A note to her majesty solo launching at Downing's today

[Poor Richard]

Originally Posted by Rob M

Poor Richard, I am sorry to say you are wrong on this one. Priority is given to who has their vehicle/trailer at the launch.

In this scenario, you are the person in a busy parking lot, standing in a parking spot holding it for your "Captain" to come park in it.

What happens if your "Captain" gets to the vehicle and realizes that they forgot their keys, or has a dead battery, everyone else in line is being held up by you. If you need to dock you do it in such a way not to block access to the ramp, it is simple common courtesy.

The boat you are referring to may have been at the ramp waiting in line much longer than you pulling up to the dock. Many launches have lines, and it is always who has their vehicle/ trailer in line, not a line at the dock...it goes much quicker letting people that are ready/ in vehicle at waters edge go, than holding a spot while retrieving a vehicle.

There is no law regarding this, and hopefully we do not need one, where common courtesy/sense prevail.

There were two boats at the docks awaiting retrieval......an act which was being prevented by her majesty who pulled across, and subsequently blocked, both ramps therefore preventing anything from moving.

Are you suggesting that one (or both) boats, that physically cannot get their trailers to the ramps because her royal highness was blocking access, pull away from the docks?

I couldn't care less about being right or wrong in that scenario. I do care about logic and it would have been exceptionally illogical to have either of the boats pull away from the dock since the ramps were being blocked by the woman in question and trailers were in fact waiting.


To put this more succinctly, 3 out of 4 adults that day agreed that the queen of Downing's Landing could wait since she was the sole reason boats were not being retrieved.

[LikeLakes]

And continuing with that logic, if there are 2 boats at the ramp, by far the most efficient way to clear dock space for the solo launcher is to retrieve one of the 2 boats.

I know I said this in another thread, after many launches there my routine is the same. Get in line, get the boat 100% ready with lines in place etc. If, as seems to happen more often than not, the launcher or retriever is having some challenges I walk down and with a smile ask if I could be of any help, sometimes accepted, sometimes people say they are all set. All it takes is some patience and good will to get through the process.

[dickiej]

I remember years ago when the ramp in Newburyport for the Merrimack River was unmonitored….there were so many “ altercations “ ( fist fights ) that they had to place law enforcement officers at the ramp…it was a total s*** show on weekends in the summer….actually funny to watch but a sad exercise in human behavior.

[LIforrelaxin]

It amazes me the issues at boat ramps. But the my first behavior presented here by the original Poster, is not surprising.

The problem here on the east coast is the lack of good launch sites. Growing up on the Columbia river, many of the launch points where 5 and 6 lanes wide.... Only solo launcher/retrievers used the lanes directly next to the docks... the 3 or 4 middle lanes simply didn't have that option...

People need to learn to co-operate when ramps are busy... end of story....
I can find fault with both sides of the scenario present... at the end of the day the real problem appear to be that they had a stale mate, and no one wanted to give in....

[dickiej]

That is so true….we’re on the Columbia now and the boat ramps are amazing out here. We’re across from Hood River and the Columbia is like a 1200 mile long lake!