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Ready or not, hurricane season officially starts June 1. Experts encourage residents of hurricane prone areas to start preparing now. If you boat in hurricane-affected areas, follow these recommendations when securing your boat for a storm: Remove trailer boats from ...

If you’re planning to hit the water on your personal watercraft, you can maximize your fun by following some basic personal watercraft safety tips. Before you ride, know and follow all federal, state and local regulations regarding PWC operation. Read ...

Prepare for any on-the-water trip with an onboard checklist of all the tools and supplies you should have on your boat. The suggestions below go beyond what’s required to pass a Vessel Safety Check. Some will be more suited for ...

Learn to predict the weather onboard by mastering the basics of weather forecasting. When you understand what your observations tell you about the weather, you can use this knowledge to refine a regional forecast. First, let’s look at the signs ...

When you finally get around to tackling those boat repairs you’ve been putting off, don’t overlook the dangers many products pose to your health and the environment. You can minimize these risks by following a few safety tips for DIY ...

As responsible recreational boaters, we are encouraged to take a First Aid and a CPR course. First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided ...

Checking your navigation lights often takes a back seat to other boat maintenance. Besides, if the lights pass muster by coming on, that’s good enough, right? Wrong. Just squeaking by isn’t good enough to keep you, your passengers, and your ...

When inflatable life jackets fail, the results can be deadly. Unknown bladder leaks, fabric degradation or an improperly installed carbon dioxide cylinder can render inflatable life jackets ineffective by preventing inflation or their ability to stay inflated. Properly inspect and ...

Topping off our fuel tanks is not only one of the more expensive activities boaters do, but it’s also one of the most dangerous, especially if your boat runs on gasoline as opposed to diesel. To make refueling as safe ...

All boaters should get in the habit of staging regular boating safety drills on their vessels. No matter how much we mentally prepare ourselves to handle dangerous on-the-water situations, nothing takes the place of regularly practicing how to respond in ...

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 ...

To navigate bridges safely, particularly on the Intracoastal Waterway, boaters should be aware of a few safety and protocol basics. Do you know the vertical clearance your boat needs to pass safely under a bridge? If not, find out before ...

Every craft moving over water leaves a wake. It has two distinct sets of waves: one following the vessel and another spreading outward from its track. The mixture of these two forms your boat’s wake pattern, which varies with vessel ...

Hurricane preparation for boaters can help protect your boat during the predicted above-normal 2022 hurricane season. If you live in a hurricane-susceptible area, you need to create a hurricane plan for your boat. First, ask your marina about its hurricane ...

If someone falls in the water, having a man overboard rescue kit on your boat can aid in your rescue attempts.Your man overboard kit should containstand-up pole with flagwhistlesignal mirrorstrobe lightattached life ring, andsignal flashlight.You should learn and, if possible, ...

Beginning April 20, new U.S. Coast Guard regulations change extinguisher expiration dates and the minimum classification of fire extinguishers carried aboard newer boats. Learn more about the new U.S. Coast Guard regulation. The new regulation puts a 12-year expiration on ...

Make your own first-aid kit Since medical attention is seldom close by when on the water, you should have a marine first-aid kit that is well stocked, up-to-date and at the ready. Stock it with the supplies needed to treat ...

We’ve all heard it’s a good idea to keep our marine fuel tanks full, but do you know the reason why? A large quantity of fuel in your marine fuel tanks act as a heat sink, which means the fuel ...

The Biden administration’s April 12th move to give a waiver from the Clean Air Act to allow the sale of gasoline containing 15% ethanol (E15) during the summer months is intended to lower costs and stretch the nation’s fuel supply ...

Sometimes writing an article is hard, I don’t know why, and sometimes it's just fun. This one is just plain fun. Oh, and it's about the Houston Star Report for 2021. The Houston STAR Report is an annual report prepared ...

“Paddlers do not think of themselves as boaters.”– A Boater’s Guide to the Federal Requirements for Recreational Boats by the U.S. Coast Guardby Jim Greenhalgh Because they don’t consider themselves boaters, few paddlers, rowers, and other human-powered vessel operators take ...