Why do new boaters think it's ok to just "jump into it"?

Question

I'm a marina and boatyard manager, so I see this a lot: A guy buys a boat, knowing nothing about anything, and takes his family along for a ride. Crashing into the dock, can't tie a knot, etc etc.
Not only is he risking damage to his investment, but he's risking his families' life. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people literally avert death by the skin of their teeth... and be completely obvlious to it.
Wouldn't it be better to take some classes, get used to boating on a friend's boat, and such, before buying something too large to handle competently and setting off on a fantastic voyage?
What's your opinion? The more humorous the better. :)

Answer 1

Because it keeps the mechanic's in business!
I have a beach house on an island in NY which is surrounded by sand bars. We love to sit around with a cold drink and count how many 30'+ sea ray's and bayliners hit ground and call sea-tow.

It makes for a great afternoon if you ask me, so heck with the people who don't have a brain. Until of course they hurt someone, then its not funny anymore.

Answer 2

Probably the only thing more dangerous than a self-taught boater is a self-taught pilot? Nowadays, most of the Ultralight wannabe pilots can get instruction, in the old days, it was weedhoppin' fun until you got the confidence ( or brass jewels ) to finally push the throttle and take off. Although a mistake in the air can be far MORE deadly than a dock prang or a forgotten hull plug. I'm wanting to get into boating eventually, and I'm glad that there are courses to take. I just can't afford flying lessons right now, or even back then. I'll need an inheritance for that. Or a MUCH better job...
If boating is as dangerous as it sounds in this Question, you'd think they'd require a license to boat. But,they still don't for Ultralight aircraft, either , so I guess maybe they prefer the Darwin approach as well. :). Like some said, it can make for entertaining watching ( never thought to go watch for docking maneuvers ), sounds like fun. I guess the newbies don't think there's anything to boating, you have a wide expanse of water to avoid others, it's just that "parking" nonsense that they have to learn. LOL. Hope to one day experience it ( in a good way ) myself personally. I'm looking currently at a friend's late father's project boat, a late '80's Bayliner 14' with a blown engine ( Chevy 4-cylinder inboard, I just found out ). I just want something , er, "cheap" to putt around in locally. I don't have much money, but I do have storage space. LOL. Along with my 8 Gremlin cars. Hopefully the boat, kept in a garage, could be fixed without too much expense. Something I'll look into before I decide to drop a dime in it.
- The Gremlin Guy -

Answer 3

I have seen this more times than I can count. I all boils down to ignorance. People do not know the risks that are involved with boating. Perfect example would be a couple years ago... This guy bought a brand new sailboat. I installed more stupid little trinkets on it. New heads, changed the engine just for 10hp, flat screen TV that popped out of the cabinet, max prop, new shaft, grinder for the sea strainer new paint. The list goes on and on. About 30,000 dollars of worthless crap. He has a huge launching party, catered and the whole nine yards. Well that weekend he took it out and ran it a ground. So Monday shows up and his boat is on blocks, time for repair. This guy didn't even own the boat for more than 48hrs. It was a big rush to repair. A week later the same guy gets his boat back. He takes it out for the weekend and rips the whole keel off the boat. The only thing that held the keel on was two keel bolts. This guy just lost out on about 400,000 because he couldn't read a chart. His boat is still in the yard. All I can say is take some classes, Us power-squadron classes are free. Pay attention to what is going on. I still laugh thinking of that boat.

Answer 4

I couldn't agree more! Boating can be a ton of fun, but dangerous too if you don't know what you are doing.

My hubby and I purchased our boat about 5 years ago. An older 17 foot speedboat.

The first thing my husband did was take a boating course and become certified to drive it. We also hung around local docks and watched the pros at worked and asked questions of other boaters.

Oh and we went boating this past weekend and we definitely saw a newbie. Two guys taking their boat out of the water. It was about 15 feet in length. One guy backs the trailer down the ramp, but none of the trailer is in the water. (This is what caught our attention). So, the second guy is in the boat, he has the engine all the way down, he guns it, the boat goes flying up, slides to the right side, misses the trailer, kills his prop and we left before we could see if they ever did get it out of the water.

Another thing we see a lot, is people not remembering to raise the engine when they pull the boat out of the water with the trailer. I have seen so many props destroyed this way.

Answer 5

I used to teach sailing at Mystic Seaport - basic, intermediate, advanced, and racing classes. after one of my beginner classes, a woman came up to me and said "well, we're going to buy a powerboat because sailing is too hard."

