These old boats.....

rebel skier wrote: You guys drive up the ramp without putting the turnbuckle on?

On ninth Nautique in 38 years...nothing gone wrong so far.

As was mentioned, smooth operation of both tow and boat, bit of pushing by the boat until prop clears water, no sudden moves,

Not so much about the earlier boats drive-on capability, or my own experience, just an interesting, often amusing contrast....

My wife and I used to launch at the power plant intake at the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs. My wife learned to drive a trailer at an empty boat ramp and became quite proficient. When the power plant was on there was a 10 knot current that would run perpendicular to the docks. We would watch folks with 80k boats ram them into the dock while the husband yelled at the wife who would be holding the bow line. When in fact it was his fault for not compensating for the current. I would drop her off at the dock and idle in the channel while she get into the truck and quickly slide the trailer into the water and I would then drive on the trailer and she would drive us up without an issue. We loved the dirty looks we would get from the other boaters who had more wallet than nautical sense...    Good times!

The boats don't have to be that old to still be drive-on easy to load. The trailer has a ton to do with it, my Ramlin is so forgiving, a bit deep or shallow, no problem, the bunks catch the bow perfectly and when you hit the crash pads its on and close enough to centered.

I think what you saw was more inexperience and sheer size and weight. My guess is if you drove that wake boat to get familar with it you could probably drive-on load it pretty smoothly.

When we were loading the other night at the ramp next to us was a good sized I/O loading. I wouldn't say they were struggling, just taking some time, we had a pleasant banter back and forth. What I realized after a minute was they were letting their son, maybe 15-ish, get the boat lined up and crank it onto the trailer. I thought it was great that they were patiently letting him figure it out and complimenting him when it was loaded, he'll know how to load boats when he's old enough to take them out himself!

There was a time when I saw an inboard and knew the owner was experienced and knowledgeable . Today every ding dong with a decent credit score is out there ripping it up without a care or knowledge of boating laws and educate. Surfing is the flavor of the day, six figure boats are what the manufactures are building . The truth is they will loose more in the first year than my 08 cost new??