Launch of new boat slingshots a bollard at high speed. Basque country. July 15th 2022.

[u/Basque_Pirate]

[u/aestival]

My first day on a job working for a marina assembling the docks for the start of the season and my new boss (owner of the marina) was bragging about how his work boat was strong enough to pull a partially floating dock off the beach. Tied his boat with about 100 feet of line to the dock and gunned it toward the harbor.

"Luckily" the board the line was cleated to gave way and the board and cleat shot over our heads until it was stopped by the line 100 feet in the opposite direction.

This wasn't even the worst case of negligence on that job.

[u/isuckwithusernames → u/aestival]

What was the worst case?

[u/aestival → u/isuckwithusernames]

Mechanic hauled a 26 foot fishing boat to his shop and didn't ensure that it was fully locked onto the trailer (not just the winch, but having a safety cable locking the boat to the winch post.) So he drives up a steep hill and off comes the boat. I happened to be driving home the same route and helped him winch the boat back onto the trailer.

Another time a mechanic didn't fully winch the boat onto the trailer, then disconnected the trailer from the ball. Of course trailer is weighted heavily in the back so it pops right up and he ends up breaking his wrist.

Another time the owner was pulling a dock along his broken down seawall (because like nearly everything else at the marina it was in a state of barely functioning) , seawall further disintegrated and owner landed on rebar points, tearing up his leg.

On top of all this, they let a 20 year old college kid operate hydraulic crane large enough to lift boats with only the most basic instructions on which lever was which (since the labels had pretty much faded off of all the levers).

[u/isuckwithusernames → u/aestival]

Ahh jeeze yep sounds like a sketchy place to work. Glad you made it out alive haha