Gee, lady, do us all a favor and stay ashore.

But the time I remember best was when I was working as an apprentice fiberglass repair in high school. I used to help my boss with the cost estimates, which generally included "amplifying information" from the owner. I remember this guy's boat - something like an 18' bayliner. The bottom of the boat was torn to shreds like somebody'd turned the boat over and blasted with gravel. My boss says, "what happened?"
Guy: "I ran it up on a reef at 18 knots"
Boss: "Didn't you have a chart?"
Guy: "I was looking at the chart! there weren't any rocks, just a bunch of little x's!"
Me: Nearly getting fired for not being able to contain my laughter.

It blows my mind how many people ask for advice on getting into boating here and the answer is "buy a boat and figure it out." NO NO NO NO for the love of GOD NOOOO!

Answer 6

Years ago I worked for a boar dealer. We sold this man a nice jet boat with a Hemi built for a blower. Though the blower was not installed. Any way, this was his "First" boat as I asked if he ever drive a boat. So, I told the man to start out slow and get a feel for how this boat handled as it was powerful and fast and would get away from him if he not very careful. He was saying; "I know what I doing"! He picked up the boat that Friday afternoon. Monday I come to work and there the boat outside the gate with a smashed bow and the engine sideways. The boat he hit, I was told, he cut it in half. Luckily no one was hurt and he was finished with boating.

Answer 7

Have cruised the Caribbean and have seen it all>The funniest is the charter boats anchoring>people screaming falling over board> Anchor in prop>Sail put up before the anchors up>They think the boat has breakers at the speed they end an anchorage>7 knots and throw the anchor out crash as the anchors bits in the crew flys foward what a mess>>This is only 1 thing>Docking is ramming speed>

Answer 8

It seems as if they equate "boating" to driving a car. They have a driver's license, ergo, they can drive a boat too.
A friend of mine sails a 16 foot catamaran in very protected bay waters. His life's ambition is to buy a 40 foot sloop and sail around the world with his wife. (She doesn't sail now BTW) I can't convince him it's several orders of magnitude different from his experience.
For an evening's recreation, I enjoy going down to the local boat ramps and watch people recover their craft. Always good for a laugh.

Answer 9

There was a guy at my dock called "Bumper Ben", he would crash into the dock every time he came in, he would take off with lines tied to the boat etc.. It got to the point where a crowd would gather when he came in to dock, Crash, bang, bounce, one time he picked up a bag into his intake and toasted the motor, he said to me "The mechanics took apart the engine, they said the piston was all ash", I scratched my head "ASH" ? I wondered what kind of story they told him, and how much of his money they took, it would have been nice if they cleaned the greasy hand prints off the side of his boat too, it had no side windows, just metal covers from smashing them into the dock every time. This is the funny part, there have been WAY too many close calls out there with me, usually it's the "JERK SKI'S" that are the problem, however, I have seen bone head manuver's, one guy in huge boat almost crushed me in a creek, the boat came over hard to starboard as he sent his wife over to push my boat away, I said "What the F**** are you doing" ? she said that she came over to push me away if we got too close, I said to her "That Boat weighs about 800 Fu**-ing ton's, what are YOU going to do", then her husband came over to break my ball's, I told him that he did'nt belong piloting a boat, and that he has no idea what the F*** he was doing, I said I was notifying the coast guard of his ***-hol actions, and that he was a navigational hazard just being out here. Somebody else passed him screaming at him, then turned to me and said "He drives like this EVERYTIME he's out here, he has no clue on how to control the boat, he's an accident waiting to happen". When I bought my boat I worked shift, so I could'nt take a safe boating course, I did take one by mail from the NY state parks dept., I've been boating for 17 years now, and I'm still cautious, when you think that you know your boat so well, that you don't need to pay attention, THAT'S when the boat will teach YOU a trick, remember, you may know the rules of boating very well, bet the farm that the guy heading towards you in another boat has NO IDEA of the boating rules, and who has "Right of Way", give plenty of room for error, larger ships have right of way, I always keep my PFD on, and I can swim like a fish.

Answer 10

Yeah ... I know what you mean. Sometimes common sense doesn't seem too common for these people! I just hope they steer clear of me. I don't know how many people I've seen dump the boat in the lake, and forget to put the plug in. By the time they park the truck and trailer, the boat is half underwater! Ha!