Most stupid thing you've seen...

L

localboy

New member
Based on what we just saw on the water this past week, I thought this would be, uhm, interesting: what is the most stupid, dangerous or dumb thing you've seen while boating?

I'll start:

[mid] Trincomali Channel, south of Wallace Island, between Galiano & Saltspring Islands. I see a two-person kayak in the distance. We are southbound. They are traveling east to west, slowly. Nice weather and water; small chop but doable. Since we're on a course that is converging, I take it upon us to give them room. Upon approaching I change course even more to give them a wide berth and we slow down so as to not throw a wake.

I notice something on the lap of the person in the stern seat of the kayak. Weird. A small dog(?), I think. We pass them within about 200' and I check them out via binoculars. The "object" is not a dog. It's a baby...less than a year old, sitting on mom's lap as she attempts to paddle. Neither mom nor dad (up front) have on life preservers/jackets and neither has the skirt seal installed. The kayak is one of the plastic, roto-molded ones not a quality fiberglass model. :shock: :roll: There are bags lashed to the bow, center and stern decks of the kayak. They are now paddling hard, I can only assume to get out of the way of all the boats traversing the channel.

To make it worse, I observe a yacht, northbound at a hell of a pace. When it passes us, I note the name, Rent Spent; 34 meters out of Seattle and moving. It throws a 4' tall wake that we turn into and slow to mitigate. I attempted to hail the yacht via 16. Nothing. I can only imagine that wake and that kayak having a not too nice meeting.

As to mom & dad in the kayak, they win my dumb-ass parents of the year award. :evil:
 
a few years back (1976) I was at the Camano Island State Park sitting in my boat offshore waiting for this couple to launch their boat. it was a 16 glasply and the tow rig was a brand new Monte Carlo. he backed it down close to the water and then got into the boat and had his wife or girlfriend procede to back it down the rest of the way. she did not stop and kept going till the car was under water. she climbed out the window and got on the roof. he came arround with the boat and picked her up cussing her out the whole time. I heard explitives I had never hear before.
they had the launch blocked for almost 2 hours waiting for a diver to come and go under to hook the cable from the wrecker.
it was quite a show.
 
Really good stories. I have made my share of dumb mistakes for sure.
My story's is of a boatload of teenagers way up in the rocky inlet of a lake, very full on Memorial day. It was in a 5 mph no wake area and very narrow. They decided to head back to the main body of the lake in what looked like a dads fully restored, pristine, completely varnished, wooden 50s Crisscraft. They gunned it up at full v8 throttle and hit a rock submerged about a foot under water. They sat in stunned disbelief as the boat slowly sank away beneath them. I assume that some poor parent is still in disbelief years later.
 
Was boat camping years ago in the sierras on cables lake. We were camping on a small island in the middle of the lake. When making a beer run to the store at the ramp I see a 12 ft boat about half way to the store low in the water and the "captain" trying to start the motor. Pulled along side and counted 9 people and a infant. They had 2 inchs of free board left. I towed them ever so slowly to the ramp and talked to the captain about over loaded boats and no life jackets. This lake is known for sudden winds and white caps. Very next day while headed to the ramp and home I see the same people in the same boat with the same broken motor. I towed them because of the kids but then thought, you know they are just going to raise them to be just as stupid. We got everyone to shore.
 
Two incidents come to mind. One was a woman on a PWC, no life jacket on the woman, and no life jacket on the infant. She was trying to control the PWC with one hand, and hold the child with the other had. I made sure that a Sheriff's deputy was at the launching ramp when she got back there.

The other also involved a beautiful wooden boat--about 45 feet long--a mahogany hull Chris Craft. It belonged to the Pontiac Dealer in the Redondo / Manhattan beach area of S. Calif. His Pontiac Logo was emblazoned on the varnished transom. His son had taken the boat with a load of his friends and their gals for a late day run to Emerald Bay at Catalina Island. There is a reef which shelters the bay, and at high tide it is underwater, with kelp over it. The boat came plowing in headed right for the reef. There were 3 or 4 boats anchored in the bay, and all of the skippers were on their decks yelling and gesturing to stop and turn. Nope; this young buck was going to show the gals aboard that he was in command--and the rest of the folks were really dumb... Right over the reef, hung up for a minute or two and then slid right on over. I had a dinghy with a 9.9 hp and another friend hopped in his dinghy at the same time. We get lines aboard the boat, and towed her bow to the sand/gravel beach--and managed to find a large log which had floated up on the beach to put under the stern to keep the shafts (badly damaged and several planks sprung) from being driven up into the hull causing more damage. Of course the bilge pumps could not keep up with the leaks. As the tide went out, we were able to block the hull enough so there was no more damage. The Coast Guard arrived about 2 1/2 hours later. This was in the days when the Coast Guard was in the business of small boat rescues--long before Sea Tow or Boat US.

A crusty bosun's mate had several pieces of plywood aboard and after assessing the beached boat, was able to make patches, put Dolfinite on the wood, and drive screws into the hull to hold them in place. At the next high tide--well after dark, the Cutter pulled the Chris Craft off the beach, and towed it to the mainland.. They made it back to King Harbor, and right into the travel lift about dawn the next day. No serious flooding in the living areas of the boat.
 
Patty here. This is not the most stupid thing we've seen but we wonder why we have not heard of more accidents in Birch Bay when crabbing finally opens in the middle of August. The water can be rough but it does not deter the determined crab hunter. People go out no matter what to set and retrieve their pots with 6 or more people in a little 10' boat and nobody is wearing a life jacket. Scary.
 
