You guys are way too wrapped up in this.... Lighten up.
Decisions matter... bad more than good. Or vice-versa..
Sometimes there is a fine line between a miscalculation and a bad decision. They do tend to pile up, however...
That's how I got Sneer- my 18 foot flat-bottom. It wasn't exactly flat when we welded it back up, so the right front corner has a lift to it. It still floats tho, mostly, and the recently installed cheap bilge pump with manual toggle switch, works really great (leaky rivets, mostly. I think...)
Anyway, way it happened is I decided to shore at a backwater just upstream of a railroad trestle, on a 90 degree rock-wall turn and line it through. Should have chosen the lee side, as I mis-judged the force of the current, missed the backwater, and went head on into the rock rip-rap wall. It ain't easy to strain an 18 foot boat through a 12 foot trestle support span sideways, but we managed. Pinned in the boat as it hung up/went under by the 1" thick-wall lift pipe handle, I bent it getting out. Seemed not all that difficult at the time.
The Lab retrieved the handiest? piece of flotsam gear as we floated free, and took it ashore. It was the lunch, so he ate it. Survival situation, don'tcha know?
That was his story, anyway.
Last edited by las; 07/06/16.
