Readers share tales of boating mishaps

The vast majority of times Montanans launch their watercrafts, things go perfectly smoothly.

However, backing up a vehicle to the edge of a body of water and getting a boat off a trailer leaves plenty of room for things to go catastrophically wrong, and sometimes they do.

Here are a few funny stories some readers shared about mishaps at the boat launch.

Bucking catastrophe

I was the proud new owner of a powerful 120 horse power Mercury outboard engine. I had just added it to my beautifully restored Glastron speed boat. This was the very first time out on the river after one of the local dealerships had installed it.

It was a glorious day, and I could hardly wait to see how much faster my boat would go with this new engine replacing the old 75 horse power Evinrude. With me were my 7-year-old son Douglas, a new girlfriend and her 4-year-old twin girls.

This boat held five people at most and to say the new girlfriend had over packed would be an understatement. We had enough food to last us six days on the river even though it was a simple day trip.

Unloading the boat off the trailer wasn't any big deal, but parking it at the dock and getting all this stuff into the boat was another issue. I was trying my best to be courteous and not take up too much time at the very busy and undersized docking area.

With the truck parked and the kids in the boat, I could hear my son trying his very best to talk to me.

"Dad, there's water back here," he said.

I was trying to start the boat and get us on the way, so I didn't pay much attention, but Doug's next plea seemed more urgent.

"Dad, there's a lot of water back here."

I turned around, initially to give him the evil eye that parents give and to tell him to sit down, but it turned out my 7-year-old was right.

We were rapidly sinking right there at the dock. Douglas was up to his knees in water and I quickly realized that the local dealership had left out my plug. To add to the problem was the fact that I had no idea where they might have put it.

"Everyone to the front of the boat and hold on the windshield," I yelled.

"The boat was already starting to list to the rear badly and the waterline was just inches from flowing over and into the boat. Within an extremely short period of time we would all be floating in our lifejackets while watching my boat sink to the bottom of the Missouri River.

With everyone up front and holding on for dear life, I floored the throttle to wide open. The boat stood straight up in the air. The engine was struggling to propel the boat, but at least it was trudging its way up the river.

From this position, the water slowly began to recede out of the boat. It took longer than an hour to get the boat on plain. Once the boat began to handle correctly, I let Douglas steer while I looked for and eventually found the plug.

We had dodged a major catastrophe by maybe as little as a few seconds.

— Richard Rossberg

Seeing double

Years ago I was with a group of guys who planned a fishing trip to the Bighorn Canyon Reservoir. We arrived at the launch site when one of the men realized he had not licensed his boat. Too late to purchase a Montana boat number, he made up a number and put it on the front of the boat.

Unbelievably, as we launched his boat, the adjacent boat displayed the same number. Fortunately, no one else detected the error.

— Jim Going

Trolling plate geyser

Several years ago I moved up from my 10 horsepower 12-foot boat to a much larger more powerful fishing boat.

My first time out, not fully knowing the ins and outs of boating I enlisted the help of a good friend an experienced boater.

We got the boat in the water OK and he suggested I drop the trolling plate down in case I hit the throttle too hard and might hit another boat at the dock.

I smoothly backed out and he pointed out the "No Wake Zone" sign. I was anxious to see what this baby would do, so I started to accelerate. The boat seemed to lack the power I expected and would hardly do 10 mph. I cracked the throttle wide open and almost hit 15 mph but there was a lot of noise behind us.

We turned and looked behind the boat and saw about a 10-foot geyser of water chasing us.

My friend yelled, "Stop now!" realizing the trolling plate was still down. The plate was badly bent and stuck in the down position so we limped the boat back to the dock .... hoping no one there had witnessed the geyser following us.

— Jerry Loomis

A wife's tale

If you are a walleye angler, you have heard of Dale Gilbert. He has almost 50 years of experience with walleye angling.

Dale is a fishing guide for Montana reservoirs and a writer about all things walleye. He has fished walleye tournaments at the regional level as both an amateur and professional. Dale is also my spouse.

He would never tell you about the boat launching episodes that I am about to reveal, but I swear to you they are true.

