It happened to me. On one of my first voyages. I was very inexperienced and this was my first boat (13' plywood V). Had the trailer too deep so I stepped out on it to winch the boat up. Once winched, I couldn't get back on the dock so I climbed up on the roof of my van and dropped down through the window. My dad was still in the boat, holding it in position on the trailer (remember, too deep). So after my bragging about the climbing and how smart I was about not getting wet, I proceeded to pull the boat out without locking the winch.

Luckily my dad had more experience and yelled for me to stop in time to keep the boat in the water although it bumped the ramp a little. He knows I have to learn things the hard way so he didn't say anything about how deep I was until afterwards. He didn't know about the winch though.

So boat was OK and so was I and I learned two valuable lessons that day.

Ouch is right! Just a friendly reminder for all of us.

ouch how much damage did that mistake cost? hope he remembered to put the plug in BEFORE he had to push it back in yikes

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Really, I don't want anyone to damage their boats. But if they do, just keep up in mind.

I took my bay boat out Sunday, being a Kayak fisherman this is a new thing to me, this pic kept running through my head as I was pulling her out of the water....scary.

Tony