This weeks launch story
 

Hi Guys, Here's a little story from the launch this weekend. I was behind a couple with a brand new, 18' Stingray. He unhooked everything while she stood on the dock. Well you can maybe see this coming, he got about half way down the ramp and for some reason hit his brakes. Result? Brand new Stingray sitting half on the trailer, half in about 6" of water. It took six of us to get it back on the trailer and off to the welders shop. I've been launching loose like that for years, but after that I left the bow eye hooked until she was floating.:yes_grin:

Re: This weeks launch story
 

Last Friday as I turned down our street we came accross an old Renkell? sitting dry at the intersection of our street. I guess the trailer and strap was old and when the light turned green he pulled forward and the boat simply rolled off the trailer. He didn't have any stern strapping to the trailer... didn't think he needed them. Well we got the trailer back under the bow and he reattached the bow strap and was cranking the trailer under the boat when a tow truck showed up. The tow truck backed up to the trailer and whinched the boat back on. The boat suffered a good road rash on both the hull and the outdrive base. Felt sorry for the guy, I'm sure we've all had the fear of something breaking or comming undone while enroute. Leason learned - never trust an old trailer!

Re: This weeks launch story
 

Hey Vern, you're correct, never trust an old anything! A couple weeks ago i saw a guy at a cross street stop sign. His old, no name boat was firmly attached to the trailer and the trailer was firmly attached to the hitch. The problem was the hitch was pulled off the frame and dangled. Check you hitch bolts too!

Re: This weeks launch story
 

hold on a minute....i'm getting 'old' but i'm still trustworthy......and Vern is even older than me! :rolling_laugh::rolling_laugh:

Re: This weeks launch story
 

And I'm probably older than both of you , but i'm starting to worry about rust:rolling_laugh:

Re: This weeks launch story
 

Re: This weeks launch story
 

Man, those stories give me the willys. I was walking out of the gas station at the lake last month and noticed that a boat was coming in looking really precarious on it's trailer. The bow strap had broken away from it's hook. I looked at my wife and said, "I wonder if they know their strap broke?", so being closer, she walked over to them and told them that their strap was broken. They blew her off and told that they knew. Well, it takes me a couple minutes to get going in my deuce-and-a-half so I watched them pull forward to the pumps. They were also missing a stern strap. The guy got out, walked back to the boat and his eyes were big as saucers when he realized how close he was to losing his boat. I wonder why bow safety chains aren't standard on all trailers?