U-Boat Commander

Author: The Stewarts
Title : U-Boat Commander
Date : February 26, 2008
My husband used to sell wave runners so we would often go down to the beach and invite others to come and play with the boats. Most of the time we had our truck to haul the trailer of watercraft and he would drive down onto the beach, back up the trailer so it was in the water and un-hook the wave runners. Then he could just pop off the break and the wave runners would just float off. He could then drive back up to the street and the boats would be launched with very little effort. It was quite clever. My Dad had given him a funny hat/cap, that said "captin" on it with stars and a logo, for him to wear while he was on the beach. It helped others ID who was in charge of things.

One weekend he planned a big event and invited many people to come try out the wave runners over the course of three days. We decided to take an RV to stay in so we could have a place to "do business" without the sand. We get to the beach and he does his thing with launching the wave runners just as he had with the truck. Backed the RV up so just the trailer was in the water, released the crafts and tried to drive back up to the street, only it was not going as well as expected. The RV didn't move as fast when he popped off the breaks. He rolled it back and forth in reverse and drive to getsome momentum and soon found himself in "deep water" literally. The more he tried, the deeper the rear end sunk. The less he tried, the deeper the rear end sunk. Not willing to admit defeat he continued to try different options until finally the back half of the RV was half-way under water.

The beach patrol showed up and asked whos RV it was. Well, by now, a big crowed had gathered and they quickly directed the officers to the guy wearing the captins hat. They walked over to him and with a straight face, asked my husband if he was a certified U-Boat commander or did he need some help?

We had to get the thing towed and it took forever to dry it out. He did do some good business that weekend, given the crowd he had gathered. Though he has never been in the military, he will always be our family's very own U-Boat Commander.