I'm a lake person!

[tedc]

I go out every Sunday in the warm months, sometimes Saturday and Sunday. I’m a member of a “Redneck Yacht Club” where we all tie off our boats, float on noodles and drink beer. Always great friends and great conversation.

Our lake is suddenly 5 feet lower than it has been previous weeks and on my way back to my marina yesterday, I passed a boat stuck in the water with two guys and a girl pushing the back of the boat.

As ”lake people” do, you can’t just pass something like that. Well actually I passed him just for fun because I have a Seadoo Islandia and a 1 foot draft. But then I came back and asked if he’d like some help. Long story short, I drug his boat free, sucked up the tow line with my boat and the guy I stopped to help had to tow me back in. Hardee har har.

So today I go back to the marina and ask if they could send someone around to tow me from my slip to the ramp because my boat isn’t working. The lady at the desk picks up a walkie talkie and tells me to go on down to my boat someone will be there in a minute. Now this is probably a 400 yard walk, so it takes several minutes. The only times you'd ever have to make this walk is if you have your trailer with you, because you park the trailer near the ramp. Otherwise, you park by your boat.

I get to my boat and a half hour passes, no one shows up. I think, “Screw it, I’ll paddle over there.” So I lay down on the front of my boat and paddle exactly three times when TWO different boat owners, one in a slip behind me and one walking down the catwalk in front of me offer me a tow. LOVE THOSE LAKE PEOPLE! :hurray:

So I get towed over to the dock where the ramp is. While I’m tying off and getting ready to back my truck down the ramp a pontoon boat parks on the dock between me and the ramp. I explained to him my boat wasn’t working and when I got back from putting my trailer in the water could he give me a pull in that direction. He told me he couldn’t because he was waiting for some people and he needed to go as soon as they arrived. I was shocked and amazed. That was the first time I had ever witnessed a boat owner ask another boat owner for some minor assistance and be refused. Then I asked if he could at least pull away from the dock for a second so I could pull my boat with the rope down the ramp. He shook his head no.

I go put my trailer in the water, untie my boat and paddle past the guy. As I paddle by I read on the side of the boat that it’s a rental! No wonder you’re such a jackass, you aren’t one of us! You don’t love spending your free time on the water and all the wonderful things about lake life. You’re just some bozo who rented a boat. :banghead:

So I yank my boat out of the water, park in the parking lot and begin cutting the rope out of my intake. While I’m hacking away at it a guy rides up in a golf cart and asked me if I asked for a tow earlier. I said yes. He said, “We got the call on the radio but we were about to go to lunch.” People that work at marina’s aren’t necessarily “lake people”. Gonna leave me stranded down there because you are about to go to lunch.

I get the rope cut out, put the boat back in the water and idle back to my slip. Pontoon Rental Boy still sitting there, by himself.

The reason I am writing this is to say, whatever you call them, “boat people”, “lake people” “water people” are a special kind of person. I’m very proud to be one and sometimes I wish I could just stay on the water for the rest of my life. :cheers: Cheers Brothers!

P.S. Next time I see a boat stalled in the water, will I stop and offer my help? DARN RIGHT I will!

 

[seadoo GTS 1993]

haha, redneck yacht club, I like that! Theres a song called that.


anyway, good story... last year i towed in like 2 jetskis and 2 boats.. always a pleasure to help people out

 

[Teddyf1]

Great story! I know exactly what you mean about a different breed!

 

[SeadooBOB Square Pants]

It seems there are two kinds of people at the docks/marinas etc.. the pleasent ones who try there best not to hassle others and then the assholes who for some odd reason feel in some way they own the dock. They sit there with there boats tied to the dock where people load and unload there boats [ :rant: ] all the while waiting for the people to get back that just parked the car. Why is there only one capable person of driving the boat in these dumbass families? I insisted my wife learn because it is far easier for her to drop me off to get the truck and trailer and not park at the dock but drive around until I am at the actual dock. Jesus those people bother me.......if you couldn't tell. Have some common sense don't park at the dock it's rude, it also ironic these are usual the people us "lake people" are towing back. Thanks for the post maybe some newish boaters will learn the ropes so to speak of polite boating.

 

[jhjesse]

tedc,
Which lake do you frequent?
I go to Allatoona off old 41!!

 

[stripesace]

Now I'm ok with guys who have to go get the trailer etc while the wife holds the boat at the dock. but why can't she go get in the truck, and be ready so that when he gets it on the trailer, hooks the bowline and tightens the winch (usually able to do that from inside the boat) she can't pull it out of the water for him? Or back it down the ramp, get in, let her finish it. it's hard to screw up driving straight up the ramp into nose-in parking lots. Why do you have to come back and haul the empty trialer off the ramp?

I go solo on the jetski all the time. But I try to get all the way to one edge of the ramp, and I hustle to and from the car after tieing up the jetski. I can launch the jetski and clear the ramp usually faster than some people can launch a boat full of people.

 

[SeadooBOB Square Pants]

:agree: But when you come across Mr. Pontoon rental D-Bag who doesn't even help another boater you almost wish something would happen to him so he could experience the same boating problem and have someone tell him they won't help. If you are flying solo that only makes sense or if someone thinks they will ram their boat into someone else due to poor boating skills but I was at the lake last weekend and some jokers in a Bayliner (big surprise) all EIGHT of them sat in the boat and waited for the guy to get the trailer down the ramp and then he drove it onto trailer as well. I mean cmon someone could have at least pulled the boat onto the trailer so they didn't take 1/2 hour to load their boat. And why is a Bayliner like the cream of the crop boat for amateur boaters?? I guess the rule is if you don't know s--t about boat buy one of those, it is just like driving around with a Student Drive sign on your car.