Over the years I have seen mass confusion at boat landing and some of that confusion is understandable, but one is unacceptable. There are times where I believe you should be patient, and I put those into three categories.

1) Owners of a new boat, who have never launched a boat before. 2) People that only use their boats a few times a year but get nervous if the ramp is busy. 3) The family that goes on a fishing trip once a year. For those people, I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND.

Then there are the people I put into the UNACCEPTABLE category. These are the arrogant people that DON’T care if they are holding up a line at a boat ramp. I have witnessed a couple loading their pleasure boat while 20 yards off the boat ramp two anglers were waiting to pull their boats out of the water. Now let’s add the fishermen’s friends sitting in two trucks with empty trailers waiting to load those two boats.

Did this couple see these people? YES. Did they care that they were holding everyone up? THEY DID NOT. While still on the ramp, the husband walked behind the boat and pulled the drain plug, plugged in his trailer lights and proceeded to look for and apply his tie downs. This man’s wife then handed him a towel, and he preceded to wipe the boat down. At this time his wife started cleaning and arranging items inside the boat.

Someone suggested (IN A NICE WAY) he move the boat away from the ramp to finish whatever he had left to do. If this was done, the others that were waiting could load their boats and be on their way. This is when the man wiping the boat down said, “RELAX”. The two men with the trailers and their friends in the water waiting to load their boats, shared the same opinion, but that did not stop this couple from finishing their removal by applying their boat cover.

There are unwritten rules while unloading and loading boats at a launch.

UNLOADING. If there is a parking area out of the way (there usually is) remove your cover, engine support, put in your drain plug, take off the transom tie downs, drive to the ramp (trust me, the boat won’t come off the trailer) unplug the lights, if you do so, unless you have a roller trailer, unhook the winch strap, trim up the motor, back into the water, start the engine and back off the trailer and move to the side of the dock.
LOADING. Just reverse that procedure. It’s that simple.

There are times you have to have patients at a boat ramp, because the people putting in or taking out that might be novice and or nervous for one reason or the other. There are some people that will not except this but, there is NOTHING WRONG with offering assistance or friendly advice instead of getting pissed off. I have backed trailers in for people and even winched their boats on the trailer for them because they were having a little trouble.

I remember my first few times backing down a ramp and holding people up because I was being careful and I’m sure others have too.