General Safety Information and Tips

Personal Flotation Device (PFD) Guidelines

With the boating season underway, we want to reiterate that every member of your crew should have a U.S. Coast Guard Approved Personal Flotation Device (PFD). Here are some life jacket guidelines to follow:

Buy your own – one size does not fit all.

Read the label for size and weight limitations.

Try it on. Check the fit. With straps and buckles secured, it should not slip over your head or cover your eyes.

Replace if you find air leakage, mildew or rot.

Never alter a life jacket – it could lose its effectiveness.

Check yearly for flotation and fit.

Wear it to set an example for younger children while increasing your chances of survival.

Make the beginning of summer a gift-giving event – buy your boating children/grandchildren a PFD fitted to their size. Children need special care because of changing size and distribution of body weight.

Taking care of ropes/Line

To ascertain the line you are using on your boat serves you well, you must take good care of it.

Keep Rope/Lines Clean

Dirt, sand, oil and acids will destroy line on your boat, whether it is natural or synthetic rope. To wash your rope, put it in a mesh bag or pillow case (to keep the rope from knotting and fouling up the washing machine), use a mild cleansing product and toss it in the washer.

Don't Let it Kink.

When you first take rope off the spool it must come off with a direct unwind pull. Taking the rope off the spool over the end will give you endless kinks and will be a nightmare to remove. Three strand rope needs to be coiled with the lay.

Keep Ends Clean

The end of a line should be neat. If there are any frays, they will continue to grow and ruin more and more of the rope. Ends should be whipped (using whipping line), back spliced, dipped (there are dipping products on the market wherein you simply dip the end and it seals the rope), or burned (an excellent way to seal off modern line -- heat the end of the rope until it melts and seals itself).

Don't Let Rope Chafe or Abrade

You never want the same area of a rope rubbing somewhere over and over. It will fail sooner. Chafe guards are good for moored or docked boats. You can use leather chafe guards, or if the line is small enough you can split and use an old garden hose.

Getting your boat off dock

Sounds easy enough, right? Just push until you are clear of the dock and off you go. But, if your boat is rather large, and there is a lot of wind or adverse current, it is not that easy.

If the wind or current is moving parallel to the dock, this is a pretty easy scenario. Then you simply need to use a spring line and good fendering. The spring line should be used on the opposite end of the oncoming current or wind. For example, if your bow is into the wind/current, then you would put a spring line from your aft cleat and go forward on the dock. Just release the bow line and hit reverse a bit and the bow will swing out. Once clear, motor forward and retrieve your aft spring line.

(Note, if there is no one on the dock to undue your mooring line, here is a good tip. Have a dock line that has a clean end – no knots, kinks or unravelings. Then for your spring secure the line to your cleat, around a piling or cleat on the dock and back to the original cleat. Once you have sprung the boat off the dock, untie the clean end and let it go. Then retrieve the line. The clean end will slide around the dock cleat and back to the boat).

If the wind is perpendicular to the dock and blowing on to the dock, this is a much more difficult situation. You best bet is to spring your bow line. Use hard rudder in the direction that will kick your stern out and away from the dock. Once the stern is out far enough to clear, reverse rudder and engines and retrieve your bow spring line.

Summer Thunderstorms

Beyond a certain age, nothing stops fun on the water better than unexpected soakings, suddenly violent waves, or any activity that can lead to a serious risk of falling out of the boat. And few events can end a good time on the water as precipitously as being hit by lightning.

These are all summertime risks, but they can vary greatly in degree of probability depending on your knowledge of - and respect for - the weather.

There may have been a time, way back before Odysseus, when ignorance of the elements was an excuse for mishap or disaster. But incredible modern-day refinements in satellite-based forecasting and communications technology have removed the last traces of an alibi for being caught on the water unawares. These days, if you didn’t know what to expect it was because you didn’t ask - or you just didn’t take the time to learn.

Ask where? Learn what?

The Weather Channel is a good place to start. Along with its local forecasts, it provides good radar tracking, notification of small craft advisories, and other pertinent information that boater’s can use. In most coastal areas, VHF broadcasts provide accurate, timely, local marine data on wind direction and speed, temperature, wave height, tides, and special advisories of both long-term and sudden changes. In the summertime, this service includes notification of current thunderstorm activity along with estimates of its future probability. In addition, with direct downloads from weather-mapping satellites, along with your VHF radio, CBs, ship-to-shore, portable AM-FM radios and cellular telephones, you’re only a moment away from everything you should ever need to know.

