[Rhodes22-list] Launch... and the story of an epic failure

[Alexis Seigneurin]

Hi there,

If you remember my previous email, I was looking at doing something to the brake line of my trailer so as to be able to extend the tongue. Since I couldn’t find a trailer shop that wasn’t backed up, I decided to head to the boat ramp - in Yorktown, VA - open the brake line, cap it, and get it fixed up after the launch.

So today, I went to the ramp. This is very nice ramp, and my father in law and I thought that, maybe, we could manage to launch the boat without extending the trailer’s tongue, and also without breaking open the brake line. We gave it a try: the boat was almost afloat but would not come lose off the trailer. Stuck on the bunks. I tried to give the boat a good push but with no success.

We decided to pull the boat back on the ground and extend the tongue. At that point, the boat was not resting completely forward on the trailer, but probably 2 feet back from the front. When we released the hitch, the trailer swung back, resting on the trailer’s rear end. Ouch...

We extended the tongue, hooked it back up to the car, and launched the boat. My stress level was high, but the bilge was dry, so I was thinking the boat had not any damage... I motored to the marina where I was going to keep the boat, and I tied the boat to the dock.

My father in law drove my car (and now empty trailer) to the marina, and I realized one of the bunks was broken. The metal support was sticking out. I started thinking the hull might be scratched, but not really more.

Before leaving the boat at its new slip, I checked the bilge one more time, only to find it full of water. No good. The decision to haul out came immediately. I motored back to the ramp and we pulled the boat out, this time pretty smoothly.

Well, I now have a hole in the hull. And not a pretty one. The metal piece punctured the hull (attaching a pic), so hauling out was the right decision, or the boat would probably have sunk or suffered from bad water damage.

I left the boatyard, and I am hoping they can do a repair in the coming weeks. I’m a bit scared of the cost. I am anticipating something around $2000. What are you thoughts?

In any case, this is totally my fault, and I learned things the hard way. Hopefully this story will help other people avoid making the same mistakes I made.

Alexis

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