A note to her majesty solo launching at Downing's today
 

In the remote chance you see this, or better yet, are a member here, allow me to point out a few things:

There was a pontoon tied to the dock for at least 10min prior to your arrival. This resulted in several boats waiting to be retrieved.

Once the 'toon was yanked out of the water, we were already docked on one side and the black speedy boat was in the process of being tied off to other side. Basically, there were two boats at the docks waiting for trailers before you showed up.

Based on your lack of situational awareness, when you piped in with "excuse me you're blocking both ramps" you were in fact pulled directly across both ramps therefore blocking them. Do you not see the irony here?

My captain was already in the truck waiting for you to get out of his way so we could get out of your way but of course you continued to engage not only me but the captain of the speedy boat, advising both of us to brush up on the "rules of boating"....which is A) laughable and B) not part of the boat safety course.

Once you realized both boats were going to be retrieved before you could launch, you kept asking the captain of the speedy boat to push his vessel back so you could solo launch, which he wasn't and I definitely wasn't going anywhere except for the trailer.

This entire time you were blocking both ramps, holding up the parking lot and really all you had to do was chill, pull around and let either one of the two boats get retrieved so your majesty could launch.

No, instead you felt we all owed you something and it finally took my captain losing his patience with your nonsense before you finally moved. The fact that I've known him as long as I have and not once saw him raise his voice in the manner he did today says something to me about your actions....or lack thereof.

You should be ashamed of yourself but your ego and narcissism clearly would never let that happen.

Did her majesty notice that, once you moved, we were out of the water in under 90 seconds? Probably not.

This story is why I would not own a boat that I had to trailer and launch/retrieve.

However, your post makes it sound like there were boats at the dock with no truck/trailer combo at the ready. Most ramps I have observed, or helped out with others at, a ready trailer takes precedence. So if you've got boats tied to the dock and blocking all operations until their trailers arrived, those boats are the ones that would normally be considered in the wrong.

Usually docks the accommodate a lot of solo launch and retrieves have areas to tie off your boat that don't block ramp operations, but of course that is not 100% of the time.

Venting frustrations over stupidity…
 

I got a charge out of OP’s ode to her majesty. While her majesty will probably never read it, I am fairly sure that the writer was able to purge his feelings of frustration, so this was sort of a “miralax for the soul”.

It's been many years since I trailered, but I always thought that when there were two people, one got dropped off and the boat backed away until the trailer was in the water. Then you loaded and drove off. Docks are for single handers. Of course, I was always in a situation where both people knew how to drive both the truck and the boat. If you're person number two and can't drive the truck or the boat...

I trailer a lot and many times have launched/retrieved single handed at Downings. I agree that most of the time a boat waiting to retrieve could drop one person and back off, come back in when the trailer is backing in. Having said that, it can get weird quick if you back off and the next boat takes that as "I'll pull up to the dock now", which I've observed multiple times. Assuming the trailer was parked in the lot right there, it is barely a minute to walk to the vehicle and get started around the launch circle so I can definitely see waiting at the dock in that circumstance.

More to the point Poor Richard was making ... chill, be pleasant, be cooperative, be helpful. NEVER a reason to cop an attitude with people just trying to get a task done. If Her Majesty had simply asked a few questions, then politely waited, all this would have been averted and Her launch of the Queen Mary would have occurred without incident a scant few minutes later.

Sorry...
 

Poor Richard, I am sorry to say you are wrong on this one. Priority is given to who has their vehicle/trailer at the launch.

In this scenario, you are the person in a busy parking lot, standing in a parking spot holding it for your "Captain" to come park in it.

What happens if your "Captain" gets to the vehicle and realizes that they forgot their keys, or has a dead battery, everyone else in line is being held up by you. If you need to dock you do it in such a way not to block access to the ramp, it is simple common courtesy.

The boat you are referring to may have been at the ramp waiting in line much longer than you pulling up to the dock. Many launches have lines, and it is always who has their vehicle/ trailer in line, not a line at the dock...it goes much quicker letting people that are ready/ in vehicle at waters edge go, than holding a spot while retrieving a vehicle.

There is no law regarding this, and hopefully we do not need one, where common courtesy/sense prevail.

why I wait 'til December to pull my boat....never a waiting line! ;-)

There were two boats at the docks awaiting retrieval......an act which was being prevented by her majesty who pulled across, and subsequently blocked, both ramps therefore preventing anything from moving.

Are you suggesting that one (or both) boats, that physically cannot get their trailers to the ramps because her royal highness was blocking access, pull away from the docks?

I couldn't care less about being right or wrong in that scenario. I do care about logic and it would have been exceptionally illogical to have either of the boats pull away from the dock since the ramps were being blocked by the woman in question and trailers were in fact waiting.


To put this more succinctly, 3 out of 4 adults that day agreed that the queen of Downing's Landing could wait since she was the sole reason boats were not being retrieved.

And continuing with that logic, if there are 2 boats at the ramp, by far the most efficient way to clear dock space for the solo launcher is to retrieve one of the 2 boats.

I know I said this in another thread, after many launches there my routine is the same. Get in line, get the boat 100% ready with lines in place etc. If, as seems to happen more often than not, the launcher or retriever is having some challenges I walk down and with a smile ask if I could be of any help, sometimes accepted, sometimes people say they are all set. All it takes is some patience and good will to get through the process.

I remember years ago when the ramp in Newburyport for the Merrimack River was unmonitored….there were so many “ altercations “ ( fist fights ) that they had to place law enforcement officers at the ramp…it was a total s*** show on weekends in the summer….actually funny to watch but a sad exercise in human behavior.

It amazes me the issues at boat ramps. But the my first behavior presented here by the original Poster, is not surprising.

The problem here on the east coast is the lack of good launch sites. Growing up on the Columbia river, many of the launch points where 5 and 6 lanes wide.... Only solo launcher/retrievers used the lanes directly next to the docks... the 3 or 4 middle lanes simply didn't have that option...

People need to learn to co-operate when ramps are busy... end of story....
I can find fault with both sides of the scenario present... at the end of the day the real problem appear to be that they had a stale mate, and no one wanted to give in....

That is so true….we’re on the Columbia now and the boat ramps are amazing out here. We’re across from Hood River and the Columbia is like a 1200 mile long lake!