Save a Buck

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This guy wanted to save the $15 it would have cost him to launch his boat at the proper town launch.

So he went to the small launch intended for kayaks.

When the boat bottom scraped, he tried to reverse, and you can see what happened. His wheels collapsed and he ended up dragging the boat, and the wheels, up the ramp and across the parking lot.

Which is where we all came upon it the next morning as we walked our dogs. He understood enough about the rules to try this under the cover of darkness.

It took two cranes to lift it onto a trailer, and take it wherever it went, hoping it was repairable.

I suspect it cost him more than $15. From the look of the boat bottom, it may have cost him his boat.

We all know the lesson, don’t we? Penny wise, pound foolish.

I guess I shouldn’t have assumed other boat owners would have sympathy for him. The most compassionate I heard was from one man who walked by shaking his head.

“That’s why I sold my boat.”

I found myself imagining what sort of person must have done that. Several people in the collective conversation speculated that he likely was drunk.

My sense was that we all, boat ownders and landlubbers like me, were grateful it wasn’t our boat. And there couldn’t have been a one of us who lacked a memory of a disaster of our own.

Foolish and unlucky go hand in glove.

What I take away from this is how quickly a bad decision can unravel a day. Or night.

I hope he was able to repair his boat. I wouldn’t have wanted to be him when he went home and told his wife.

It’s hard being human.