People infested waters?

T

Thudpucker

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It just hit me. How you guys from the populated areas must suffer so much more than us guys out here in East Mule Shoe gulch.

On my way out of town yesterday I stopped by the Boat ramp to see who was catching what.
Jeepers!
You couldnt have put another MotorCycle in that parking lot. Trucks n' trailers all over the grass, up in the park and all along the walking path. Boats milling around in the lake waiting their turn to pick up the guy who parked the pickup. Lines at the Bathrooms.
Little groups holding conversations.
The Cop said it's been like this all day.

People working on boats in the water, some of them had only one guy in the boat and he'd have to watch out for traffic while he had his head down working, all the while the boat is drifting with the wind.

We have a Rocky beach and none of those Boaters like to beach it while they work on it. But there were several of them beached with somebody holding it off the rocks while another guy or two worked on it. Lordy, what if you had to get it up out of the water quickly? It'd take an hour of waiting (maybe more) to get your trailer back down to the boat.

Times like that and scenes like that make a guy really appreciate those BASS Boat guys and thier lightening fast launch and retrieve methods.
One more thing that helps is a long tounge on the trailer. That makes it easier to go in a straight line without so many re-tries.
Some folks can back down the ramp faster than a politician can commit verbal suicide.

I managed to work my way through it all and went on home, wondering what it must be like at a Ramp near a large city on one of those 3-day weekends?
I'll wait till Tuesday evening to go fishing.
 
Thuddie, you have no idea how crazy it gets. I am still tinkering with my boat, not in a big hurry to finish it up. I should splash in 2 weeks. (LOL, that has been the magic number for a month now.)
On holiday weekends I either launch real early and get out early afternoon, or launch it before the weekend, and wait till the weekend is over to load up.
I have access to the gulf, so once I launch, I can either stay on the hook, or bring the boat to the dock here at home. I wish I had a boat lift, but economically it don't make sense at this time.

Ken
 
I could never figure out why people are so inconsiderate as to not have the boat tested, loaded and ready to run as soon as it hit the water instead of doing all that stuff on the ramp. It would drive me nuts to be waiting while some doofus tried to start a boat that hadn’t seen water in six months or hollered at Mildred to run to the store for the beer he forgot.
 
Well I realize that now Ken. Although I've been to 20 or so Memorial day launchings at Deep Creek, on the Kenai peninsual of Alaska. It's a circus you just wont believe till you've seen it.

Bruce, you hit it on the head. Why not be ready? It makes a mockery out of all those who think a Small Boat Handling course will change anything. You just cant fix Stupid!

I have a mutual disrespect for my little 25 Hp Mariner. I feel like it hates me too.
It just wont start if it's been setting for awhile.
So I go ahead and launch, paddle it over the beach and go park the Truck.
Then I come back and yank on the pully rope for awhile. People come to ask if they can help and I just say no. (why dont I ask if they would pull on this thing for awhie?)
But I wonder if they have me on that list of "guess what we saw at the ramp today?" Or "why cant people be ready to go when its their turn?"
That little motor embarrass' me, and I believe it does it on purpose.

The guys who yell and cuss at thier wives are the most amazing. If he had his Poop together, he'd only need her to pull the Truck up the ramp once he got the boat off the trailer. How simple is that? How can that go so wrong that he'd talk that ugly to his best buddy in the world and out loud in front of dozens of people.

The one other thing we can expect is the Weather. Somewhere this Memorial day there's gonna be a massive hi pressure (blue bird day) which will whip up winds and waves and there's gonna be swampings and capsizings and one boat running over another in the high waves.

And then in the evening when all those tired and short tempered Warriors return to the ramp, the show really begins. I'm staying home this weekend. I think I'll try to raise up some fishing worms with two rods and some 110 AC. If they survive the electrocution, I'll go drowned them on Tueaday.
 
sounds like either that mainer aint gettin fuel right away or the points are cruddy and dont work 'till they been exercised a bit. But you probably knew all that already and just enjoy having folks come buy to watch an listen to the cussin.
 
LOL, I heard some women say to her son: "Kenny go down there and see if you can help that old man!"
By the time 'Kenny' got down to me I had regained my composure enough to be civil.

The problem in the Mariner is the Needle valve. It has a rubber tip. The kid I bought it from put a half bottle of stabil in the tank and ran it till the engine quit. So he loaded up the Float bowl with that stabil stuff and the rubber tip of the needle valve swelled up as it was jammed up into the seat for a year or more.
Now, if I forget to run the float bowl dry, the needle valve is driven up into the seat and sticks there.
So when I get to the lake and try to start the engine cold, I have one of two choices.
Pull the fuel line off the Carb and blow down the line till I drive the needle valve out of its seat.
Or...what I usually do, pull on the dammned thing while pumping the primer, till it starts and engine vibration will loosen the Needle.
Once I get it started, all day long it will start on the second thump. I just barely pull on the rope and it starts. It has electronic ignition.

I called George on this about two years ago. I think I got a kit, but they Needle n' seat are part of a much more expensive kit. Something like that, but if I had my druthers, I'd replace it with a Stainless needle and a brass seat.
If I could just remember to run the gas out of the bowl I'd be OK. It's still hard to start cold, but easier if the operator is at hisself when he's supposed ta be!
 
heck if you fixed it folks wouldent have any entertainment down at the ramp
:)
 
Thud: it really a unique needle or just the common triangular one used on every carb since the hupmobile?
 
After posting that last comment I was taken to Thuds thread in 'fishing'
 
quote:
Originally posted by pdecat

heck if you fixed it folks wouldent have any entertainment down at the ramp
:)

Click to expand...


Don't suggest that Bruce! I was raked over the coals a couple of years ago by some members for suggesting the boat ramp had some entertainment value.
 
LOL, Yeah on the Hupmobile Needle. I wonder why they've been triangular since way back then?
It's a triangle with a point and the point has a condom of black rubber. The rubber part swells up so badly it has the shape of the Seat impressed into it when I finally got it out of there.
I think the seat is just plain brass though.

Our local paper had nothing in it about the Boating fiasco or any accidents. you dont suppose that many folks made it through a day or two of boating without any excitment?
 
could be that any needle and seat from the Hupmobile store will work.
 
Wow, we're back! We were all gone for a couple of days there.

I went by the ramp yesterday and the Debris is all cleaned up. It looks like the Cemetary without the headstons and flowers now. Not a soul. I guess everybody's had enough of that clamor for a few days.

I think I might try to find the factory instructions on a cold start, instead of trying to find that Hupmobile store!
 
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