A little while into years of backing up RV's into tight spots, i finally realized that the secret to backing up an RV into a spot perfectly, was just absolutely not caring how much all the other campers stared at you, ... ... and by that time you had become a perfect trailer parker anyway.

however ... :rolleyes:

a whole new thing now slightly furrows my brow ....
... apparently people REALLY like to watch new dudes trailer their boat after a day at the River.
I mean i have even seen crowds holding up cards with the numbers '1' thru '10' on them and clapping or booing. They're all inebriated and having a great time, but thats fair I suppose, they're already on the land.

So, ... now I have that worry all over again.
When is a new guy "an ace" at trailering a boat, with say a little bit of wind, at a ramp with 35 cheering spectators ??

I have been one of those cheering spectators. It is a lot of fun.

Mark

Fatdog,

don't worry about it too much. Sometimes I just walk the boat onto the trailer and get my feet wet. Normally my wife is off shore with the boat and I back the trailer in. She brings the boat in and I walk it on the trailer.

I try not to worry about people watching. Let em watch. But then again, I don't generally go to busy ramps.

However, first time with the boat and a new truck was a bit of a spectacle with a few people waiting. When I test drove the boat we were at a large ramp (in the middle of the week) so you could drive down and flip a u-turn. Well, I tried that with the new truck on a narrower ramp and it was not pretty. I had to back the truck and trailer out of a u-turn, while going up a hill and then back it around a corner. My wife was standing up by the people waiting and a few commented on how nice our rig is and that I did a good job backing the boat up.

While I was in the Navy, stationed in Bermuda, a few buddies and I were scoring pilot's landings with big cards. We got the great idea to start scoring the commercial pilots. Needless to say, those guys have NO sense of humor. We got a real good butt chewing from our CO. Good times...

Sounds like your CO didn't have much of a sense of humor either.

To quote Bondo "Ayuh"

That guy probably would not be fun to boat with. If it takes a thesis to back up the boat, you prol'y need a PhD to water ski. It would at least take a comittee beers to crack open a couple of beers

This has got to be the funniest thing since "Seinfeld"

whoops double post

This would probably give the Master's Thesis writer a nervous breakdown...

Anyone here ever back an airplane into a tight hangar space. For those who are unfamiliar, this envolves two pivot points; one where the tow bar attaches to the tug, the front landing gear is the second pivot point. It takes some practice to get used to it.

It was not part of my normal work in the AF, but I was trained in doing this years ago.

And Jay to make that hangar packing more fun add a tail dragger or two in there also. The rear wheel has to swing so it rolls in the direction your pushing. I haven't had to do it for about 15 years. I've pushed Beech 18's, King Air's, Lear's, Falcon 20's, DC-9's and a few others I've forgot. It was a lot of fun. A boat on a trailer is like a walk in the park now.

My cousin in Portland, when he got his first truck driving job was assigned a local delivery one day to a company out in a rural area. He was given a truck pulling doubles - two trailers.
Well the yard that he was delivering to wasn't big enough to swing around doubles, so after he unloaded he was forced to back the double rig out a half mile of slightly curved road, until he got access to the big main road where he could now drive normally back to his shop.

He said it was a real Bear backing that darn doubles up that little road and he hated every minute of it !!

When he got back to the shop, the rest of the crew was all there and laughing like sons-of-guns. It turned out it was a little right-of-passage joke that they played on all new drivers who had passed muster and were being officially welcomed into the crew.

He said he chased them all thru the shop trying to give his new "brothers" a slug in the sholder. Still working there 10 years later.

Sounds like a good place to work!