General Boating Articles

Enjoy what you’ve got! Spice up your boat a little and take this opportunity to relax on the water to escape the everyday stresses. Everything is better on a boat.

Enhance your boat to make it more comfortable and enjoyable. Enhancing Your Boat is a free e-Lesson available on our website with many inexpensive ways to add features for enjoyment and safety, simplify procedures to eliminate frustrations, gain knowledge, improve skills and more.

We boaters love to eat and drink and entertain. It seems that this activity takes up most of the day and that ISN'T a good thing. At a recent dockside party, I was asked "How do you exercise on a boat? There isn't room for any exercise equipment."

Well, that's true. Nobody wants to boat with their treadmill, stepper, or any other equipment. After all, we exercised all winter to be ready for summer so we wouldn't have to. But, what about all that food? More food and less exercise is a no-win/add pounds formula—and none of us want that!

I have a solution that works for me and could work for you too.

I need reading glasses just like millions of others with aging eyes. Several pair are scattered throughout the house. My only problem is having to wear sunglasses, especially on the boat where the bright sun is reflected off the water and white decks making it even harder on the eyes.

Wearing sunglasses is fine until I have to see the chart or the gauges or the GPS. Then, I have to take them off, find my readers and put them on while balancing and hanging on in a moving boat. I don’t have enough hands! Sound familiar?

Many women I have spoken to have the same difficulty and frustration and, like me, they’ve been putting up with it.

Then, one day, I saw Gail, a boater friend, at a party. She and Ed came by boat and Gail was excited to tell me about her solution to this problem.

It doesn’t seem to matter what size a boat is, it never has enough storage space for all our “stuff”.

Finding a place for all the cleaners we need is difficult and finding a convenient place for them is almost impossible.

There’s vinyl cleaner, stainless steel cleaner, spider dirt cleaner, vinyl window cleaner, glass cleaner, fiberglass cleaner, all purpose cleaner and on and on it goes. “Why can’t they come up with one cleaner that cleans everything?” is a question I’ve been asking for years.

Well, I think I might have found an answer.

A high percentage of boat owners have pets (some reports say 60%) and the majority, take them on the boat with them as part of the family —more dogs than cats.

Special considerations are required to feed, water, exercise and protect your pets while boating.

I remember when we had our collie aboard years ago. Dancer loved the water and occasionally she would...

Kids love to Swim. As responsible boaters and parents, we check to make sure it’s a safe area and supervise them so they can play and enjoy the water and their water toys.

Sometimes, they fall off the boat like our grandson Tyler. He wanted to put his feet in the water, so we let him sit on the platform and kick up a storm with a big grin on his face. But, he kicked too hard and fell in. We were right there, and as he bobbed back to the surface, Doug reached out and picked him up.

Tyler was a little frightened by the whole episode at first, and then he started the tale of his adventure. The more he told his story; the deeper he went down; the imaginary fish he was face-to-face with grew bigger and bigger; the time he was under got longer and longer; the more we laughed and the more he loved being in the spotlight.

We all have our stories and most are hilarious and funny. Sometimes though, the ending is horrific.

Following is a real life story written by Kevin Ritz. We share it with you with Kevin's permission linked to our article on Electric Shock.

We were a live-aboard family with three active children at a freshwater marina on a tributary of the Willamette River near Portland, Oregon. Other kids were already swimming in the cove because it was that kind of day— hot and lazy. This was a common practice by adults as well as children during the warm summer of 1999.

Our sons Ian, age 10, and Lucas, age 8, asked to swim with their friends. Permission was granted, subject to close adult supervision by parents including their mother, a graduate nurse. The boys were both wearing Type II PFD life jackets, so it was great fun and presumably safe to play in the water. Our children were schooled in aquatic safety. Being young professional people, my wife, Sheryl, and I had taken every precaution we could for peace of mind in a water environment.

Boating and swimming go hand-in-hand.

A refreshing swim on a hot humid day is a great way to cool off, whether out on the water and diving off the bow, or simply climbing down the ladder off the platform.

Teak surfing is popular in some places, where kids hang on to the platform of a slow-moving boat and ride the wake. Others like to go tubing behind the boat—that is being towed in a tube on a short line behind the boat. Some just jump into the harbour and swim around close to the boat.

Great fun! Not only at the time, but also for years to come as the stories are told and retold with excitement and a little exaggeration.

But, for too many, it’s a deadly story.....

Before your first boat trip away from the dock, a check and inspection of all the equipment aboard the boat to make sure everything works the way it is supposed to, should be top of your list.

A few minutes inspecting and testing while still at the dock first thing in the season is one of the best investments you can make. It can prevent anything from disappointment to disaster. You don’t want to get out on the water to find that you have no gears, and your VHF is on the fritz. Then when you throw your anchor over, much to your dismay, it’s not connected. You’re on the rocks. You don't want to lose valuable time and enjoyment on the water during your holiday because your electronics don't work or you forgot the corkscrew. A few minutes is all it takes to....

A "must have" item on every boat is a First Aid Kit. Now is a good time to source one out or accumulate all the necessary items like bandages, cotton wool, tape, disinfectant, scissors, tweezers etc. and put one together yourself.

Some First Aid Kits come in hard covers while others are in a zip lock bag. Having a sealed container ensures the contents will stay dry and be ready when needed.

Get your kit ready now and check it off your list well ahead of launch day.

Now is also a good time to take a St. John Ambulance course so you will have the knowledge to use the contents in your First Aid Kit.