Pat Anderson":262x3pod said:
The water can be rough but it does not deter the determined crab hunter. People go out no matter what to set and retrieve their pots with 6 or more people in a little 10' boat and nobody is wearing a life jacket. Scary.
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A few years ago, on day one of Everett shrimping, a 16' alum boat capsized just south of Camano Head. Same story; too many people, too much gear, crappy conditions (windy, cold and rough). The owner's 14 yr old g-son drowned despite the best efforts of other boaters and the CG. We heard in on 16 and saw the CG Dolphin helo drop the rescue swimmer. Next day it was in the media.

I can't even imagine the pain, guilt, agony etc that the owner dealt with and is probably still dealing with...
 
I didn't see it, but I heard someone calling Mayday on Channel 16. The Coast Guard got on and the caller tried to explain that he was calling his buddy, who named his boat Mayday. The Coast Guard was none too happy.
 
Just hang out at a launch ramp after a fireworks display in July. You'll see enough stupid drunks to entertain you the rest of the night!...
 
My neighbor dropped his 17' arima seachaser off his trailer backing it down the ramp (he just put new rollers on it) , broke both skegs, toasted 2 props and a prop saver not to mention all the fiberglass repair. THEN after he had it all fixed launched it the very next time and forgot to put his plug in, came back to the boat it was IN the water
 
The stupidest thing I have ever seen was a long time ago. My wife and I had a 20' sailboat at a lake marina and since we didn't have an engine, we used to sail in and out of the slip. A guy across from us decides he wants to try that and comes heading for his slip dead downwind with the main out. For those of you who are not sailors, there is no way to slow down or stop when you come in that way. I think he realized it at the last minute and his buddy got on the bow and reached over the pulpit to try and "stop" the boat. However, he reached too far and fell over and then was hanging off the bow of the boat like a big fender. There were several of us on the dock and really don't remember how we got that boat slowed enough so he didn't get crushed.
 
Pacificcoast101":k7jazifc said:
I didn't see it, but I heard someone calling Mayday on Channel 16. The Coast Guard got on and the caller tried to explain that he was calling his buddy, who named his boat Mayday. The Coast Guard was none too happy.
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That's fantastic.
 
While slowly navigating through a swarm of ski jets on the ICW, one of them cuts right in front of our bow. My wife turns to port to maneuver away from him, only to find that he was towing someone on a raft. Could have been very ugly if my wife didn’t throw us in reverse
 
I’m going to fess up. Dumbest thing i’ve Seen on the water was me. I was under the Alaskan way piers rigging anodes to protect old metal pilings. Because cad welding in the rain isn’t dangerous enough while standing on the gunwale of a 12 foot work boat, I decided I should drill some holes to anchor our hardware while I was down there.
“Boss lower me a drill and the power cord. Yep. Plug it in we’re good man!”

I plugged the drill into the cord which “boss” dropped over the side of the pier. He plugged it into the generator up top and tossed me an extra 50 feet of cord so I could move the boat if needed. I didn’t want to lose the drill in the water if I had to let it hang so I TIED THE CORD AROUND MY WAIST with about 3 feet of working length. Up on the Gunwale I went. Plenty of gear to keep the boat from flipping. Toss the slack cord in the boat and drill drill drill. Hammer hammer hammer. Drill drill drill. Out of the corner of my eye I see a boat moving fast behind me, and as the wake hit me, in the back of my cobwebbed 20 something brain a little warning siren went off and I managed to lean back and buckle my legs just enough to fall in the boat instead of the water, where I would likely have been both electrocuted and trapped under my own boat. Boss heard the thud and killed the generator. “WTF ARE YOU DOING!? WHY THE EFF IS THE CORD AROUND YOUR WAIST!? “. Expletives back and forth for a few minutes, but I knew immediately what I did wrong in ten different ways and have been a paranoid safety nut in the 20 some years since then.
 
Ferg":ksshk8kc said:
While slowly navigating through a swarm of ski jets on the ICW, one of them cuts right in front of our bow. My wife turns to port to maneuver away from him, only to find that he was towing someone on a raft. Could have been very ugly if my wife didn’t throw us in reverse
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There was a teen in Long Beach, California several years ago who thought it would be fun to jump the wake of a passing ski boat. He didn't notice the skier behind the boat and was decapitated by the tow rope.
 
Pacificcoast101":8f11n3p2 said:
Ferg":8f11n3p2 said:
While slowly navigating through a swarm of ski jets on the ICW, one of them cuts right in front of our bow. My wife turns to port to maneuver away from him, only to find that he was towing someone on a raft. Could have been very ugly if my wife didn’t throw us in reverse
Click to expand...
There was a teen in Long Beach, California several years ago who thought it would be fun to jump the wake of a passing ski boat. He didn't notice the skier behind the boat and was decapitated by the tow rope.
Click to expand...

Another gene pool cleansing :thup
 
No doubt stuff happens; some stupid, some dumb, some called one when it's
actually the other.

To clarify:

Dumb is when someone doesn't know any better.

Stupid is when someone knows better but does it anyway.

Take what's going on in the world, involving boats and everything else, and
you'll see plenty of both.

Aye.
 
My buddy was captaining a high speed cat pulling in to dock in San Francisco when some genius on a jet ski decided it would be fun to drive between the hulls.
 
I don't know how this rates (and not the dumbest thing) but the most consistently dumb thing I see people do, over and over, is buy a boat far larger than their experience dictates, which leads to scenes like below (maddened docking):

https://youtu.be/Ky5rwDPghbE

Ultimately these guys ended up on the hook riding out one of the worst storms we've seen because they couldn't handle boat docking (or the boat in general). Don't find this kind of thing in the C-Dory crowd. A refreshing thing.
 
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