Launching by ourselves

[ROLAND]

good job craig, and it looks like you all had a great time...glad you got the boat in and out of the water without any trouble... ever since we boat our boat it's always been just me and my wife unless my son was in town and that isn't that often.... we were pretty nervous about launching but we worked out a system... once we get the boat loaded with all the fishing gear and cooler in the parking lot, I will back the boat down the launch..i jump up in the boat and my wife will back us down, get the bunks wet, then she wades out and unhooks the strap, and "bumps" me off the trailer... then she parks the truck and trailer... pretty much reverse on loading... she backs the trailer down, I put the boat on the trailer, she hooks up the strap and off the launch we go...she's pretty good backing the trailer down... usually one or two "adjustments" but no big deal....loading was always the scary time for me, but this year for whatever reason, we've loaded the boat the first time every time with only one exception...dosn't really bother me any more...

[rancherlee]

A lot of people at a busy landing seem to groan when they see a pontoon waiting to load (and ask if they can go first ). With my bunk trailer/center guides I can be on the trailer and out of the lake in 30 seconds! Then I walk down an Mock the guy taking 5 minutes to winch up his bass boat on his roller trailer AFTER I bitch at him for power loading at a dirt landing! This guys trailer tires were right at the edge of the water, THANKS for leaving a big hole for the next guy to back into..................

[ronb]

When we prep to launch, we stop before the launch area, remove all our straps, load up the coolers/kids/dog, unhook the straps (including the winch hook, and I hit the key just to make sure its going to crank over--but not start it) and then my wife backed us into the water. As soon as the prop hits the water deep enough to pull water through the cooling system I start the motor and pull it into reverse (still at an idle to let the motor warm up), my wife continues to back in, when the boat floats off the trailer and my wife drives out to park. While we idle out in reverse (still not using any more than 1k rpm) she parks the truck and locks everything up, we beach next to the dock. She comes down, tosses me the keys (to the truck for safe keeping) and we head out (still barely above idle). Usually when we launch or load the trailer is 3/4ths or more under water.

To load, I drop off my wife at the shore again, while she gets the truck, we boat out to get a good view of the loading ramp, as she backs in, we start to idle up to the launch, I signal her when to stop, we motor up and onto the trailer, if I don't get up far enough I use a judgement call to either winch it the rest of the way or have her back it in, I guess I'm more concerned about chewing up my prop on the gravel pile left by the 'Power Loaders' than anything else. To hook up the winch I can normally just reach over the front gate, trip the winch to lock so it locks when cranked; I then snug the front deck up to the bumpers and give her the signal to pull out, once out of the water and the launch area we do our prep to leave proceedings (garbage/bimini/drain motor/straps/rehook tail lights/kids/dogs out of toon) once everything is snugged away, we drive away

However, it seems more often than not, as we are getting ready far outside the launch area some chump will drive around us totally unprepared and spend 5-10 minutes unhooking his straps, getting lined up perfectly to launch, putting his gear into the boat, loading his passengers into the boat, grr!

-ron

[stickman]

I'm with you. We have a little-used picnic area just above where we often put in and I pull the toon in there to prep it. That gives everyone a chance to "potty" also before getting aboard. Tube goes on (if we are tubing that day), straps come off, bimini goes up from the towing position, coolers go on, etc. They only thing left to do is unhook the winch strap and we do that at the ramp.

After fully prepped, we USED TO have everyone climb aboard and then slowly went down the hill to the launch ramp... that is, until the lake patrol came over to us one day and told us no one was allowed to ride on the boat from the upper area to the ramp. After that, we do everything except loading passengers. They load up at the launch/ramp.

I back it to the water's edge, then have my wife climb into the truck while I climb onto the toon. I unhook the winch strap, fire it up and have her back in a little farther. Once it is floating, she pulls away to park the truck/trailer and I motor around waiting for her to come back. (We have NO courtesy docks of any sort, and rip-rap along the shore so no chance of beaching it for her to climb aboard.)

Of course, not everyone is as efficient as we here on this forum. I often have to wait for someone who insists on waiting until their trailer is in the water before they begin loading gear from their truck into the boat. Worse yet, the one who apparently only has one person that can operate the boat AND the truck, so they leave the boat in the ramp while said person has to find a place to park the truck. Of course, there are usually about 10-15 people waiting in line to use that ramp.

At the end of one day, we had one fool who decided to off-load his gear in one half of the loading ramp while his kid used the other side as his personal swimming area. After a couple of minutes with my son lined up and waiting to back our trailer in and the kid not getting it (and the dad being clueless), I'd had about enough and yelled at my son, "Back it on in - he'll move eventually!"

As a friend's dad used to say, "It doesn't take all kinds - there just are!"

[MacToon]

The majority of our boating is just the wife and I, and we have a pretty quick system for launching and retrieval. Pull into the prep area and load everything/get the boat ready, then I pull onto the ramp and back down to the water's edge (wife can back the trailer okay, but I can do it quicker). I jump on the boat and she backs it in the last few feet. Start the motor as soon as it's wet, walk to the bow and unhook the winch strap and back off the trailer. We're on and off the ramp in about 3 minutes. She parks the truck while I idle in the bay (no-wake zone) and put the bimini up, turn the tunes on, etc., then go in and pick her up from the courtesy dock.

Coming back in at the end of the day, I drop her off at the dock and idle out into the bay while she retrieves it. Put the bimini away and get everything ready to offload. She struggled with backing the trailer at first, but is getting better every time. By the time it's in the water and she sets the brake, I'm lined up and heading for the trailer. We have the upright guides between the 'toons also, which makes loading a lot easier. I keep the bow door open so I can see the front of the center 'toon, and as long as it's between the uprights they will guide it right onto the trailer. She's waiting with the winch strap in hand, hooks it to the center toon and winches me up to the stops, then pulls out to the unloading area. Again, on and off the ramp in 3 minutes or so.

We're fortunate in that we have a very nice launch facility. Two ramps with six lanes apiece, the ramps are all concrete well past loading/unloading depth so power loading isn't a problem. Tons of parking, ramps and lot are lighted at night and several courtesy docks with complimentary garbage bags provided. It's a state park so we pay for an annual launch permit (or you can pay per launch - $10 on weekdays, $15 on the weekend), but it's well worth it to me for the use of such a nice facility.

I despise people who screw around and clog up the ramps doing things they should have done in the prep lanes beforehand (or in the unloading area afterward), so I never want to be "that guy". It's my goal to get in there and out of there as quickly as possible with no screwing around.

[curtiscapk]

We're fortunate in that we have a very nice launch facility. Two ramps with six lanes apiece, the ramps are all concrete well past loading/unloading depth so power loading isn't a problem. Tons of parking, ramps and lot are lighted at night and several courtesy docks with complimentary garbage bags provided.

Crap 12 lanes!!! Here is ours, trust me it looks as steep and long as it is... This is a flood impoundment lake and can get close to the top of the ramp. (Taken with old school camera and scanned.)