How to launch a boat

• Check the boat ramp is clear & free from hazards and ensure your boat is ready to be launched.
• Back your trailer down the ramp and stop reversing once the boat becomes slightly buoyant and the stern rises from the trailer.
• Ensure the winch cable is detached and roll the boat into the water, giving it a final push if necessary.

Video Transcript

G’day, it's Michael Guest here.

Well it's a cracking day to be out on the water so I've towed the 7600 the big boat down today and I'm going to launch it by myself.

Now if you're new to boating and let's face it, lots of people are right around the country it can be a bit daunting launching a big boat like that by yourself. Certainly much easier if you've got a mate or somebody is coming along with you, but I'm going to do it by myself. There's a few tips to make it easy and safe, let's check it out.

So a few things you got to make sure you tick off um before you actually put the boat in one I need my winch handles, nothing worse backing the boat down where's the winch handle this one's removable some boats will have one connected to the winch all the time. So straps off, so straps are off bungs in there's only one bung in this boat, if you've got more make sure they're all in. I've got my fenders in place because I'm going to want to tie up against the wharf it's quite busy there's a guy pulling his boat out there at the moment.

I've got my stern line and my bow line sitting there ready to go, so I can just simply tie up against the wharf, the fenders are going to stop the boat from being damaged, batteries are on, engines trimmed up full, of fuel all my safety gear we're ready to go.

The tech and the new amaro's just amazing so not only have you got a conventional reversing camera there, which is great and obviously when you're backing your boat down make sure you have a good visual that there's nobody else around you know, you'll get kids and people running around a little bit, so certainly the reversing camera helps obviously look at your mirrors both ways. But you've got this 3D view of looking at the truck overhead which is amazing not really sure how they work that out but hey, it's fantastic. So let's go back there now and we're nice and clear behind there was a guy with another big boat there but he's now left and just poke along we don't do anything at any great speed when we're at boat ramps they're slippery places, they're quite steep on entry. But I got to tell you that's a huge help and you can see that there in the camera and we'll just idle back down ready to launch the boat, I can see my trailer going in. And you'll learn depths always have a bit of a visual of the boat ramp too and make sure there's no rocks, there's no nobody's throwing a shopping trolley in there there's no debris that your engine's going to catch on, when you fire it up. Certainly helps when you got nice clean water here.
So I'll put it into park, pull a handbrake on take my foot off the brake, we're locked in we're not going anywhere.

All right that's in the right depth, that's looking really good there, so you'll find different trailers you need to sink boats to certain depths and that's all depends on the boat that you've got winch handles on there.

First thing going to do is going to climb up start the engine and get it ready to go. So I've got the fenders set at about the right height, so that jet is fairly low to the water so you want that fender down around near that chine there so trim that engine down. And like any engine, there we go, need to let that oil get through it don't just put it into gear straight away. Trim that down, that's plenty far enough and what I want to do is pop that into gear and that that big 300 horsepower engine will hold that boat up against the winch post. So that's got oil flowing through it, into gear there now and just give it a little bit of throttle and that's going to hold the boat up there.

It's also got what we call a boat catch this boat which is an awesome idea and you can use that as well so that boat catch which is this here, once I disengage that that hook will sit against the catch and I can simply give it a bit of throttle and drop it off. But not all boats have that but that is a great idea I tell you. So we'll undo our safety chain, make sure you put that pin back in so you don't lose it, sit that pin back in there, take a bit of weight off there and knock that back into gear so I've got a bit of slack if anything goes wrong that boat's not going anywhere. Pop that off and we we're good, boats being held there in full gear, all right now we'll just ease that off and the boat will just roll away. Easy as that.

Now we're going to tie it off at the wharf. I'm trim that engine down a little bit further now in the deep water, we'll just come back nice and steady, everything nice and steady there's no brakes on the water so you've got to use your throttle, each and every time. So we'll come back in here a little bit of lock this way, little bit of reverse, there we go pump up against the fender, grab my this is my bow line, so we grab it tie it off there. Sneak that boat around… that's our stern line.

That's it we could pull that stern line a little bit tighter, but as long as it's sitting there not moving around that's what you want and use the breeze to your advantage so at the moment that breeze is coming across this way so it just sits the boat up against the wharf if it was quite windy and it was a busy time you could go around the other side and tie the bow off and just let the boat actually sit away from the wharf.

So it's as easy as that, just a matter of parking the Amarok over here out of the way I hear there's a few whales about I reckon it's a perfect day to go and find a few of those, all right.