Tips for Safe
Boating
- by: Arpit Sharma
Having a good looking boat is
not enough. One should know how to boat safely and skillfully.
One wrong move and you would cause a major damage either to the
boat, surrounding or yourself.
Most threatening damage is the third one. Boat accidents, at
times cause major injuries and also deaths. Its very important
that one takes care of certain things while boating. Following
tips are proven to be very useful while boating:
Life Jacket:
Life jackets can reduce chances of drowning if an accident takes
place . Different types of life jackets are available in market,
Coast Guard – approved life jackets being well accepted cause of
the attractive look and the comfort to wear. A well – fitted
jacket can help in preventing a tragedy.
Alcoholic beverages while boating is a “NO”:
Alcohol consumption usually affects the judgment sense of a
person. His vision, balance and coordination also gets affected.
According to different reports, its said that, alcohol has
contributed highly in most of the boat accidents in past.
Apart from the above two, its necessary that the boat occupant
has under gone a training to run a boat. Additional benefit if
he has taken different programs like (VSC), The Vessel Safety
check program – etc.
Not only our safety, but environmental safety is also to be
considered while boating. Even a small quantity of toxic product
in water might lead to huge loss aquatic life. Following are few
tips for eco – friendly boating.
Make sure to have oil – absorbent rags on board to cleanup the
oil spill. It prevents contamination of water.
Utmost care is to be taken while disposing the used oil filters.
Lots of facilities are available to handle such things. In the
US, call 1 800 CLEANUP, and in Canada call 1 800-667-4321 for
the nearest disposal facility.
Use non – toxic cleaners to clean your boat and also marine
friendly paints. Many cleaning products contain harmful
chemicals which are dangerous to the aquatic life. Vinegar is a
natural cleaner. There are many recipes available to make a safe
mixture to clean your boat.
Wash the topsides only. Limit dock side hull cleaning to the
above water surface area only . Use a sponge and clean it
gently. Use a sponge to effectively remove light growth without
creating the clouds of heavy metals usually caused by scrubbing.
Rinse your boat with fresh water.
Make sure you have all the necessary things on board before to
set out for a sail.
About The Author
Arpit Sharma is the webmaster of the site http://www.boat-dealers.us
and likes to work on it in his spare time to make it better. By
profession he is a computer engineer and video games freak.