I was about 10yrs old at the time. OH yeah the life jacket saved my life

[058]

Hitting a dock? yeah once, not me, thank God but a friend was comming into the dock and misjudged his speed, hit the dock and tore his leg wide open. Major loss of blood, broken leg and about 200 stiches to close it up. It was an ugly scene.

[LeadFootTheRabbit]

Back in 1982-83 a couple friends and I were skiing at a place called "SKI-LAND" near Perris, Ca.. It was a place that alot of you will remember had drag boat races and you could also water ski. My friend Eric was riding my old plank (a 70 inch square back triple concave Vogue) and cutting as hard as he could. On one of his cuts he was really hangin it out there when all the sudden the ski stopped about 25' from shore and Eric rolled and splashed across the water, up the beach and hit his head on the bleachers 10-15' off the shoreline. After we got the bleeding stopped and all bandaged up, we put him in his truck so he could drive himself to the hospital. Ya I know, what good friends, but hell we still had a half of day of skiing left. I got my ski, it was still in the same place that Eric had come out of it, wadded through the mud back to deeper water and put it on. When I came out of the water I noticed right a way that the ski didn't feel right so I dropped back into the water took off my ski to look at it. When I turned it over it had a clump of mud the size of a grapefruit on the skag from when Eric had wipped out. Just another fun day of skiing...20 years ago LDFTRBT

[EricinNv]

Hey Ldftrbt,
Was "Ski Land" like a big oval? Like an Island in the middle and all traffic had to go one direction? If so, I remember going there with my dad and they kicked us out cuz he wasn't an outboard (I think that was the reason. That was probably pre 1970) or maybe cuz he had open exhaust. What ever the reason, we got kicked out of the place after only one go around.
Eric

[Thunderbutt]

Here is one of my stupid tricks. At lake Castaic in the middle of July we came in after a fun day of skiing and a few beers, pulled up to the dock and I headed up to get the truck and trailer. About two thirds of the way up that long ramp I realize that I am leaving the skin on the bottom of my feet on the pavement. I forgot to put on my slaps. So I jump on someone's trailer which is parked. In the bed of the truck that was hooked to the trailer there was a pair of shoes. I did put the shoes back when I finished. Hey, sometimes you're having so much fun you forget to think.

[LeadFootTheRabbit]

EricinNv, 10-4 on the big oval. It was kinda L shaped and had a couple islands. In the mid 60's my dad ran a flatbottom in the drags there. It was closed for many years and then reopened for a while in the 1980's. It was in the early 80's that we skiied there. I always skiied there in a pump or an outdrive but it seems to me that other drives were also allowed. Again, thanks for that dog and water story. I've sent it to alot of friends. LDFTRBT

[Infomaniac]

bump

[sciatica]

I'm new to the forum. I own an old 1962 Biesmeyer with a straight shaft small block Chevy as described by another poster Stab and Steer that was looking for information on his boat. I'm in Northern California and it sounds like our boats our similar. Mine has a rounded back and I cant' seem to find much information about it. If anyone can help me communicate with him, it might help us with a little bit of history. Dean