And that’s not all. For the technology-deficient, toy-deprived or electronically unprepared, there is another reliable resource in the form of accumulated lore and common sense. Since thunderstorms usually travel from west to east, boaters should keep an eye on the western sky. Calm usually does precede a storm, so can a mackerel sky. And yes, red skies at morning are a sailor’s warning.

If you don’t have a phone, can’t hear the crackling on the AM radio and there is haze in the path of the roiling clouds, one of the best indicators of increased electrical activity in the area is still the hair on your forearms or on the back of your neck: when it starts to rise, it’s well past time to get moving.

You say you shave your arms and there isn’t enough hair left on your head to throw a shadow? Well, when caught in foul weather, you should immediately put on your life jacket, reduce the speed of the boat and head for the nearest lee shore or safe harbor. Point the bow at a slight angle into the waves, keeping your passengers low and near the midship point to reduce the risk of battering from the seesaw motion of the boat.

If the engine fails, anchor by the bow or, in deep water, deploy a sea anchor (anything that will slow your drift with underwater drag, such as a bucket or an empty bait box) from the stern.

Prayer is permitted. Learn from the experience.

Importance of Communication in an EMERGENCY!

Here is what the Coast Guard Auxiliary suggests you have in place before next boating season:

1. Knowledge of where you are at all times (GPS/Loran helps, but a chart is imperative; and electronics can – and often do fail).

2. How many are on-board: Adults/Children and do they have PFD’s?

3. What’s wrong? What is the nature of the distress?

4. Description of your Vessel (Name, Make, Length, Type, Color, Registration numbers/Boat name).

These four simple but extremely important pieces of information may just save your life some day. This is the initial, crucial information the Coast Guard will request when you call for an emergency. To see the actual “Initial SAR Check Sheet” used by the United States Coast Guard go to http://www.auxguidanceskills.info/press/uscg-sarcheck.pdf.

While we’re talking emergency communication, we wish to remind people that a MAYDAY call requires that all chatter on the frequency be halted immediately, and that only the parties to the MAYDAY transmit.

Should you hear a MAYDAY, and not hear a response from the Coast Guard, it is possible that the transmission from the vessel in danger did not reach the Coast Guard. It is highly unlikely that you’ll hear the distress call, and the Coast Guard will not (due to the placement of many of the Coast Guard’s antenna installations), but it is possible.

If the Coast Guard does not acknowledge the MAYDAY transmission, it is your duty to act as an intermediary for that vessel and contact the Coast Guard for that distressed vessel. You may be the only chance that the distress vessel has to reach the Coast Guard.

Lastly, only use MAYDAY if there is a grave and imminent danger to life or property. Use Pan Pan, for serious emergencies, that don’t warrant a MAYDAY. Scurit is used to warn other boaters of issues that threaten the safety of navigation (a tow underway, a log in the water, etc).

For more information on boating safety, contact your United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla by visiting them on the web at http://www.cgaux.org/ or contacting your local Coast Guard unit http://www.uscg.mil/USCG.shtm.

Reading Buoys and Marks

Many boaters on the water really have no clue as to what all the marks and buoys out there really mean. And those are the ones that get in trouble.

As a basic, remember the 'Three R's.' And they are not from the old school days of reading, ‘ritin', and ‘rithmatic. No, The 3 R's are 'Red Right Returning.'

This means when coming back to port you should keep the red marks to the starboard (right) side of the boat and the green marks to port (left) side of the boat. That will keep you in the channel.

Obviously, when heading out to sea, the opposite would be true. (Note of caution: if you are entering a channel in certain foreign, non-USA countries, the opposite rules may be in effect).

Some may ask, 'What if you cannot see the color of the marks?' Well, the red day marks are triangles and the red buoys are nun buoys (tapered from wide to narrow at the top), while the green day marks are square and the green buoys are cans (square shaped). So, even if you cannot tell the color, you should be able to tell by the shape.

Here is a tricky one, though. Suppose you are traveling on the IntraCoastal Waterway and you are neither leaving nor entering port.

The answer is to keep the 'Green to Seaward.' For example, if you are traveling from Miami to Jacksonville, Florida you would keep the Green Marks to the starboard side (right) and the Red Marks to the port side (left), or 'Green to Seaward.'

