Boating Safety Tips For Everyone

Always review basic safety rules with your passengers before departure.


BE WEATHER-WISE
❐ Check local weather conditions before departure
• Play it safe and get off the water if you notice darkening clouds, rough, changing winds or sudden temperature drops

 
FOLLOW A PRE-DEPARTURE CHECKLIST
❐ Boating safety rules
❐ Proper equipment
• Ensure you'll be ready for any on-water emergency


USE COMMON SENSE
❐ Operate at a safe speed, especially on crowded waters
❐ Be alert
❐ Steer clear of large vessels
❐ Pay attention to buoys and other navigational aids


DESIGNATE AN ASSISTANT SKIPPER
❐ Ensure another person on board can take the helm and return to shore should you become incapacitated


DEVELOP A FLOAT PLAN
❐ Always let someone on shore know your boating plans.
Include:
• Name, address, and phone number of trip leader and passengers
• Boat type and registration
• Trip itinerary
• Type of communication and signal equipment on board


LEARN TO SWIM 
❐ Check with local pools, or organizations such as the YMCA and American Red Cross for lessons


WEAR LIFEJACKETS
❐ Fit and assign a lifejacket to each passenger prior to launch


TAKE A BOATING COURSE
• Boating education requirements vary by state; regardless of your state's regulations, it's smart to be educated


SCHEDULE A FREE VESSEL SAFETY CHECK
• The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Power Squadrons offer free vessel safety checks to verify presence and condition of safety equipment, check out your boat and make safety recommendations. Find an examiner: http://www.safetyseal.net/GetVSC/


SAFETY RESOURCES
• Boat-ed.com: Official boating safety courses and online tests for your boat license
• US Power Squadrons (usps.org) and Coast Guard Auxiliaries (cgaux.org): Free vessel safety checks, boater education and safe boating tips
• Boater101.com: Water and boating safety instruction
Content courtesy of BoatSafe.com

Special Notice

The Coast Guard has recently released its first boating safety App. Features of the app include: state boating information; a safety equipment checklist; free boating safety check requests; navigation rules; float plans; and calling features to report pollution or suspicious activity. When location services are enabled, users can receive the latest weather reports from the closest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather buoys as well as report the location of a hazard on the water. The app also features an Emergency Assistance button which, with locations services enabled, will call the closest Coast Guard command center. http://www.uscg.mil/mobile/

Simple and Inexpensive Air Conditioning

The heat is already upon us in northern Florida and summer has not yet arrived. Already, the air conditioner is running daily, and day and night most of the time. On our previous boat, we did not have the luxury of a built-in air-conditioning system, and early on, we decided not to install a central system. It would be another piece of equipment to maintain and would also require a generator installation for use when we were cruising. We opted for an inverter system to run the 110 appliances and tools, and to take a little different approach to the AC problem. Of course, on our current trawler Beach House, we have a built in heat/AC system and a generator. Living aboard in the Chesapeake in the summer, then many years in south Florida did require that we cool the interior of the boat if we wanted to be comfortable. While we were cruising through the Bahamas and Caribbean, we never felt the need for an air conditioner. But at the docks for periods of time, to replenish the cruising kitty, we decided on a less traditional setup.