Sometimes you miss the boat. Sometimes he boat misses you.

Sometimes you miss the boat. Sometimes the boat misses you.
And sometimes you're lucky if the boat misses you.

A boater on West Point Lake was lucky his boat didn't boomerang on him April Fools' Day after he let go of the wheel at three-quarter throttle and was thrown overboard.
To drain rainwater from the boat, he went back to pull the plug while the boat was under way. But when he let go of the wheel, it turned on him. And over the side he went. Man overboard.
When the man overboard is the only man who was on board, he's lucky he doesn't land to starboard if the empty boat swings to the right.
This man got clear of the boat and swam about 100 yards to shore. By then his wife had reported the mishap.
"The man had told his wife, 'Take the boat trailer around, and I'll bring the boat over there and we'll load it,' " Park Ranger David Barr said. "Well, when the wife came around to the boat ramp, she looked out and all she saw was this boat with nobody in it spinning around in circles."
And that's where it was when park rangers arrived: circling on the water.
Now what?
So here's a question: How do you handle a boat unmanned?
(A.) Shoot it until it sinks.
(B.) Go out in another boat, throw a line to hook the loose boat, tie it off and watch the tethered boat ram you when the slack runs out.
(C.) Summon Spider-Man to ensnare the boat in his web.
(D.) Sit and wait for the boat to run out of gas.
If you guessed "B," nice try. Sometimes you can throw a line that tangles the propeller and stops the motor, if you get the rope in the right place.
After the evening accident on West Point Lake, authorities chose "D." The unmanned boat sputtered out of gas in about half an hour.
"That boat probably wasn't going in any more than a 25- to 30-foot radius," Barr said. "The guy said he had just put gas in the tank, so we were like, 'Golly, we're going to be here all night.' But it was one of those portable tanks, so within 40 minutes it had burned all the gas up."
Close calls
That was just one of three close calls out on the lake that week. In other incidents:
• On April 5, a man launching his boat about 3 p.m. noticed the motor wasn't running well and the engine was smoking. When he pulled the cover off the engine compartment, boom! An explosion threw him against the boat's console, Barr reported. The man got the boat back to shore, but it burned. He was bruised and some of his hair was burned off.
• Also on April 5, about three hours later, a big wave caught and capsized a 22-year-old man's 12-foot johnboat, which immediately sank. He had to tread water for 15-20 minutes as rescuers from shore rushed out in another boat, Barr said. The man was treated at West Georgia Medical Center for hypothermia and exhaustion.
None of the boaters wore a life vest, and the one whose boat capsized came close to drowning, Barr said: "When the rescuers got to him, he had actually started to go under water. They had to reach into the water and pull him out. Had they been 15 seconds later, they probably wouldn't have been able to see him."
Boaters who'd rather not learn such lessons from experience can get a six-hour boating safety course in two sessions 6:30-9:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday and Thursday at West Point Lake. Call 706-645-2937 to register.
Under Georgia law, anyone age 12-15 must take safety classes to operate certain watercraft, including jet skis, while unsupervised. Under Alabama law, boaters must pass a test to get a license. Taking this class exempts Alabama residents from that test.
"This class is good because it allows you to operate a lot of different things unsupervised, but the best thing is it teaches you what the laws are, what the buoys mean, who has the right of way," Barr said.
Other class sessions are set for May 22 and 24; June 19 and 21; July 17 and 19; and Aug. 21 and 23.
Course corrections
Cpl. Brent Railey, a DNR enforcement officer, said one common mistake boaters make is neglecting to check their equipment.
"This time of year, the biggest problem we see is people getting out there with boats that they have not inspected before they put them in the water," he said. Some forget to replace old gear, and don't realize a vital piece of equipment is missing or damaged until they need it.
"One of the things that we see a lot of, if it's an inboard-outboard, is checking that gasket that's around the boat and the motor, because those things will dry-rot on you," Railey said. "Every year, we have several people, when they slow their boat down, the backwash will hit that thing and just collapse it, and the whole boat will sink."
Parents need to remember that an adult life jacket won't fit a small child, and any life jacket that's rotted or frayed needs to be replaced: "The floatation's going to rip out of it, and you might as well not even have one on," Railey said.
More courses
Boating safety sessions taught by a Georgia Department of Natural Resources instructor are set for 6-9 p.m. EDT Tuesday and Wednesday at the 4-H Clubhouse on U.S. Highway 27 in Hamilton, with a second set of classes May 15 and 16. For more information, call the DNR's Macon office at 478-751-6415.
Though Georgia requires the safety course before those 12-15 can run a boat or jet-ski without adult supervision, once you reach age 16, "you're wide open," Barr said. "You don't need any safety course or anything. Isn't that wild? It's kind of scary."
That's not the case in Alabama, which made licensing mandatory in 1999. Boating fatalities dropped from 32 in 1998 to 17 the next year, said Lt. Erica Shipman of the Alabama Marine Police.
To get a license, Alabama boaters must pass a test offered at drivers license bureaus or complete a boating safety course like the one required for kids in Georgia.
A six-hour course will be 6-9 p.m. CDT Tuesday and Thursday in the main auditorium of Auburn University's Ralph Brown Draughon Library, 231 Mell St. A $10 fee is required. For more information, call Auburn's outreach office at 334-844-5100. A second set of classes will be the same times June 12 and 14.
Contact Tim Chitwood at 706-571-8508 or tchitwood@ledger-enquirer.com