When Dale was starting out as a tournament fisherman, he and his partner were excited because they had done well the first day of a two-day tournament. The next morning they were one of the first ones in line to launch.

Dale got in the boat while his partner backed it down the ramp. The safety strap was unhooked, the tie-down straps were off, and the boat was floating off the trailer. His partner was heading up the ramp when Dale noticed the water in the bottom of the boat.

At first he thought it was just the normal bottom-of-a-fishing-boat water. Then it started getting deeper … and deeper. Bailing was not making any headway. The boat has sprung a leak, he thought. He felt under the bench in the stern and sure enough: the drain hole did not have a plug.

Imitating the little boy who stuck his finger in the dyke in Holland, he used his finger to stop the water as much as possible. Wildly he felt around for the plug under the increasingly deep water. The boat did not have a chance to go to the bottom of the reservoir because Dale's voice carried clearly to his partner.

"Get back here now," he shouted.

Both the volume and urgency in his voice was a clear message to expedite the return. The boat was taken out, the plug was found stuck under the bench, returned to its proper place, and they successfully launched. Oh, by the way, they were the entertainment of the competition!

From then on, Dale made sure the plug was in his boat before every launch. You may have seen him walking around the boat to explicitly ensure that it was in place. There are other reasons for that walk-around, however. One of these is due to the time that the tie-down straps were not released before the boat trailer was put in the water. It is a good thing to know that Lund boats will float even with a trailer attached to them.

— Deborah Hanson

Buster's tirade

It started as a beautiful weekend on Lake Elwell. We finally convinced Buster (names have been changed so fingers can't be pointed) to bring his inboard over from the Flathead.

After two days of unsuccessful fishing, the famous Hi-Line west wind came up. Fishing on Elwell was over.

Ace and I got the truck, and Buster drove the boat up to the ramp. The wind was really starting to blow. Buster pulled the boat in close to shore and yelled at us to back the trailer down so he could load the boat. In one voice we yelled back, "We can't, we don't know how." That did it.

Buster was able to edge the boat close to the ramp, hop out and start to maneuver the trailer in to position. I took the long lead rope and pushed the boat back out away from the ramp. Unfortunately, the wind was in howl mode at that point. The boat began to be pushed sideways onto the rocks banked along side the ramp. That points out another skill both Ace and I had not mastered, running that inboard.

By the time the trailer was correctly positioned the boat was pushed sideways almost on the rocks. Buster was able to hop in but could not let the motor down for fear of tearing up the propeller. He was now howling. Ace and I tried to rock the boat off the rocks by standing on shore and pushing. Nothing doing. So, there being nothing else left to do,we waded in to our waists to get the job done. It was a battle with that wind pushing that sideways boat but finally the rocks were cleared. With the boat safely trailered (nothing but minor dings were suffered, I might note), Buster began his tirade.

The verbal assaults were long and loud.

"I will never again bring my boat to Lake Elwell to go fishing with two such bozos," he repeated many times.

The humor of the situation was always right below the surface. Lifelong friendships make such incidents more for laughs and memories than for any anger.

— Michael J. Bayuk

A missing plug and guardian angels

My best friend and I were seniors at Shelby High School. It was an unusually warm day in May and we decided to take my parents boat to Lake Frances to ski. We hitched it to my mom's car and away we went.

When my mother winterized anything, it was beyond meticulous and included wrapping the outboard motor in plastic and taking out the boat plug. I was too excited to enjoy the spring day to remember the last detail. The boat was a heavy 20 foot fishing boat with a deep hull.

We drove up to the ramp and backed it in. I let the boat slip off the trailer into the water and suddenly remembered the plug. I began pulling with all my might to drag the boat back onto the trailer. I was trying very hard to remain calm, but sweat was pouring off me as I struggled with the sudden tonnage of the boat.

I was successful but too tired and rattled to think about skiing.

We arrived home safely and found that the trailer hitch was not locked on. It was just sitting on the ball the whole way. Praise God for the guardian angels that day.

— Betty Offerdal