Thread: Joys of age related stupidity

I really hesitated to post this, but in the interest of those of you who worry about forgetting things that you did or needed to do here goes. I took a break from fishing over the summer just because it was so hot and not fun. So, yesterday I offered to take my buddy Harry to Lake Secession. I have not been able to sell him on trolling jigs for crappie so I thought if we went to Secession and had good luck he might come around. We have always caught at least a decent mess there and the Spotted Bass add to the fun.
We get to the ramp to find perfect conditions with no wind and only 2 cars in the parking lot. I could smell success.
In the process of prepping my boat to launch I explained to Harry how I idiot proofed my drain plug but attaching it to my hold down strap so I had to put my hand on it before i could launch the boat. As I was doing this, I laid the straps in my car, unfortunately, along with the plug.
So yes, I launched only to find the boat filling up with water. I had a spare plug but for the life of me I could not find the drain hole on the transom. So he quickly ran to the car and backed the trailer in so I could fun up on the trailer.
It took about 10 minutes for all the water to run out even though the bilge pump was going full blast along with water coming out the drain. I had run the boat about 2/3 of the way onto the trailer just to get out of the water.
Y'all see what's coming....right??
After all the water was out, i installed the plug, jumped in the boat and told Harry to launch me again. Well, as soon as the released the brake and the car started down he hit the brake to slow down the car and off the trailer went the boat. Now it is sitting on the ramp with the front on the trailer and the transom on the ramp. I attached the winch strap, which obviously wasn't attached earlier, and had Harry slowly back down while I cranked the boat back on the trailer. We checked for any damage and could not see anything. (Thanks goodness it didn't break the skeg on the foot of the motor).
So we launched and I pulled over to the dock only to see the boat filling with water again. Back to the car and back down the ramp Harry comes again and this time I run all the way up on the trailer and lock the winch strap. We looked and looked and could not see any damage but I noticed water coming out around the drain hole for the live well. I pressed on the plastic flange that mounts to the transom and hooks to the drain hose and it fell off on the ground. So now I have a hole in my transom where the drain hose used to be, Only thing we can figure is the impact must have popped it because it is too high up on the transom to had suffered a direct hit on the concrete. After a lot of looking and a trip the hardware store in Abbeville we couldn't find any way to patch or plug it so we gave up. The hose is under the sub floor and the battery hold down box is riveted over the top of the hose. There is a small amount of clearance between the sub floor and the transom to access the hose but the battery and the box have to come out. The boat is now in my garage waiting on me to tackle this lovely project.
So for CK and the net disaster or Don loosing his keys for a couple of hours, and any of the rest of you that have pulled bonehead stunts, it's alright guys. We will live to fight another day.

Here's mine, no issues noticed on a beautiful day. My wife and I fishing and catching white perch when all of a sudden poof a loud noise I had never heard before. Found out my life vest in the floor under the console had inflated. The live well had overflowed filling the bilge. Stupid perch thought he could swing down the drain hole. No damage but a few minutes of scrambling around to get it fixed.

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