Boat Launching at Rocky Point - My Shortie Story

I submitted this story to Valley Squadron's Newsletter "The Gam".
Valley Squadron is the Fraser Valley chapter of the national Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons organization that teaches safe boating.
My story is being held over for the next issue.

http://www3.telus.net/valleysquadron/home.htm


Boat Launching At Rocky Point.

A True story by Norm MacDonald

A few years ago, I bought my first motor boat, a 1970 eighteen foot Sangstercraft runabout with an inboard/outboard drive system.
I had very little boating experience, other than renting one occasionally. I had not taken any boating courses. How hard can boating be anyway? As long as there is water to ‘float the boat’ it is easy. Right?

The boat came on a trailer which necessitated learning how to get it into the water. I had a 1985 Ford Crown Victoria car then.

The closest local water was Cultus Lake, south of Chilliwack.

If you are new at boating, launching the boat the first few times can be interesting for you and hilarious for any boaters watching you. I soon became good at boat launching in Cultus Lake. The ramp was good and I could get the trailer close to the dock. The man who sold it to me gave me some tips on launching and reloading the boat. I remember them clearly as the mud on the bottom, but I soon became tolerably good, I thought anyway. My son Adrian may have a different opinion though.

Well, I felt comfortable enough to try other things so I persuaded my family to go on a boating venture to Indian Arm. I had rented a boat from Sewell’s in Horseshoe Bay many years before, which was the extent of my saltwater experience. It’s water and boats float on water, right, how hard can it be? By this time, I had acquired an old copy of “Boating In Canada”.

With enthusiasm and an early hour, my family and I left for Rocky Point in Port Moody. I planned to spend the day boating. I found later that my ‘day of boating’ was much longer than my family’s idea of a ‘day of boating’.

I was full of confidence. I was nearly an expert at boat launching. At Cultus you slip the boat off the trail right next to the dock and tie it up. Easy!

At Rocky Point, we had to wait a few minutes for those before us to clear the ramp. I got the ticket and got back into the car. My three sons and wife got out to watch. Adrian our oldest would assist me. I backed down the ramp which was steeper than Cultus Lake. I unhooked the tie-down straps and made sure the plug was in, then handed the bow line to Adrian. I did a perfect job off slipping the boat off the trailer bunks and got out to help Adrian to tie the boat to the dock.

It was only then that I noticed the dock was about ten feet above us. The tide was out. Denise and the other two boys were looking down on us. The boat was floating free with Adrian hanging onto the bow line. The dock I wanted to tie-up to was about a hundred more feet out on the water. To complicate matters the boat was slowly drifting to the pilings. My first thought was to chuck the lines up to Jeff and Denise up high on the dock, but the lines were too short. Adrian was trying hard to keep the boat out of the pilings and the off the rocks while I scrambled trying to get longer lines, by this time my calm self-assured demeanor dissolved. I started giving ‘clear’ frenzied orders to my family crew.

My idea was to throw the long lines up to Denise and Jeff and have them pull the boat to the floating dock while I fended off the pilings with the boat hook. (At least I had one.) Well, that didn’t work. The pilings were too far apart and the boat would go between them, besides pulling the ropes that high up just pulled the boat under the dock. I yelled for Denise and Jeff to stop pulling. I was losing it big time and my family was dismayed.

A man, up on the dock calmly, said, “You should have looked at the flag to check the wind.”

“What flag?” I asked. He pointed to the flagpole that I never saw and would not have looked at anyway, because I was good at launching the boat. (At Cultus anyways.)
By this time, the boat was sideways to the ramp with Adrian trying to keep it off the rocks and out of the pilings that were inches away. Fortunately, he still held the bow line. My car and trailer were still on the ramp. Up above a curious crowd gathered, I got even more flustered.

The helpful man above said “You’re going to have to drive it over.”
“Drive it?” I had never done that when launching. But, at this point I saw that it was the only option. I helped Adrian to pull the boat away from the rocks and pilings and line it up with the trailer. To hold the boat Adrian had to get wet, which did not impress him, but being a good son he did what he was told, though the looks I got indicated that he was helping a fool.

I managed to get the engine started while I was frazzled and shaking. I was going to back up a bit and turn around. Well, guess what, the wind blew me towards the pilings, so like every other ‘skilled’ boater I hit the throttle forward and lurched out of control for moment. (The boat had a one-lever control for gears and throttle.)
Somehow, I got the thing turned around and under control and over to the floating dock to tie up. On the way to the car and trailer, I saw just how large a crowd I had entertained while embarrassing my family. You can imagine how I felt.

Boating in Indian Arm went well until I decided to head under the Second Narrows Bridge. Coming out of Indian Arm I took a right turn and sped across the water towards the bridge but soon noticed the depth under the boat was two feet and lessening. We were a ways of shore and out past the anchored barges.

A look at my strip chart would have told me that I was in very shallow water, if I had looked and could have read it. Hey, at least, I had the chart. Well, I dropped the speed fast and raised the leg then crawled to deeper water.

Coming back into the Rocky Point launch, I saw a rowing scull coming out off my starboard bow. Knowing I should give way, I moved to port and to my surprise the engine quit. A big swirl of mud my confirmed that I had grounded the leg. I raised the leg and got the engine going again and made it to the dock.

A keen observer on the dock said, “You should keep to the right when the water is low.”

Getting the boat back on the trailer was easy, sort of. I knew I had to drive the boat up to the trailer. I had seen it done, but I had never done it. We tied up to the floating dock and disembarked. I got the car and trailer lined up on the ramp then did my drive up to the trailer. I was extremely nervous. I went really slow so as not to crash, that allowed the boat to be influenced by other forces and not straight line ones. After a couple of false lineups, I got the bow so it was in line with the bunks under the water and cut the engine.

While drifting in, I climbed onto the bow and grabbed the bow line and hopped off into the water as the boat drifted back and a little sideways. I had the bow line and with some tugging and pushing I got the boat lined up and ready for the winch strap.
I soon learned that the metal on the trailer was slippery and skin hungry. Some pain adds another dimension to becoming good at boat launching and returning it to the trailer. I had a few more lessons to learn but never became an expert or even comfortable with it.

I hate having the public watching me goof-up and there were always people around to watch. I am not sure if the people come first or the goof-ups do; none-the-less, they are inexorably linked and ever-present at the worst times.
We managed to get home with a few laughs and I learned that my ‘day of boating’ was much longer than my family’s ‘day of boating’.


I tell you this to encourage you to take the Boating Course from the Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons and other courses, if you have not already done so. I started self-study soon after the above escapade.

I am currently the Training Officer for Valley Squadron, Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons. Teaching safe boating.