Boating safety is not only important for you and the people in your boat with you but it is important for everything around you also. Just because you are being careful does not mean that something is not going to happen. Anything can happen whether you are being safe or not. It is important to follow safe boating practices at all times.

There are boating safety courses that you can take and get a permit so that you can legally drive a boat on the lake or any other body of water. In some places, this is required. Other places do not require this but may recommend it. The course will teach you several aspects of being safe in a boat and what to do if anything happens.

Anytime that you are in a boat, it is important to have a life jacket on even if you think you can swim well enough. If the boat flips over, you could get hit on the head and it may knock you unconscious. If this happens, the life jacket will keep you afloat. Everybody in the boat should be wearing one.

Another important thing that people do not usually think about is that before you go out in the boat, it should be checked for holes or cracks. If it fills up with water, it can sink. If it does that, you have no way back to shore except to swim.

If you are boating at night, it is important to have the required lighting on the boat so that other boats can see you. It is also important to know the signals that boaters use at night. This is important so that you can use the signals if you need help also.

Whether you know the water that you are boating in or not, it is important to watch for stuff like logs in the water. If you hit something like that it can damage the boat and leave you stranded out in the middle of the lake or several miles downstream in a river.

You should never operate a boat under the influence of alcohol or any kind of drug. This is very dangerous. Not only could you injure somebody else, but you could also fall out of the boat and drown. This is illegal and can be enforced by state or federal officers.

It is also important that you know how your boat handles in certain waters. You may want to put a radio in your boat so that you can contact authorities if need be. Cell phones cannot be counted on in an emergency in water because if they get wet, they will not work until they dry out which can take several days if they dry out at all. It is also important to have an anchor that you can drop. The rope needs to be long enough that the anchor can touch bottom. This will keep your boat in one spot. Without an anchor, your boat will float into another area.

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Category: Recreation
Keywords: boats, boating, recreation, sailing, outdoors, family, travel, fun, licenses, hobbies, summer