You know what they say about owning a boat… B.O.A.T. stands for “Break Out Another Thousand,” they say the best day of owning a boat is the day you sell it… there’s a ton of jokes about owning a boat and just burning cash. And I get it… boats can be expensive, especially if you’re paying to dock it somewhere, paying to store it somewhere, paying for fuel, paying for insurance or backup harbors if you live in a hurricane area. And that’s not even talking about just the cost to purchase and maintenance.
But one of the easiest ways to wind up spending money on a boat is to simply not know what you’re doing. And believe me, the learning curve can be tough… when I bought my boat, the dealer took me around on it for an hour, gave me a few pointers, and told me to drop him off at the ramp before I went home. No docking instructions, no launching instructions, not too many other instructions… it can be pretty intimidating, and in some cases, difficult. You can find hours and hours of boat launch fails on the internet… it’s tough if you’ve never done it before and the only way to get good at it is to… do it.
But this one right here, this one I cannot even begin to fathom how you do this. Not for the life of me. And yet, it’s not totally unheard of.
An Australian fisherman made an absolute fool of himself when he pumped a whopping $536 worth of fuel into his boat. Only problem is that he didn’t pump the gas into the gas tank, he pumped it into the rod holder. Now it’s unclear if the owner himself did this, if a buddy did it while the owner ran inside to get snacks, if the boat was a rental, if they were drunk out of their mind… a lot of potential variables here, but regardless, just a colossal mistake that wound up being extremely costly and probably just ruined the boat forever.
Needless to say, gas was pouring out of the back of his boat and they’re seen hosing off the concrete from the gas station. I’m not sure how it took him 230 liters to figure it out, but he paid a pretty penny for his lack of awareness. The boat was completely flooded with fuel, an obvious fire hazard to say the least…
Here’s another example… also from Australia:
To be fair, my boat has an outboard Yamaha and the gas cap is right next to it. There’s just no way in hell I would ever make that mistake… I think my 4-year-old could figure it out. The rod holders also don’t look anything like the gas cap on my boat, but this video right here shows you how similar they can look.
The main difference in this example, and fairly common on most boats, is that the gas port has a cap on it and the rod holders don’t.
All that being said, a number of commenters had confessed they have committed similar blunders:
“I put 125L in rod holder few weeks back I’ll never get high before boating again.”
“My partner did it years ago with his Kevlacat, but realized after about 50c not $500.”
“Happened to a mate. He only put about $40 in it down the rod holder into the bilge. He turned the bilge pump on on it caught fire at the bouser. Burnt the rear of the boat before they put it out.”
“Your not the first and won’t be the last. I feel sorry for your wallet.”
“More common than you may think, working in the boating game I can tell you it happens way too often.”
“Not even gonna lie I did that same thing once.”
HOW!? I don’t get it… I just don’t get it.
Stay safe out on the water, people… sounds like there might be quite a few morons out there. Although, if you want morons, just watch a boat ramp for a few hours… the comedy is unmatched.
Illinois Reporter Captures Epic Boat Ramp Fail
You gotta have your head on swivel when you’re working the news camera… you never know what you might see.
Local news reporter Jakob Emerson from WRSP Fox Illinois was doing a segment near Lake Springfield when he takes a peak behind him and notices something a bit peculiar… a 4×4 SINKING in the lake behind him. And when I say sinking, I mean the truck is almost completely submerged in the water.
OOF…
It was an obvious boat launch fail, which unfortunately for the truck owners, is never NOT hysterical to me. It’s the epitome of a really simple, stupid mistake that comes with a BIG price tag. Just imagine the helplessness… watching your truck slowly sink into the water.
Especially if it was one of his buddies who forgot to put on the parking brake or something. And you just know whatever news story he was working is nowhere near is funny or compelling as watching a guy’s boat sink to the bottom of the lake.
TOUGH scene.
