My top Pet PEEVE.

[noelH]

People that launch their boat, then proceed to dink around loading all their gear and/or deal with hardware on their boat that could have been done on the trailer.

Usually it has been some power boater.  Always thought trailer sailors were the more bright group of people.  But there are always outliers.  Yesterday pulled back into the marina. Hovered around for 10-15 minutes while they dinked around with whatever.  Might have been able to squeeze in front of them, but like the other short ramp pier with Vela's drop keel all the way down it's marginal when water level is at "normal"level.  So I pulled out of the marina. Hove to for a few minutes. Still no sight of the boat. Two options. Pull up the keel a foot or so and back into the marina or hoist sails and sail around. Choose option two.  Lost track of time just spinning around in a small circle.  Finally saw the mast over the break wall.  A good exercise in patiences. 

[Scooter]

Ooh ooh! I'm going to jump in and ride the wave and hope for some advice with the possibility of at least one boater maybe being less annoying...

I'm completely new to trailer sailing, trailer boating, pretty much to trailers in general. My P-19 should be ready to go in the next few months and I'll probably be heading to Oceanside harbor here in San Diego. There's three ramps and four docks with some room at the top but not a lot. There's also some trailer parking but it's not close.

I'm going to have as much loaded and ready to go as possible in the boat, on the trailer before I set out. I'm figuring I'll still need to raise he mast, attach the outboard, load the fuel and set the fenders and dock lines in place when I get there. I can get the mast up in about 5 min here in the yard but I'm guessing i will take a bit longer there.

Etiquette questions:

- How close and how long it polite for doing the setup? Do you get a break parking closer with a mast or should you raise the mast in a parking space and drive around with he stick up?
- It looks like there's room for 6 boats to launch/recover at a time there. Is it ok to be maneuvering with another car/truck next to you or should you wait until the previous person is done before backing in?
- How long is polite to load/unload passengers and or go park/get the car with the boat tied up? Assuming you're moving with purpose, but there's not really anywhere else to put the boat while taking care of that.
- What else?

[Spot]

Welcome Scooter!

At my local ramps, I load and rig everything including mast and stays and motor and gear before I get in line to launch.  If possible, once launched I will move the boat to the non-ramp side of the dock so I can park the Jeep and trailer without disrupting ramp traffic. Check for overhead wires before driving around with the stick up...

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Scooter, you might check around for local knowledge about those ramps.  You could find out which ones have branches to watch out for, which are deepest, when they are very busy.  Or you could go visit them a couple of times to scope them out. 

Even better, cadge a ride on the boat of someone with local experience.

Nice to have so many ramps available!

Noemi

[noelH]

Vela is more or less set up to motor away from the ramp pier in ~5 minutes. Drop the keel, rudder, and motor. Untie and go.  I wait in line to use the long pier ramp and pull all the way to the end of the pier. Allows another boat to launch and most boats to pull in.

At the Washburn City Marina hovering around the marina in the boat ramp area can be "interesting".  Wind direction and velocity some days makes it not a smart thing to do. Tie off at the break wall is a better option. The actual navigable area is a few feet wider than the ~30 foot wide alley to the two ramp pier.  I've run aground in the muck W of the "alley" avoiding couple recreational fishing boats coming in abreast. Vela draws +3 feet. 

If launching at the Washburn Boat Club ramps at Thompson's West End Park only one of the two exist out of the cove is safe but a bit shallow. The exit facing N/NE between the "island" and mainland. If you head out the S facing exit you need to stay centered and head S for at least couple hundred meters. It looks safe, but lot of  pilings from old wood mill processing and docks are waiting to hole you. Except when the Lake is very low they are not visible. The view from Apple Maps is scary. Also, do not turn S toward the "island" until you are a good 100 meters N of it when taking the proper exit. Rock piles.  Not visible. Real obvious S to NE strong winds. The breaking waves. Hint.

Bottomline if coming up to sail this region.  Check your charts. Past history of quarry, timber, and fishing industry has left many pilings, rock piles, and other things to hit. 

[Riley Smith]

The best etiquette is to be efficient when launching, get it in and out of the way of any incoming/outgoing/ traffic of any kind quickly. Then move the boat from the launch to the dock so others can use the facility. Some boats take longer, it just a fact of life. Some launches are small, and then there are trailers AND parking to contend with, too. BE VERY CAREFUL of overhead obstructions with mast up.

I'm longing for 80F and some of that may happen 

[Wayne Howard]

I'm longing for 80F and some of that may happen 

You have 80F every night at about 3AM!   

[Riley Smith]

             BARELY....and it only lasts about twenty minutes!

[Brian N.]

My main peeve is disregard of the "Rules of the Road". For example, power boats who don't adhere to "Red-right-Return" and keeping "port-to-port" in head on meeting and force me over or out of the channel. Often they cross from one side to another without making their intent clear, no signals. Boats overtaking, again without sound signals or clear intent as to port or starboard. Boats, especially PWC who cross my bow too close for comfort, rather than duck behind. Boaters who in restricted areas produce big wakes as they pass by. Boats engaged in fishing in the channel or even anchored by a buoy marker.

[Brian S]

At our local lake, we have 4 launch ramps with 2 floating dock piers. This makes for a reasonably wide "pull forward" area to get trailers lined up on the ramps, etc. There are a lot of kayakers now, mostly with junky little plastic boats, and they tend to use the concrete ramps. (They don't have the local knowledge that there's a better spot from the shore next to my dock...)

Anyway, the other weekend I pull up to launch the little boat, and there's a pickup parked to the side of the pull forward area. And after I was done sailing, it was still there when I came back to pull the boat out, but this time, I saw a guy carry said stubby kayak up to the pickup. I said to him, "Hey, just wanted to let you know that's not a good place to park because that's where trailers pull up etc." He sorta ignores me and goes off I think to help some other kayakers, I guess friends, whatever. Then he comes back over to me and says "I don't see any signs saying I can't park there." So I was like "Well, I guess if you don't have a boat or trailer to deal with, you wouldn't know." And then he says, "Yeah, and I don't care either."

Screw that jerk. I wanted to shank his tires right there. You try to be friendly and non-threatening to people, and they are so self-centered they have to be the jerks right off. I wanted to flag down a ranger, but I've already talked to them about regular cars parking in trailer spots, and they said they couldn't do anything about it. So I'm sure they wouldn't (and didn't, as I saw) ticket him. So now I have to go to the park manager and ask him to get signs put up that say "No Parking" because of course nobody is reasonable anymore.