Guide to Safe Boating: Part 5

• Boating Under the Influence
• Do not do it, it is stupid and will lead to civil and criminal punishments
• Make sure you listen to everything that officers say on the water
• This includes the local police, the sherrif, your state's fish and game officers as well as the Coast Guard
• Reporting Boating Accidents
• If you are in an accident in your boat, then make sure that you report it to the police if it results in loss of life, a person dissappearing off the vessel, personal injuray that requires medical attention, property damage more than $2,000 or complete loss of the boat
• Immediate Action is required for fatal accidents
• Otherwise, if there is personal injury or a dissappearance of a person, then report the accident within 24 hours
• If there is property damage, then report the accident within 10 days
• Rendering Assistance
• If the driver of a boat sees somone at sea in danger, then they must provide any assistance that they can safely provide
• Vessel Safety Check
• The items checked during a VSC are
• Navigation Lights
• Sound Producing Devices
• Voice Communications
• Life jackets and throwable flotation devices
• fire extinguishers
• Visual Distress Signals
• Backfire flame control
• Overal Vessel condition
• Ventilation
• Proper Display of Numbers
• Pollution placard
• MARPOL trash placards
• Marine sanitation device
• registration/documentation
• navigation rules book
• Stae and/or local requirement

Check back tomorrow for Safety and Survival Tips!

Guide to Safe Boating: Part 4

Navigation: Rules of the Water

• Crossing Situation: When two boats are coming towards each other from a 90 degree angle.
• The stand-on vessel should maintain its course and speed
• The Give-way vessel should alter its course to pass behind the stand-on vessel.
• Both boats should give 1 short blast of the horn.
• Overtaking Situation: When a boat is going faster than and passes the one in front of it.
• If the overtaker is passing on the left he should give two short blasts of the horn and if passing on the right, should give one short blast of the horn.
• When two boats meet head on, passing on the port, or left is preffered.
• Once the two drivers realize that there are coming towards each other, one short blast should be given, which will let the drivers know to pass each other on each others left, similar to driving on the road.
• If the drivers give two short blasts, they should pass on the right, similar to how people drive in Britian.
• Lateral Navigational Aids
• When moving upstream, keep the green, or odd number markers on your left, and the red, or even mumber markers on your right.
• When moving downstream, do the opposite, with the green on your right and the red on your left.
• Information and Regulatory Markers
• Orange Diamond: Alerts Boaters to hazards
• the hazard will most likely be written inside the diamond
• Orange Circle
• Restricted Operation, such as no wake zone or a speed limit
• Orange Diamond with a cross in the middle means that boats are prohibited in the area
• Orange Square provides helpful information

More tomorrow on boating safety