Service your winches and rinse blocks with fresh water On Deck Give each winch a quick spin. If they’re not turning freely, now is the time to strip and clean them. Windlass issues are almost always down to poor connections. Inspect these closely, especially at the foot switches, and if necessary take the connections apart, clean them, apply some petroleum jelly or dielectric grease and reassemble. Source: 35 Things to Check Before You Launch Your Boat … [Read more...]
Keeping Control in Heavy Air
Boating techniques: If the weather is less than ideal, take some extra measures to ensure everyone’s comfort on your cruise. Keeping comfortable and calm is a part of staying safe on the water. Remember to where a lifejacket, and PSB. Check the weather Prep Your Crew Get Tuned Check Your Canvas Play the Sheets Keep it Calm Head Up or Run Tend to the Stick #beaconwatch Source: Keeping Control in Heavy Air … [Read more...]
How to Prepare Your Boat for an Emergency
Boating accidents. We all like to think they cannot happen to us. However, while the odds of a boating emergency are slim, particularly for those who follow the proper safety protocol, even the most diligent and careful boater can find himself or herself in an emergency. The difference between your boating accident being an inconvenience and a disaster is the difference between coming prepared and failing to do what is necessary to prepare. So what can you do to prepare your boat and … [Read more...]
Cold Water: Safety and Survival
For most of the northern hemisphere, the beginning of August marks the point in which temperatures slowly begin to fall. Of course, depending on where you live, you may still continue to enjoy warm weather and sunny days for weeks--or even months--to come. But for most, at some point or another, the weather will eventually change, bringing with it cool days, changing colors, and radically different water conditions. Despite these changes, millions of people will continue boating both … [Read more...]
3 Frequently Overlooked Steps of Winterizing a Recreational Boat
Winterizing your recreational boat correctly is certainly one of the least enjoyable aspects of owning a boat. But it is also one of the most important. With a relatively small investment of time and money, you can insure that your boat will be functioning perfectly when springtime rolls back around. Winterization is important financially (as it saves you from making potentially costly repairs), and it is also an important element of boating safety. (After all, should something go wrong over the … [Read more...]
5 Tips on Treading Water Successfully
Because no boat is entirely trustworthy—think of the Titanic—even if you are the greatest boater in the world, you may one day need to be able to survive in the water without it. This is why one of the most important aspects of boating safety actually has nothing to do with boats. Swimming is one of the most crucial skills to a safe boater, and, of all of the different methods of staying afloat, treading water may be the most useful to a boater. This is because rather than trying to swim to … [Read more...]
What To Do In A Boating Emergency
In boating, as with any other sport, sometimes things can go wrong. The difference between an annoying mishap and a life threatening disaster is knowing how to respond when things go south. Below you will find a list of several things that you should do, should you find yourself in a boat accident, or any other type of emergency at sea. Remain Calm When faced with a problem of any kind it is important to remember to stay calm and composed. There is no way to ensure that you will follow all of … [Read more...]
4 Reasons to Learn How to Swim
Believe it or not, there are a surprising number of adults out there who have yet to learn how to swim. If you find yourself among that group, you may feel that it is already too late, or that learning how to swim simply isn’t worth the trouble. Perhaps you really do wish to learn how to swim, you’ve just always procrastinated, and now you don’t know how to start. Whatever the case may be, we’re here to tell you: learning is always possible! Just in case you need a bit of motivation, here are … [Read more...]