- Joined
- Jan 3, 2010
- Location
- Wildwood, MO
I spent the weekend at Table Rock, nothing new for me. However on Saturday I had an experience that bothers me to no end.
Instead of using my boat, I went out with a friend in his Ranger. He was at the lake for the weekend, and had it tied to a courtesy dock at the marina. As we went down to his boat early on Saturday morning, there was a guy on the dock with his 5 year old son. They were in a beautiful 29 foot Fountain sportboat that had both bilge pumps running, and shooting solid streams of water.
I asked him if he had hit something, and he replied no, overnight someone had decided to come out to the courtesy dock and cut his upholstery and remove his drain plug! Fortunately for him, he had a good battery and an automatic bilge pump that was able to keep his boat afloat overnight. He was waiting for the water patrol to make a report, and his wife was off finding another drain plug so that they could stop the boat from sinking. After all was said and done, they were able to use the boat - the engine didn't get any water in it.
Now, this pisses me off on many different levels. First, this boat was this man's private property. Trespassing at the least, and a criminal act trying to sink his boat. Second, who are these people who think they have the right to mess with anyones property - I was robbed at the same marina in late June, they took over $4k worth of fishing equipment from my bowrider, thank god it wasn't my bass boat. This marina will most likely have to go to the expense to put security cameras on all their docks now. Thanks to these jackxxx vandals, my yearly leas will go up.
Finally, while I get miffed at people when I'm trying to fish on a weekend and the big boats come out, and you would be better off fishing from the back of a brama bull, everyone has the right to use these public lakes. I myself am fortunate enough to own more than one boat, with the largest being a 30 ft bowrider with twin 454's in it. I know that I attempt to give fishermen as much room as I can going down the lake, but others don't. Sometimes I've even been guilty of tossing a fisherman when I come around a point and they are right there and nothing I could do to stop the wake, even after bringing the boat off plane. However, I believe that all in all, most people use their boats responsibly, and in sharing our waterways, I have to give way as well when fishing. I fish early and late in the prime boating season, overnight as well. And really enjoy the "off" season when I can get out and enjoy all the lake with very few boats in view.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of self righteous axxhxles our there who think that they can use our waterways as they please and either run too close to others, run their boats improperly at night, make wakes in a no wake zone (another personal pet peeve), don't understand how to run a boat and cut you off (I nearly threw my wife and son out of our boat avoiding a jet skier who was the defination of "Oblivious") and a miriad of other stupid things...
But trying to sink a man's boat? Vanalizing it in other ways? These are the lowest of the low to me.
Instead of using my boat, I went out with a friend in his Ranger. He was at the lake for the weekend, and had it tied to a courtesy dock at the marina. As we went down to his boat early on Saturday morning, there was a guy on the dock with his 5 year old son. They were in a beautiful 29 foot Fountain sportboat that had both bilge pumps running, and shooting solid streams of water.
I asked him if he had hit something, and he replied no, overnight someone had decided to come out to the courtesy dock and cut his upholstery and remove his drain plug! Fortunately for him, he had a good battery and an automatic bilge pump that was able to keep his boat afloat overnight. He was waiting for the water patrol to make a report, and his wife was off finding another drain plug so that they could stop the boat from sinking. After all was said and done, they were able to use the boat - the engine didn't get any water in it.
Now, this pisses me off on many different levels. First, this boat was this man's private property. Trespassing at the least, and a criminal act trying to sink his boat. Second, who are these people who think they have the right to mess with anyones property - I was robbed at the same marina in late June, they took over $4k worth of fishing equipment from my bowrider, thank god it wasn't my bass boat. This marina will most likely have to go to the expense to put security cameras on all their docks now. Thanks to these jackxxx vandals, my yearly leas will go up.
Finally, while I get miffed at people when I'm trying to fish on a weekend and the big boats come out, and you would be better off fishing from the back of a brama bull, everyone has the right to use these public lakes. I myself am fortunate enough to own more than one boat, with the largest being a 30 ft bowrider with twin 454's in it. I know that I attempt to give fishermen as much room as I can going down the lake, but others don't. Sometimes I've even been guilty of tossing a fisherman when I come around a point and they are right there and nothing I could do to stop the wake, even after bringing the boat off plane. However, I believe that all in all, most people use their boats responsibly, and in sharing our waterways, I have to give way as well when fishing. I fish early and late in the prime boating season, overnight as well. And really enjoy the "off" season when I can get out and enjoy all the lake with very few boats in view.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of self righteous axxhxles our there who think that they can use our waterways as they please and either run too close to others, run their boats improperly at night, make wakes in a no wake zone (another personal pet peeve), don't understand how to run a boat and cut you off (I nearly threw my wife and son out of our boat avoiding a jet skier who was the defination of "Oblivious") and a miriad of other stupid things...
But trying to sink a man's boat? Vanalizing it in other ways? These are the lowest of the low to me.