Handling Hypothermia

Even on warm days, midwinter waters can be cold enough to kill. Hypothermia, the lowering of body temperature, isn’t something that happens only to people who fall overboard; in fact, you don’t even have to get wet. But a good soaking greatly enhances the process by which the victim loses heat, and that process has to be interrupted and then reversed in order for the internal temperature to return to normal operating levels.

In attempting to aid a victim, keep in mind that heat loss is accompanied by loss of muscle strength, including the heart, and strain, rough handling or sudden movements can result in cardiac arrest.

Follow these three steps;

Provide shelter and warmth as soon as possible;

Remove all wet clothing;

Apply heat to the head, neck, chest, shoulders, sides and groin; it’s more important to restore warmth to the core of the body than to the extremities.

If you can, lay the victim face-up on a flat surface, with feet higher than head.

One way to reverse the process is with warm, moist fabrics applied directly to the skin, remoistened with water at about 110²F. Others are a warm blanket with a hot water bottle, a warm bathtub or shower, a sleeping bag with a heat source or even your own body heat. Be sure to make provisions for restoring your own lost body heat during and especially after this procedure.

Mouth-to-mouth breathing works as well, even when a subject is conscious, because your own breath will be warmer than the victim’s. Be sure to breathe 'with' the victim, not against him. You may also want to wrap the victim’s head in a loose scarf to conserve the heated air.

Here are some equally important Don’ts: Don’t use or give alcohol, rub frozen body areas (especially don’t rub them with snow), accept a victim’s plea that he is 'fine', or wrap the victim in anything without a built-in source of heat.

There is something that every boat owner can be doing during the down time between winterizing your boat and getting ready for the upcoming season.

Think Boating Safety!

There is no time like the present to examine the past boating season, and plan for the next. Maybe you just sold your boat, or are in the process. What type of boat and boating are you now looking forward to? How does this impact the safety of you and your passengers? Are you in need of more boating education? Do you have enough piloting and operating experience in the class of boat that you are purchasing?

Maybe you’re keeping your boat for next season, but found you had some difficulties maneuvering her, or confusion about buoys and how to read them. Again, additional boating education may solve this dilemma.

In either case, you are going to need to either check and see if your safety equipment is current (now is a good time to do this) or what type of equipment you may need to purchase.

Here’s a list of removable or portable safety equipment (I’m taking a very broad view on the word safety). While not all inclusive, it should cover the majority of the equipment you have, whether federally or state mandated or just common sense items:

anchor’s and anchor rodes - look for corrosion and fray;

batteries - discharge and service;

charts, other reference and/or navigational material - check to see if need to be updated;

coolers - clean them and look for mildew and cracks and replace, if necessary;

emergency rafts - service;

fire extinguishers - discharge;

first aid kits and other personal hygiene items- take inventory and replenish;

flares and other pyrotechnics - check for expiration;

foul weather gear and harnesses - check for mildew and corrosion and repair as needed;

lines - check for chafing and fraying;

LP - look for corrosion and replenish;

PFD’s - disintegrate, discharge and corrode;

PIW kits - corrode, disintegrate and repair;

radio’s, EPIRB’s and other electronics - look for corrosion and dead batteries;

rags, towels and other protective clothing - clean and replace as necessary;

sound producing devices - look for corrosion and replenish;

tool kit - look for corrosion and service;

weather forecasting equipment - clean, repair and adjust as necessary.

That can be a lot of gear! Use your time expeditiously and it isn’t an “insurmountable task. Remember, the last items to replace are those that have an expiration date - such as flares, and other pyrotechnics and first aid supplies.

Service your equipment, making sure it’s in the best possible shape for the next boating season and that the equipment matches the type of boat and boating habits you intend on using. Take some courses. First Aid courses, small engine repair, safe boating and navigation courses can make this great sport of ours not only more fun, but safer for you, your passengers and the other boaters that you encounter.

For more information about USCG Auxiliary safe boating courses, contact your local Flotilla via either your local Coast Guard unit or on the web at www.cgaux.org. The Coast Guard can be found in your yellow pages or on the web at www.uscg.mil.

This is an abridged version of this article. To read the full article, please visit the Boating Safety section of the ABA website at www.americanboating.org/safety.htm.